The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1880-02-04
The Late Senator Chandler

Now that the official eulogies on the
late Senator Chandler have been pronounc-
ed, we feel an impulse to accompany them
with little plain truth.
Mr.. Chandler was rough, uneducsted
man, of good business capacities, who
early fell into politics, and advanced him.
self by the aid of his energy aud his money
70 a place in the Senate. He was OF
partisan. and deadly foe of that prince
of twsddlers, Gen. Cass. whom he followed
into the Senate when the Democratic party
gave up the ghost in Michigan. General
Cass was man of culture. with the iu-
stincts of gentleman, and he felt as an
old Roman might have done in the hands
of sn unwashed barbarian when he was
supplanted by Chandler in the State he
had so long swayed. Chambers method
had been borrowed from the sturdier De-
mocrscy. and he forced his way over every
obstacle by dint of sheer personal force and
energy. In his earlier efforts he did yeo-
mans service for the Wing and Republi-
can cause, and is deserving of due credit
therefore.
But he came into Congress as rude a
specimen of legislator as ever entered its
halls, He was a boisterous, thorough
going politician, and that was all. To the
art or the instincts of statesman he had
no pretension at the time he entered
political life. and he never acquired either
to the end of his days. He was noted all
through the shareholders rebellion for his
needless violence and his rabid hatred of
England. His rash and inopportune lang
uage and methods, it they had had any
considerable following, might have result
ed In national embarrassments; probably
10 disasters which are not now TO be meas
ured. He was a constant thorn in the side
of the responsible and conservative body of
Republican Senators with whom he was
associated. Yet. with all his recklessness,
he was not vicious man or a demagogue.
He was rude, untutored, and domineering.
He did not possess any natural flow of
oratory, and il was not till his later years,
and after long and persistent effort, that
he became in any degree proficient 10
the art of public speaking. 1t was his
great effort TO become such that suddenly
cut short his career and cost him his life.
He threw all his native energy into his
final stumpIng tour, and his mental equip
ment could not bear the strain put upon
it by his animal physique.
The best part of ChandIer's career was
his brief service as a member of Grant,
Cabinet. Grant knew but little about
MIN, and that chiefly as a teller of coarse
stories, but being in want of an occupant
for one of his numerous Augean stables
he chose Chandler for the place. Chan
der showed himself an honest and capable
administrator, and cleared away some OF
the filth lett by bis predecessor. 1t was,
10 be sure. comparatively easy oppOrtun-
ity to acquire Ecredit, for a dirtier Cabinet
crowd never surrounded a President 10
this country than Grant had collected
about him.
But all the sturdy NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
of Chaodler's general character goes for
nothing when we find it associated with
that lack of moral sense which permitted
him TO conceive and perpetrate the great
est political crime of our era. Chandler,
as the head of the National Committee
appointed by the Republicans to conduct
the Presidential campaign of 1876. was un-
doubtedly the original author of the sue
cessful attempt to seat the defeated Repub-
iican candidate by fraudulent count. He
saw before anybody else that the Republi-
cans had lost the election in Louisia ana and,
perhaps, in Florida. He at once announced
the election of Hayes as President, and
forth with despatched his agents to those
States to have the count SO manipulated
as to secure this result. He and his
agents knew early what all the world now
knows, that TildeD had carried Louisiana
by 1000 majority, aud that Hayes was
defeated. But, in the face of. this know-
edge, Chandler determined upon the dar-
ing and criminal proceeding OF miscounting
the vote of that State through the agency
OF corrupt Returning Board, and declar
ing It's vote for the candidate.
THIS act of infinite criminality, whose
pernlcious Influences we have already
begun TO see in our general politics, and
which will long outlive the present gener-
alton, lies at the door of Zacharlah Chand-
Ter. de gave his time. his energies, aud
his great wealth to secure the triumph of
this infamous fraud. aud his reputation
must forever bear this heavy burden. The
verdict Of impartial history will be that he
was deliberately dishonest man, and
the author of scheme that has worked
and will work Unreasonable evils to bis
country.