Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1880-08-23
THE RADICAL ''SPOUTER"
CORNERED.

4 -
CORNERED.
Some Plain Propositions Which
it VIII Not Dare to Tackle.
Moryantown New Dominion.
EprroR Ner Dominion I'm the same
mail in which place this communica-
ton. address to the Morgantown Post
a verbatim copy OF the letter herewith ap-
pended.
send il to you with request to pub.
lish it, because am quite confident it
will never appear or be noticed in the
Post.
But want the people Of Monongalia
toIae { least one opportunity to dis
cover py what tactics the Post and its
party seek to conduct campaign. For
a number OF years it has assisted IN
keeping It's party in the majority In
your county, by game OF bluh-by ~
norins and suppressing facts on one
side, andby misrepresentation ON the
other. Its readers are never permitted
10 read but one side OF the issues, and its
political opponents and their arguments
are treated with towering contempt.
= / have, in q respectful manner, asked 1t,
in the letter addressed to it, to deny or
refute the charge against Gen. Garfield,
which discussed in recent speech at
your place, and OF which the post"
complained so bitterly, and / ask the
/ readers OF the Nsr Dominion to observe
/ that 1t will do no such thing. IL does
/ not dare attempt IL, and yet II will abuse
/ aud yillify any public speaker who re-
fers 10 the subject. The following is the
letter which have addressed to the
Post"
CHALLENGE
Messrs. Editors Post In looking over
the last issue of the Post" was struck
with the fact that large portion OF one
page Is devoted to q criticism oil one
single subject Of the speech / recently
made at the Court House in Morgan
town,
take it that il any part Of the speech
was effective, il was this to which the
post" makes such extended reference,
and which is singled out OF an hours
desultorv talk. The POST" does not 80
intimate, but betraysits concern Tor the
effect it might have, by directing all Its
criticism to it alone.
The subject under discussion was the
public and private character oil the he,
publican candidate for President, and
YOU report ms as having made the as
sertion that Clarified Is "a common thug.
did not make that assertion or use
that language | made charge more
damaging to Gen. Garfield than that,
and object principally to the misrepre-
sentation because it is less effective than
What / did say.
could not have used the language
attributed TO me, because il would have
been irrelevant 10 the subject under dis
cussion; and further than that, l would
not, even il | had been disposed to be
untruthiul, have made such an asser'
ton as that before that particular audi
ence, for recognized in it many lead
ing Republicans OF your county who had
honored with their presence, and whom
desired to treat with great respect, and
was, therefore, specially careful when
referring TO their nominee for the Presl-
dency, to utter no word not doubly JUS
tilted and fortified by proof. 1t would
have been unjust and untrue for me to
have charged him with being common
thief" az no such accusation, so far as
know, has been made against him.
What did say, in substance, was,
that there is, perhaps, Uncommon thief,
or other criminal now in Jail, who was
convicted upon evidence more conclu.
sive than that upon which Gen. Garfield
is charged with bride taking in high Of
fee.
Iregard this as grayer charge than
10 saw Garfield is a thief, because We
can sometimes almost justify the thiei
who steals TO satisfy the cravings oil
hunger or TO save starving family; but
an official who gratifies only his avarice
by accepting a bribe, sells his honor out
right and spits in the faces OF confid-
ing constituency.
But that which struck me most in the |
criticisms made by the Post, and
which must attract the attention OF the |
most casual reader. and that in fact, to |
which it is my chief purpose to refer Is,
that in all the space which the Post"
devoted to this subject, there is not one
Snqls s1,tSace ha. attempts 10 rqWe me |
chdrqs itssif uhich Imade against General
GartiStd
Now the charge is either true or fa's,.
II IT is not true, il is not worthy oil the
extended reference made to it by the
Post" IL it is false il can readily be
shown, for il is all a matter OF public
record.
Ii would appear, therefore, to be the
most natural as well as the most efiec-
tual curse for the Post" and the Re-
publican press generally, II they believe
this common charge, which is following
Garfield through the campaign like a
CHASTITY spectre, to be false, that they
would at once and forever squelch 1t, by
publishing the proof the record-upon
which they rely to reiute the charge, If
there is any such proof.
Nevertheless the post" IS silent, nor
is il singular IN its silence on this head.
There is not Republican paper IN West
Virginia that has yet dared to tackle the
evidence upon which this charge is pre-
dicated and give it to its readers. The
leading Republican organ in the State,
the Wheeling Intelligencer, although sup
porting Garfield has studiousiy
and conspicuouslv avoided any at
tempt at his defense against this
charge. We defy any one to produce 4
single line iron its editorial columns in
REPUTATION of this charge. 1t is dumb
and dead To it and cannot be induced to
ever make reference to the charge.
So with the Post. When / made this
charge in the course OF discussion OF
Garfield's character, and made it upon
the records OF Republican Congress. ]
the most respectful language the suo-
ject would warrant, the Post replies by |
saving that il is "undignitied" to thus |
charge its candidate. Indeed, the stvle |
OF the Posts reply would impress its Re-
publican readers, who have been kept
in ignorance OF the facts, that l had
Manufactured. a lie out OF the whole
cloth. and that there was absol utely no |
bottom to the charge, save my bare as
sertion.
Now, the purpose OF this eommunica-