New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-11-12

cancY. but WHY MOflN nc Olo WV
wouldn't make Hancock President
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THE FORGED LETTER IND THE NATIONAL
DEMOCEATIC COMMITTEE.
Respectable and honest Democrats deserve
sincere sympathy in these days. There are
such men. who sincerely believe that the
Democratic party as such has some real pur-
pose and honest aim, and who support II,
with all its faults, because they think its aim
a good one. These men, in most cases, are i'll
no way responsible for the conduct OF the
party. They are not TO blame because its
management fell into the hands OF Alr. Barnum.
The man had held honorable positions. lie
had means. and was supposed TO have
decency at least in fair measure for a Demo
cratic politician. Respectable men OF ms
party, its candidate probably inclHdcd, hoped
for maIrts, reputable and honest struggle IN
which defeat would bring no disgrace. And
now these men are compelled to witness some
of their leaders lodging the penltentiary, with
slender chance of escape. 1t is not wonder
that their feelings are very bitter. a jury OF
twelve decent Democrats would be apt to
prescribe striped clothes FOR Mr.. BaTnum and
his active associates IN the management, il the
evidence against them should be as clear and
strong as is promised
This is the first time in the history of par
ties n dis country that National Commit
tee has been detected in paying money to
confessed periurcr But the whole business,
from the beginning, has been managed in such
a way as 10 make decent Democrat want 60
hide himself for very shame. Corruption,
rascality and the vilest SANDER have abOundcd
in every part of the campaign that
has been within the immediate super
vision Of the National Committee. Some
of the most shameless falsehOOds ever uttered
have been Officially sent TO every part Of the
country by this Committee, and 1t has not once
been known to retract lie after it had been
exposed. But the forged letter, and the per-
iurcd evidence to support it, have placed this
Committee in infamy far beyond any other
yet selected by any party. The evidence will
probably show, before all is done, that the
Committee is directly and solely responsible
for the publication of the Morey forgery, and
may cast strong light upon the question
whether members of the Committee ever sup
posed the letter genuine. That they fully knew
that it was not genuine, but was most
base and cowaldly forgery, before they caused
the circulation of great number of copies III
distant States, where it did its dirty work,
can hardly be doubted with the evidence now
before the public. The blunder in spelling,
impossible for a man like Mr.. Garfield, the
fact that the letter bore postmarks which
proved that it could never have been sent at
the time or to the place pretended, and the
indignant denial of the alleged author, all
were made known to the Committee before
the greater part of its 1ishOnOrable work was
performed.
Then came the infamous attempt to bolster
up this detected forgery by peIjured witnesses,
so that it might pass for genuine letter
until after the election. That the Committee
was managing the defence of the parties accused
appears from the statement of the attorney,
WHO said, in justice to his client, that he had
spared no pains to bring forward all the wit
nesscs suggested by the National Democratic
Committee Two of these witnesses, it seems,
confess that they were hired by prominent
Democrats, aud one of them was paid by the
Committee, after his testimony, sum much
greater than his expenses in coming to this city
TO testify. The prominent Democrats who IN
duced them to testify, and those who received,
encouraged and drilled them in the story they
were to tell, whoever they may he, ought TO
be punished to the full extent of the law.
This is a case which it would be indecent
and base to compromise on any terms. Men
who perpetrate such a crime, whether of one
party or the other, ought to be punished TO
the extreme limit of the law, and the decent
citizens of the party thus diShOnored ought to
be and will be the foremost to demand that
there shall be no mercy shown.
Indeed, it has come to this, as many respect
able Democrats now see, that the party as a
whole can escape sharing in all tie mfamy
of this most infamous performance only by in
sisting that its untaithful and dishonest agents
and members, whoever they may be, shall be
made to suffer- If these criminals, who were
selected by the party to do honorable work
for its cause on any committee or in any
other capacity, are now defended Or excused
or if any attempt is made to shield them
from the just consequences OF their crimes
the party itself will assume the responsibility,
bear the shame, and morally wear the prison
of the Republican officials that
after the election they would never prosecute
this matter. Its abandonment would have
been disgrace to the Republicans. And any
attempt to shelter forgers and perjurers will
be a disgrace to the Democrats
THE CONFESSIONS