Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-12-16

cember 4, page 51), and regret that, in
view Of the political course of your paper,
and especially this attack on one of your
Oldest and best friends, than whom there
is no one in Philadelphia who is more es-
teemed and respected for the purity of his
life, l must request You to discontinue
sending me the Progress from this date.
Yours respectfully,
A. T. GOSHORN.
OFFICE "PROaREss,"
PHILADELPHIA, Pa, Dec. IA. 1880.
Hon. A. 7. Goshorn, Cincinnati:
My DEAR SIR: The right to stop
newspaper is like the right to breathe
Gods free air. But with certain other
rights N may sometimes be abused. So I
hold that no man stopping his paper has
right to give confidential reasons in
sulting the editor. Having gone through
this business for more than generation,
propose to discuss the question with per-
feet candor in this public reply to your let
ter of the 9th of December, 1880. As the
wrong condemned was a deliberate out
rage upon the American people, I claim
the full privilege to justify myself in de-
nunciation of it.
Twenty-One years ago James Buchanan,
president of the United States, set the ex-
ample to his army Of officeholders by
stopping my paper, the Press, because l
conscientiously declared for the freedom
of Kansas. boldly exposed his proscrip-
tion to the people, and with their aid
broke down his administration at the polls.
When L advocated, almost alone among
my contemporaries in Philadelphia, the
movement in favor of letting the cars run
ho <J-,,, 80
week for the benefit of the labOring poor
OF this great city, my paper was stopped
by thousands who now go to church in the
same cars every Sunday. For that sin
cere effort was assailed by a concentrated
Gordon Of angry clergymen, one memoir
able Sabbath day, calling upon their con-
gregation to stop the Press and now
most of these men of God frequently ride
to and from church on Sunday. When,
equally solitary and alone, I pleaded that
the cOlorcd people should be allowed the
use of the same cars, hundreds of those
who now amiably sit side by side with
the negro in these cars, also stopped the
Press
But my last and browning crime was
that of declaring for General Hancock for
president. One man Withdrew his sub
scriptiOn because he declared l was dis
honoring the fame of the dead General
Meade, the most of the survivors of whose
family voted in the presidential election
for the living hero Of Gettysburg. Another,
who was one Of the lOudest to applaud
General Hancock in July, 1868, for his
magnificent services to our great state and
city, stopped Progress because he could
not train, he said, with the party which
supported Lee in the rebellion. Still
| another discontinued his paper because
the election of General Hancock, in his
belief, would be a decree against the con-
troll of his special ring in this country.
Others. not quite so bold, waited to see if
General Hancock could be elected in No
vcmbcr, in which event no doubt your
name would still be inscribed on my
books.
JOhn Welsh was among this list. He,
like yOu, waited for Hancock's defeat be-
fore he aired his anger. In addition to
his note Withdrawing his name from Pro
gress, he declared that he could not stand
my theory that the empire was certain to
bc successful if mere money was hereafter
permitted to crush aud control free judg-
ment in this country.
Now L have your letter of the 9th of De-
cember. Instead Of meeting the direct is
sue-instcad Of discussing on fair grounds
the doctrine that there can be no free ur-
trammeled suffrage in this country if cap
ital is allowed to muzzle conscience and to
turn the laboring population into so many
white slaves you speak Of Mr.. Welsh as
one of your (my) oldest and best friends
than whom there is no one in Philadelphia
who is more esteemed and respected for
the purity Of his life.''
All of which freely admit except that
which relates to the friendship between
Mr.. Welsh and myself. That has always
been maintained by perfect independence
of all money relations between us. But
if, in this remark, you mean that went
abroad under his invitation as Centennial
commissioner, in 1S74-1S7j, please remem-
that, besides doing my duty honestly, ac-
cOrding to your records and the public
Judgment, l spent thousands of dollars out
of my own pocket, in addition to the two
hundred and fifty dollars month allowed
by the finance committee. So much for I
that. 1t is because Mr.. Welsh is precisely
what you say he is, because he is so good
a man, because his life heretofore has been
a model, because of the purity of that life
(virtues you claim for him, and concede)
that fatal force was given to his secret
application for the money of the million
aires to buy 4 man into the presidency,
convicted by the Republican party Of the
United States Of brazen corruption in the
American Congress.
Phe purity Of John Wclsls life made
the impurity of that example more terri
bic. Until he signed the monstrous circu-
lar of the 18th of September, 1880, Gen.
Hancock was the foreordained president
of the United States. Hancock's friends
had just carried Maine, aud Mr.. Garfield
himself, and the trained bands of his party |
the ofice-holders and reckless managers |
who have been getting rich for twenty |
years from the plumber of the general |
gOvernment-saw and trembled before |
that handwriting on the WALL" At this !
point John Welsh took the field against
General Hancock. Up to the Maine cleo
tiOn, in September, John Welsh stood aloof.
The thrilling record of General Hancock,
his splendid contradiction of all charges or
suspicious against himself, the attractive
of his stainless life, and the
graceful dignity with which he avoided all
offensive advertisement of his person and
his claims had reached thousands of hearts,
and there is no doubt that if these cvangel-
control, Hancock would have been The
choice of the American people.
At this moment John Welsh, of all men,
the very man whose ''purity of life" should
have led him to yield to these great facts,
made his appearance as the author of the
circular which l republish.
Up to that time he had stood aloof. And
when that paper appeared there was not a
gentleman in Philadelphia, outside of the
for Office, who did not read this
demand for 4 cOruntiOn fi,nd with an,,zo