The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-08-07
FISHING FOR A BONUS,


e The Chicago Times is evidently again fish
}. ing for bonus Four years ago, having as
C sailed Samuel J. Tilden with persistent bitter
$ ness aud the coarsest vituperation up to hi
nomination by the ST. LOUIS convention, with
: in week succeeding that event 1t sudden,
Topped over and thencelorward ardently sup
e ported him. The secret of the change is un
] derstood to have been the receipt of $15, 00t
bonus from Tilden's bar'l.
/ Ever since the nomination of Garfield ant
: Hancock the Times has been fishing for anoth
, er bonus. One day it opens all its guns on tn,
2 former the next day on the latter; the Objec
IN each case being TO compel the supporters q
the one or the other to "come down"
Our impression is that the Times must opcr
, heavier guns on Gen Hancock than any it ha.
3 yet brought into range, if it would drive hi
: friends into needing the invitotion of our Lord
| to Zaccheus. Within week it has fired Just
two notable shots into the Hancock camp, both
however evidently intended only to alarm the
camp, as in each case they were blank shots
The first was on the occasion of the recent
great republican ratification meeting" at
Chicago, at which Gen. Banks, Gov. Cullom,
and half dozen OF others made speeches 1t
the speeches at that meeting was that the elec.
ton of Hancock would turn over the govern
ment to the Southern brIgadiers The simple
process by which that point was made out was
this: The senate and house are already in the
hands of the democrats. OF the 40 democrats
in the senate 80 are from the South and of the
$50 democrats in the house 10 are from the
South AS the adoption or rejection of all
important measures in congress is decided by
the party caucus, and as the southern members
thus have IN both houses large majority nI
the democratic caucus, 1t is clear that the
South already controls congress- and with the
election of Hancock, as congress rules the
President, the South will control the whole
power and no doubt will speedily exercise it
TO pay all its millions of rebel claims, to nav
the rebel debt, pension rebel soldiers, &c, &c
OF course it would be gross libel on the
Times to say that its editor Is such blockhead
that he cannot see through the bald sophlstry
of this kind of talk. Suppose, for instance,
the democratic caucus IN congress should
agree on measure to pension few hundred
rebel soldiers and the 40 democratic members
of the house should vote for it; how many OF
them would ever get back to congress again
or how long, with the odium of such meas
ure on Its back, would the democrats of the
North be able to send any members to the SEN
ate or house; and how long, thus, would the
present democratic majority in congress sur
viveg Though laundering often enough in
their political engineering, the democrats have
never been guilty of such folly. The truth is
the democrats IN congress- from the South as
well as North, have always been more cautious
not to offend the sensitiveness of the North on
such points than the republicans have shown ,
themselves. No democratic congress has dar. Z
ed, like the last republican congress- to pay
$4,000 600 of southern claims; nor has the
party, through Its platform or the I
declaration of its presidential candidate had ,
The cheek to propose to expend countless mil q
lions on the improvement of the waterways off q
the South, like the republicans. In short the =
republican party is infinitely more to be fear g
ed in that respect than the democrats. It's {
object is to gam the favor of the South, to /
build up strong party there, and to break up
It's solid democracy. Millions would be reck n
cssly expended by the republicans to compass I
hat end, while to the democrats such a course q
would be death. OF course the Times has
sense enough to see all this; yet 1t proceeds
Trough a whole ponderous column to en-
arge on the gravity and importance of this II
'alpable republican bugaboo. II
The second blank shot the Times fires is at r
Iancock's letter to Gen. Sherman. The man. o.
y tone and broad and magnanimous states. -
nanship of that letter are wholly ignored by 81
he Times, but 1t stops to hggle and whlmper {,
ver single flaw it prctends to discover in It, nj
re trouble over the Inauguration of the presl- a,
ent on the 4th of March 1877, and a call for u
liltary interference, Gen. Hancock expresses
D Gen. Sherman his readiness, as il is his du- b
Y, to obey the orders of his superior officer, ii
in which we of the army are protected so far J,
they may be lawful; our commissions ex- d
ress this" The Times wadcs through
hole column of sophlstical swash to show IN
nat in thus referring To the language OF every ~
rmy officers commission that he is to obey =,
My the lawful" commands of his superior n
fllcor, Gen. Hancock is guilty of gross and a
reasonable heresy, the Times maintaining that nj
is the duty of the army officer to obey ecery O,
rider OF his superior officer, lawful or unlaw n
al, under all circumstances by that doctrine, n
very officer and soldier under Gen. Lee, when 70
c joined the rebellion in 1861, was a traitor .,
NOT rrninn nvnr uitl, hin, 10 H.rlt