Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-12-16
ssysra, con1rliag 1t Il.

% regard Mr.. Bayard. of Delaware
IS one Of the most conscientious Of
politicians. Committed by ancestral
bride and prejudice to the State
tights doctrine OF Jefferson, hs is a
Bourbon Of the Bourbous, but be is
no. supposed to be given to the dirt
singing policy IF Baiuum and his
mules. Tie appearance, therefore,
OF a card signed by Senator Conk-
)ias, ex-Secretary Boutwell,, Judge
Noah Davis and Chester A. Arthur,
Saturday, from which it appeared
that he had been calumniating those
gentlemen, occasicued no little sur
prise. has Bayard too, conle dow
10 the level Of Philip and Smalley.
Baruum and a Hart? was asked.
That card has brought out some.
what voluninou5 correspondence
between Senators Copkipg and Bay
ard. The latter says lie did not
make the charge laid to his door,
although he admits that he said
something not wholly unlike it, his
disclaimer being quite unsatisfactory
and perhaps positively untrue. The
charge, as reported in two newspa-
ers at the time, the Dover State
Sentinel and the Philadelphia PleSS,
was that in the settlement of the un-
der valuation revenue case of the
Government against Phelps, Dodge
& Co, o few years ago, the gentle
men named divided the money paid
by the firn among themselves. They
ore represented as having squeezed
over quarter Of q million of do,-
lars out Of that concern for their
own personal benefit. Not only was
nothing of the kind oope, but the
case, as whole, is a sc Oh ;lustra-
ton Of the reformatory tendency Of
the Republican party. The general
facts are worth recalling.
The firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co.
was heavily engaged in importing
tin. The case in hand arose out OF
the importation of goods to the
amount of S2,000,000 which were
valued for duties at the p.ice ac-
,ualIy paid, which price was consid-
ersbly less than the prevailing mar
ket rate. Whether q court would
hold that "market value in law
meant the price in that particular
case, or the general rate, was au
open question The firm decided,
unsisely, perhaps, to settle, rather
than to stand trial, and that 10y pay.
ing s27l.0l7. After paying costs
there WAS left the sum of S262,S72,
apd under the law, as it then stood,
one bali of this sum went to the
Government aud one-half to certain
officers ut tho port Of New York,
namely, $65, 1l8 to Special Inspector
Jayne, who worked Up the case, and
ihe cum Of S2l,906 each to Collector
Arthur, Surveyor Cornell and Naval
Officer Latin. That "fat take open
ell the eyes of Congress aud brought
about the repeal OF the Mole'y law,
a most excellent and wholesome Gus
toms reform. 1t is impossible to
point to single instance in which
the Democratic party ever adopted
similar reformatory measure at
the expense Of its osn officials,
a question of yeiacity is raised.
Mr.. Bayald denies the accuracy of
the reports made OF his speech, and
the two newspapers in which they
appeared, and that in substantially
the same words, insist that The
speech was correctly reported. Has
the Chevalier Bayard been caught
in the Wade Hampton trap? Has
the aristocrat who can boast father
aud grandfather 10 the Senate of
the United States been guilty of that
vulgar sin, lying? We await devel-
opm ents. - Chjcugo Jou3na5.
Two rebels fought over a poker
table in 1852, and we've separated.
Recently they met at a game Of
poker in Spencer County, Ky.
When they recognized each other,
they took up thei. fight just where
it LETT off eighteen years ago, and
slashed away at each other until the
crowd ove,powered them.
IT is curious fact that the Demo-
cratic newspapers are abusing the