Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-09-29
HOW OPPORTUNE! /!
JUDGE BLACKS OPEN LETTER
TO GENERAL GARFIELD.
An Overwhelming Condemnation Of the
Radical Nominee for President.

| y NNHSi" pe hNiNi NuO was ~ buob
time the Radical leader in Congress
The Judge lays bare the shams and
frauds practiced upon the people by
the leaders of the Radical party ever
since its birth in 1856.
The fact that the Judge and the
General Both belong to the same
church, (Campbellites), and both preach
occasionally, makes the letter rather
spicy at this time. Again; In the
numerous scrapes into which Garfield
has allowed himself to be raked during
his army and congressional career, he
has always employed Judge Black as
his attorney TO see him through, This
is rather natural, and like Oakes Ames
and De Golyer, the General always in.
vests his money where it Will do the
most good.
Every man and woman in the
United States should read this letter
and then hand it to the boys and girls
for contemplation. Here it is;
To the Hon. James A. Garfield, Mem
Der Of Congress from Ohio | have read
the speech you sent me. l am aston.
ished and shocked As the leader of
your party, to whom the candidates
have especially delegated the conduct
OF the campaign, you should have met
your responsibilities in very differ.
ent way. do not presume to lecture
so distinguished a man upon his errors !;
but if | can prevent you, even TO
small extent, f.'om abusing the public
credulity, it is my duty TO try, Pre-
missing only my great anxiety between
us for many years, ! follow the Hora-
tian rule, and come at once to the
mluule OF Things.
You trace back the original of pres
ent parties to the earliest immigations
at Plymouth and jamestown, and pro
fess to find in the opposing doctrines
then planted and afterward constantly
cherished in Massachusetts, and Vir-
ginia, the germs Of which now make
Democracy and Abolitionism the dead
ly foes Of each other. The ideas so
planted in Massachusetts were, accord
ing TO your account, the freedom and
equality Of all races, and the right and
duty of every man TO exercise his pri-
vate judgment in politics as well as re.
ligion. On the other hand, you set forth
as irreconcilably hostile the doctrines
of yirvinia, "that capital shall own
labor that the negro had no rights Of
manhood, and that .he white man
might buy, own and sell him and his
offspring forever" Following those
assertions with others, and linking the
present with the long past, you en-
ploy the devices Of your rhetoric to
gloriiy the modern Abolitionist and to
throw foul scorn, not merely on the
Southern people, but on the whole
Democracy OF the country.
This looks learned and philosophical,
and gives your speech dignity seem.
ingly above the reach of the ordinary
demagogue. Happy is he who knows
the causes of things; felicitous is the
partisan member Of Congress whose
stump speech goes up the river Of time
to the first fountains of good and evil.
But your contrasts of historical facts
is open to one objection, which ] give
you in form as simple as possible when
| say that it is wholly destitute of
truth. This, of course, implies no i'm.
putation on your good faith. Your high
char acter in the church, as well as the
State, forbids the belief that you would
be guilty of willful Misrepresentation.
The men of Massachusetts, so far
from planting the right of private
judgment, extirpated and utterly ex-
tinguished 1t, by means so cruel that
no man of common humanity can think
Of them even now without disgust and
indignation. am surprised TO find
you ignorant of this Did You never
hear of the frightiul persecution they
carried on systematically against Bap-
lists, Quakers and Catholics ? How
they fined, imprisoned, lashed, mutt.
lated, enslaved and banished every.
body that claimed the right to free
thought2 How they stripped the
most virtuous and inodensive women,
and publicly whipped them on their
naked backs, only for expressing their
conscientious convictions 7 Have you
never, in all your reading, met with
tho story of Roger Williams2 For
merely suggesting to the public au.
thorites of the colony that no person
ought to be punished on account OF his
honest convictions, he was driven into
the woods and pursued ever afterward
with ferocity that put his lite and
that OF his friends in constant danger.
In fact, tho cruelty of their laws
against the freedom of conscience and
the unfeeling rigor with which they
were executed, made Massachusetts
odious throughout the world.
These great crimes Of the Pilgrim
Fathers ought not TO be cast up to
their children, for some of their dc.
scendants Il hope q good majority are
high principled and honest men, sin
cerely attached to the liberal institu.
tions planted in the more southern
latitudes of tho continent. But IL you
are right in your assertion that the
Abolitionists derive their principles
from the ideas entertained and
planted at Plymouth, that may ac.
count for tho coarse and brutal tyran.
ny with which your party has, In re.
cent times, trampled upon the rights
OF free thought and free speech.
Nor are you more accurate in your
declaration that tho old Yankees
planted the doctrine of freedom and
equality, or opposed the domination OF
one race over another. Messrs. Pal.
frey and Sumner have said something
TO the effect that slavery never existed
in Massachusetts,, and you may have
been misled bythem. But other are
wholly ignorant Of the subject, or else
they were spoke with that loose and
lavish unveracity which is a common
faultamong men Of their political sect.
The Plymouth colony and the pro.
vince OF Massachusetts, bay were pro.
slavery TO the backbone. If you
doubt this | refer you to Moorc's "his.
tory of Slavery in Massachusetts,"
where the evidence Consisting chiefly
Of records and documents perfectly
authcnticated) is produced and oollated
With fullness and fairness which can
not be questioned. The Plymouth i'm.