The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-10-08

| CONVICTIONS; when he passes into the
domain of politics his conscience looses
its grip, and for his party he is willing
to do anything wrong which will promote
their interests or play any card how false
soeyor which will win them power.
This surrender of his moral and mental
integrity is the condition upon which he
holds his high place in the affections of
the party he belongs to. Trcachcry to
his country is fidelity TO his faction. II
at any time in the last fifteen years he
had given away to his own sense of
right, supported the Constitution and
laws in a spirit of pure Justice refused to
detilc himself with election frauds, with
held his countCnancc from executive cor
rupton or denounced the forciblc Install
mcnt of thieves in state offices, he would
have converted himself into a Democrat
and expelled from the communion of the
anti-C Unconstitutional party This moral
prostitution TO bad political purposes is
far from being uncommon. Men natn-
rally good have yielded to it in all times
and in all countries where thcrcis party
unprinciplcd enough to demand it and
strong enough to reward it, But Gen
cral Gariicld's public career furnishes
more striking examples of il than the
history of any individual know. Let
me give YOU case: After the war-at
a time of perfect peacc--in the State Of
| Indiana, where no war had ever been.
certain military officers. being instructed
from Washington that they were above
the civil authorities, had kidnapped and
| LII ,l, 80, E,
offense defined by any law and without
the pretcnSe of a trial by court or jury
If this could be done there was mani
festly no security left for life or pro
perty.
Plainly it could not he 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 no be
certain that the Judges. State and National
might not be subdued by their influence
The hearing of the caase before the su-
| preme court was great crisis i'll the
constitutional hearing of our country
| There was a place i'll the argument which
nobody could fill so well as General
Garfield, and besought him to help us
in the desperate extremity to rescue
American liberty from the utter destruc-
tion with which if was threatened. lie res
ponded with noble alacrity, and made
| great argument in which he proved not
only the continued existence. but the in
estimable value of the Constitution. lie
demonstrated that the right of trial by
jury at all times and at all places was
| indistructible,an that any ofiicer,civil or
military, would violate his oath if he AT
tempted to put the military above the
civil authority. He affirmed the whole
Democratic doctrine on the subject and
showed it to be incontcstibly right His
sincerity was undoubtcd, for the rest
of us.hc engaged in the cause as a laborcr
of love,without fee or any reward except
the thanks of true mcn Such were his
true convictions. But when he came to
deal with the same subject in his politi-
cal capacity he surrendered everything
to his party. He voted for Il military
deSpotiSm and Il regular system of kid
mapping and murder in all the States of
the South. In the same act were other
provisions which he certainly understood
to he in direct conflict with every article
and every section of the constitution. In
all this he ! id not transgrcsS, like others,
i'll ignorance or in passion; he sinncd
against light and knowledge and on
cold calculation of partisan policy ItiS an
infinite pity that such amm should be
not only false to his country but false to
himself
What makes all this very much worse
is his denunciation Of General Hancock
for saying that the military was consti-
| tutionally subordinate to the civil power
| and that liberty was still the inheritance
OF the American people ; for these were
propositions which he himself had asserted
and knew to be true.
1t might be expected that the course
of man SO influenced would frequently
defect from the straight path, and one
| great alteration we cannot but remcm-
her Mr. Tilden was elected in 1876 4
false return was the only resource against
| him. | do not belcVctha General Gar
field, if not let alone, would commit an
election fraud any more than he would
steal horse or sheep. But when the
managers of his party demanded his aid
i'll great swindlc he could not refuse.
| Under the coercion he went down
to Louisiana and there found it absolutely
certain that the Tildcn Electors had
been duly appointed" at legal and full
poll, so pcaceably conducted that there
| was not even Il squabble about il in the
whole state. And the appointment 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 no
contradiction ofthis could be honest. To
count the State for Hayes was thing
that could be done only by impudent and
unmitigatcd fraud For time | hoped
that General Gartields share in the great
crime had consisted in passive acquies-
cence, and | am surprised 10y the proofs
recently brought forward of his active
assistance IN its preparation. His iudg
mcnt as a member of the Electoral Com.
mission was thing To be expected, for
he must long before that have convinced
himself that fraud was rs good way
as any other of clecting a President. In
a political game he did not think that
anybody had moral sense enough to alb
stain from throwing a die which he him
sell had loaded TO win the stake.
This liability to be rushed into evil
COURSES by hisPaty associates has brought
upon him much odium which he does
not deserve in the transactions of the
Credit Mobilier, The stock distributed
by OakeS Ames was intended to influence
the legislation of congress oorrpptly. lie
and the company who put into his hands
meant business, and that business was
bribery. Undoubtedly those members
who took it, knowing the nature of the
thing, were great criminals and wholly
unworthy 10 retain their seats But Gen
eral Garfield, though he certainly agreed
to take the stock, and did actually take
dividends upon 1t, had no suspicion of
| a. Al