Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-09-27
GARFIELD ANALYZED.
Judge Black Reyiews HIS Political Career
"A Thorough 81 we of Party, Capable OF
Committing Any Wrong for Its Sake.

"A lnOrOuBn 81 We Oh Ihrty, NdPtDio VI
Committing Any Wrong for Its Sake.
The New York World of Saturday morn
ing published remarkable letter by Judge |
Jere Black to Augustus Sohell, from which
the following copious extracts are taken:
The impulses of friendship and the dnties |
of fair politio.l opposition alike require me
to speak of Gen. Garfield. intellectually he |
is first among the politicians Of his party;
not the sharpest or strongest, but tho most
Gift ID and best Cultivated. His private life
Is stainless, and in everything unt )nneoted
with polite his behavior is regulated by
principles of the soundest morality; but IL
public aifails he does not act upon his con- !
yictions. When he passes into the domain
Of politics his conscience loses it's grip, and
for his party he is W filing to do any wrong
which will promote their interests or play
any card, how false soever, which will win
them power. This surrender of his moral
and mental integrity is the condition upon
which lie holds his high place in the affec
tons OF the party he belongs to.
TREAoHERY TO HIS COUNTRY rs FIDELITY TO
HIS FACTION.
If at any time in the last fftsen years he had
ported the constitution and laws in
spirit of pure justice, refused to
defile himself with electoral frauds, withheld
countenance from executive corruption or
denounced the forcible installment of thieves
in State Offices he would have converted
himself into Democrat, and been expelled
from the communion of the anti constitu-
tional party. This moral prostitution to
bad political purposes is far from being un-
common. Men naturally good have yielded
to it in all times and in all countries where
there is party unprinoipled enough to de-
mand it and strong enough to reward it.
But Gen. Garfeld's public career furnishes
more striking examples of it than the history
of any individual I have known. Let me
giveyo
After the war, at the time of perfect peace,
in the State of Indiana, where no war had
ever been, certain military officers being in
structed from Washington that
they we're above the civil authori-
ties, had ki5uaped and we've
about to kill three citizens, for no offense
defined by any law, and without the pretense
of trial by jury. If this could be done,
property. Plainly it could not be done
| without flat violation of the constitution,
which in express terms forbade it. But the
| men who then ruled US with rod of iron
| insisted upon it, and We could not be cor
tain that the judges, State and national,
might not be subdued by their influence
The hearing of the cause before the supreme
court was great crisis in the history of our
| nrern q y,to in, {hn
ment which nobody could fill go we'll as Gen.
Garfield, and brought him to help US in
this desperate extremity to
RESCUE AMERICAN LIBERTY
from the utt Or destruction with which it was
threatened. He responded with noble ALAG
rity, and made great argument, in which
he proved not only the continued existence
but the inestimable value of the oonstitu-
| ton. He demonstrated that the right of
trial by jury at all times and all places was
indestructible, and that any officer, civil or
military, would violate his oath if he at
tempted to put the military above the civil
authority. He affirmed the whole Demo
cratic doctrine on the subject, and showed it
to bs incontestiby right. His sincerity was
undoubted Tor, like the rest of US, he en-
gagged in the cause as labor of love, with
out fee or any reward except the thanks of
true men. Such were his true convictions.
But when he came to deal with the same
subject
| IN ELS POLITICAL CAPACITY
he surrendered everything to his party. He
voted for military despotism and q regula,
system of kidnapping and murder in all
the States of the South. In The same e,!
we're ether provisions, which he certainly
understood to te in dire 1t conflict with ev-
cry article and every section of the constitu-
ton. In all this he did not transgress
like others, in ignorance or in passion. Hs
sinned against light and knowledge, and on
cold calculation of partisan policy. It il
an infinite pity that such man should MOI
only be false to his country but false t , him
self.
What makes all this very much worse !:
his denuneiation of Gen. Hancock for say
ing that the military was constitutionally
subordinate to the civil power, and tina
liberty was still the Inheritance of the Amer
ican people; for these were proposition
which he himself had asserted and knew t.
be true. 1t might be expected that Tia,
course of q man 80 influenced would fire.
quently defect from the straight path, ant
ONE GREAT ALTERATION
we cannot but remember. Mr.. Tilden wa
} elected in 1876. A false return was the cnl,
resource against him. do not believe tha
Gen. Garfield, if left alone, would commit
an ele otion fraud any more than he wouli
steal horse or sheep; but when the man
ayers of bis party demanded his aid in s
great swindle he could not refuse. Under
that coercion he went down to Louisiana
and there found it absolutely ,rtain tba,
the Tilden electors had been "duly appoint
ed" at legal and full poll, SO peaceablJ
conducted that there was not even SQUAD
BILE about it in the whole State, and the ap
pointment so made was attested by and
recorded upon the certificates and the oaths
of election officers adverse to the appointees
IN all their feelings and wishes. There was
no earthly excuse for denying this. Nc
contradiction of it could be honest. Tc
count the State for Hayes was thing that
could be done only by
MPUDENT AND UNMITIaATED FRAUD.
For time hoped that Gen. Gal ield's
share in that great crime had consisted in
passive acquiest ence; and am surprise by
the proofs recently brought forward of bis
active assistance in its perretration. His
Judgment as member of the electoral COM
mission was thing to be expected, for he
must long before that have convine ed him.
self that fraud was az good way as any
other of electing President. In a political
game he did not think that anybody bad
moral sense enough - abstain from throw
ing die which he himself had loade to win
the stake.
This liability to be rushed into evil courses
by his party associates has brought upon him
much odium which he does not deserve in
the transactions of
| THE CREDIT MOBILIER.