Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-06-12
GARFIELD'S RECORD.
A Good Many Things Which Need Ex-
PLANTATION.
Chicago Times, JUNG 10.l

No note of dissatisfaction is to be heard
among Republicans anywhere in the country
regarding the nomination of Mr.. Garfield
1T is plain that the opposition can hope for
no discord in the Republican party as the re-
suit of his selection. Among the hundreds
of statements regarding the nomination
from the leading Republican politicians
and newspapers presented in the Times
of yesterday and to-day, there is to be
found not one which expresses
dissatisfaction with the nomination or dis
trust as to the outcome From George Will
liam Curtis to William E. Chandler, and
from ConklIng and Logan to Henderson, the
st. Louis arch bolter, the individual senti-
ment is enthusiastically in Garfeld's favor.
Among the newspapers, the stalwart Globe
Democrat and the heretical Cincinnati Com
naercSaL are equally warm in their support
of the nomination. Apparently there is no
bresk in the unanimity of the Republican
sentiment
But it is not little remarkable that of all
the Republican newspapers who have come
to the front with glowing eulogies of the
candidate, not one has undertaken his de-
fence against the allegations made against
ring, the Sanborn contracts, the De Golyer
contracts, and the back-pay grab The Re-
publican party papers either ignore these
matters altogether, or allude to them as
ssslandars,' and pass them by. The Times
is of the opinion that this treatment of the
charges will not do. The Times is not by
any means convinced that Mr.. Garfield had
any corrupt interest in any of the specu-
La NH ak1 hoo
often connected No evidence has yet
come before it which is conclusive in estab-
fishing the connection with those scandals.
But the question is, has evidence enough
been taken to create suspicion in the minds
of considerable number of electors as to
the integrity of Mr.. Gar6eld's course as
chairman of the appropriations committee
in the House of Representatives? If Mr.
Garfield were on trial before court of JUS
tice for the offenses charged against him, it
would be necessary to prove his guilt beyond
the shadow of a doubt before he could be
convicted; he, as candidate before the peo-
pie for the office of president, it will be in
cumbent upon him or his friends to prove
his innocence beyond shadow of doubt.
If there is enough In the evidence brought
against him to arouse Sus
amounts to the same thing as if he were
unquestionably guilty. A mans election to
the Presidency of the United States is not
matter of choice on the part of the electors.
It will not do, therefore, for the Republican
party to attempt to ignore these charges, or
to assume without examination that they
are ISLANDERS inspired by malice. They must
be met and disproved,
no nhQrnn1 pnaIndt
Mr.. Garfeld's integrity rest wholly on the
statements of confessed corruptlonists. The
story of his connection with the Credit
Mobilier is told by Cakes Ames, the chief
corruptionist of the Credit Mobilier ring.
But is it not true that the charge against
Mr.. Schuyler Colfax, which have been
found sufficient to consign him to the limbo
of discredited and disgraced politicians for
many years, rest upon nothing more than the
statement of Cakes Ames, supplemented by
the same little memorandum book which
testifies against Mr.. Garfield? Schuyler
Colfax denied the charges against him as
positively and explicitly as Garfield denied
the like charges against himself Ames'
testimony was equally explicit and equally
well fortified with records in both cases.
What was held to be sufficient to damn Col
fax cannet be passed over in silence in Gar
fields case. 1t is enough to say that the Credit
Mobilier ring did not exist beyond peradven-
ture; that it plundered the government and
the shareholders of the Union Pacific railroad
of hundreds of thousands of dollars that
it could not possibly have done this without
the completely of members of Congress, and
that every member of Congress solemnly
denied any such completely. Some of them
must have lied.
AS for the "salary grab," it may be said
that Mr.. Garfeld's position was precisely the
same as that of all the other members of
congress who voted for and benefited by the
back-pay bill. Many eminent senators and
representatives of both parties voted for the
bill, and afterward took their share of the
money. Many equally eminent members of
Congress were unable to reconcile the taking
of the money with their consciences, and re-
fused it or returned it. But no dishonesty was
involved either in voting for it or returning
it, and it is quite probable that most of the
congressman who returned the money did it
for the political effect which the action
might have, each deeming the money we'll
invested if it secured him re- eleetion. But
the bill, although not positively dishonest,
was extravagant and ill-advised, and Mr..
Garfield, as tine member of the House most
responsible for its passage, incurred at the
time q certain odium from his connection
with it, which may or may not have disap-
peared With time. A little campaigning,
with iniudicious silence on the part of the
Republican leaders, will soon make it clear
whether the people still harbor any resent
ment against Mr.. Garfield for his work in
procuring the passage of the ''salary grab"
The charge against Mr.. Garfield in con-
nection with the Ssnborn contracts is, sub
stantially, that he as chairman OF the House
committee OF appropriations, forced through
Congress, as a ''rider' on the Legislative, ex-
ecutive, and judicial appropriation bill, a
measure authorizing the Sanborn Jayne con-
tract to be made, after the same measure had
been twice rejected by the Senate. The San
born Jayne ring, it was charged, was en-
gagged in the work of acting as spies on mer-
chants and Matchmaking them, and
it is alleged that the COM
plicity of certain members of Con-
gress and certain treasury officials was
necessary to the rings operations. There is
no evidence, however, that Gen. Garfield had
any connection with this enterprise, nor any
ground for presumption that such was the
case, except the fact that he forced the
measure in which the ring was interested
through Congress as rider to the legislative
bill, and by the application of the previous
question thumbscrew. This presumption, it
is evident, is not enough taken alone, to