The daily gazette., 1880-07-19
THIRD EDITION
Garfield and yhe Independent

The Springfield Republican has suspen-
den Its inquiry into Garfield's private
character In order to mourn properly
over his detection from the civil service
reformers. It's grief Is not untiDged
WI b malice. "In the difficult feat" 1t
says, ''of spnningso rapidly as to seem to
face all ways, the agile farmer OF the
Western Reserve may now be consider
ed AN expert"
That me ans, we suppose, that the
Springfield Republican has discovered
from Mr.. Garield's letter of acceptance
that he Is hypocrite ami fraud on
those questions which Il has most at heart:
The discovery may save II the trouble OF
n further examination of the candidates
record as q bribs taker aud perjurer.
Whether or not the opinion of candt-
date for President on the right way to
distribute offices Is more important
matter for voters TO consider than the
question OF his personal honesty, we
leave to every body to determine for him
o ,lf There Is no doubt, however, that
sJme of the Independent Republicans OF
the class which is well represented by
the Springfield newspaper would have
tried pretty b ard to wink away Mr.. Gar
fields record of 1873, If lie had held out
to them the slightest hcpes of civil ser
vice reform admiUistrat, on. The effect
of constantly dwelling upon that one
subject Is to be:og the Urain as TO its re-
lative Importance, and to lose all sense
proportion In eslima1ng public events.
But Mr.. Garneld has plainly manifest
ed to the indeuendent Republican the
hypocrisy OF lis pas utrerance' and
{ hey are bewailing him ~ one lost to the
esteem of good men. Since he did not
60 even as far as hayes went, in making
promises never to be kept, there seems
to be no further occasion for them to
"hire eminent lawyers to defend the
Credit Mobilier bri be- taking and pei
jury and the De Golyer hribe taking
and perjury. They might hesitate about
refusing to vote for dishonest man who
was q civil service reformer; we do not
see how they can hesitate long over
dishonest man who is not a civil service
reforner.
Since our esteemed cont, mporary in
Springfield has come to the conclusion
that Mr.. Garfield Is q liar, there can be
no indelcacy in reminding IT now that
1t held the same opinion In 1879, when it
said, on March %:
"Gen. Garfield explains that he sign
ed he conference report on the salary
grab, because to withhold his signature
would have been 80 turn over 10 Ben
Butler the most important bill of the
session-a bill without the passage of
which every function of the government
would have been deranged until an ex-
ira session of Congress could have been
called in June following This explana-
tion lacks one important element
truth"
And ii our Springfield contemporary
cares to Resume its very interesting eX-
animation OF the canlidates Credit Mo
bilier record, II may find use for the fol-
lowing extracts from Its own tlrs. The
first was on Jan. 80, 1873, before Mr..
Garfield began to explain:
"Gen. Garfield still preserves silence
which his friends are beginning to find
very painful"
The next was on March 6, after Gar
neld had done spme explai ming aud
promised to do more
"Gen. Gartiali isn't satisfied to let bad
enough alone, and is going to explain
some more"
And the last which we shall offer to
our esteemed inland contemporary was
on March d, after Mr.. Garfield's con
stituents had taken up the matter:
"A Republican CUuItS Convention iu
Gen, Garfield'S distrci mas invited that
eminent public servant TO resign his
seat. We look 10 see other constituents
follow salt, at the ueXt election of Con
gresmeD, If not before. When these
men come to run again they Will begin
10 realize the dlsadv antage of beng
handicapped with a dlsgracrfui record
No doubt Mr.. Garfield realizes this
disadvantage to the fullest extent. And
no doubt when the Springfield RepuOli-
can looks agaih over the evidence taken
ny the Poland commitee-thiS time
with vision undistorted by beguilIng
hopes-it will see that II was wholly
right iu lS73-lN. Y. Sun.