Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-08-13
Clutching mt StrawS.

questions as most journals of : !ung
marty bias. We la been lei - re-
gard It's positive statements q what
it protested to believe mates of
fact as entitled to some weight, but
we fear that this good opinion must
undergo change, under the stress
of party necessity which impels it to
resort to the most willful misrepre
seutation to sustain sinking cause.
A few weeks ago it made grave
charges affecting the loyalty of Gen.
Hancock, and subsequently pub
lished the Sherman letter (Which we
reproduce in tins issue) with head
lines and comments intended to car
" the impression that it Is Il full
substitution of the charges then
made. How near it comes to prov
ing tue assumption, the reader can
Judge for himself.
In the ISSUE of last Saturday, we
find other evidence of this unjust
manner of dealing with questions
now affecting public sentiment. 1t
publishes the letter written by Gen.
Hancock to S. T. Glover, Esq, of
Missouri, in 1868, endorsing the
platform of the National Democratic
platform, with these comments:
1T will be observed that this letter
committed Hancock to the support or the
Democratic platform then just adopted
| which declared the Constitutional Anenu.
nents revolutionary, null and void,
and favored the payment OF the notueu
| Indebtedness of the United States Is IRE
dCemable scrip"
Let US see how much truth there
is in this statement. The platform,
by preamble, explicitly states that
1.-THE Democratic party, i'll National
| Convention assembled, reposing its trust
in the intelligence, patriotism and discri'h'
| mating intelligence of the people, standing
upon the Constitution as the foundation
and limitation of powers OF the Govern
mrnt and the guarantee of the liberties OF
the citizen, recognizes the questions OF
| slavery and secession as having been
settled for all time to come by the war Or
the voluntary action of the Southern States,
| in constitutional conventions assembled,
and never to he renewed or a2itated.'
This certainly seems to be explicit
enough, so far as the Constitutional
Amendments are concerned. Now
let us see what was the position OF
the party regarding the public debt;
I'VE demand the payment of the public
| practicable, all money drawn from the
people by taxation, except so much as is
requisite or the necessities ofthe Govern
| ment, economically administered, being
honestly applied to such payment, and
when the obligations of the Government
do not expressly state upon their face, or
the law under mich they were issued
does not provide that they shall be paid
in coin, they ought in right and justice to
be paid in the lawful money OF the United
States"
1t will be seen that the Democrat
ic party demanded that the Govern
ment pay the "bondeo indebtedness"
IN strict conformity apiM the lars un-
der ,chich ii acas contracted; but in
the absence of such statutory pro.
vision, it deemed the money paid to
the gallant soldier good enough to
pay other indebtedness. "One cur
rency for the Government and the
people, the laborer and the Office.
holder, the pensioner and the SOL
der, the producer and the bond
holder" was the wording of the
platform. Was there treason in
this?
What the platform declared Gre
evolutionary, unconstitutional and
void" were the reconstruction acts,
so-called, of Congress, under which
it nullifed, in the South, the right
of trial by jury, abolished the writ
of hobeas corpus, overthrow the free
dom of speech and of the press, and
substituted arbitrary inquiries and
arrests and military trials and stan
chamber inquisitions for the con-
stitutional tribunals. These acts per-
mitted the most fragrant outrages to
be perpetratcd with IMMUNITY, and
it was against such abuses that the
Convention entered its most solemn
protest, declaring the acts void be.
cause unauthorized, in times of peace
by the Constitution, and in direc,
conflict with the solemn pledge oil
both Houses OF Congress that the
war was prosecuted exclusively fol
the maintenance of the Government
and the preservation of the Union
under the Constitution, an assurance
that rallied the noble voluntec,
army which carried the fac To vic.