The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-07-27
Democratic Investigations.
What Has Been Shown by Them.
Penn Weekly Notes. I

GPenn Weekly Notes.] aslsN
If we might judge the Republican party by
the evidence collected by the Democratic Con-
gressional Committee of Investigation, then
We should be obliged to pronounce it party
whose record was singularly pure and honor
able,-all but faultless, indeed. Perhaps
however, something is due to the stupidity and
blind virulence of the Democrats who have
taken care to select the strong points of their
opponents for attack. When the Democratic
majority came into power, we were to have
sundry repetitions of the Covode Investigation
only more startling. Every part of the
Government, from the scullery of the White
House up to the Cabinet itself, was to be
looked into, and the most surprising dis
closures were to be expected The Repub-
licans were warned that their day of reckon
ing had come, and they need expect no
quarter. Well for five years we have had
investigations and committees, some of them
for specific purposes, some of them with
rowing commissions, and what has been the
result? The Cipher Dispatches have been Off
cially ventilated. The vague stories of Re-
publican misconduct in Louisiana in 1876 have
been discredited. The outrages which caused
the negro exodus from the South have been
brought into clear light, and now at last the
charges of Republican intimidation in the
North have been made ridiculous, while the
naturalization exploits of the three Democrat
ic Judges in New York i'll 1868 have been re-
hearsed to the wonder, amusement and dis
gust Of the public. Certainly, our Democratic
friends deserve to be called, like the English
Tories. s'the great stupid party But their
stupidity in all these matters is justly to be de-
scribed as a species of judicial blindness. They
have so fed their souls with Nightmares through
the years of their opposition, that they are
ready to take up any story or to believe any
lie, if it only blackens sufficiently the charac-
ter of their opponents. From continual re-
hearsal of these stories they have come to
believe them themselves; and when
the time came and they had power
to look into these matters, they were like men
who walked in their sleep and struck out Wild
ly. Hence it is that if the Republican party
needed a vindication before the world, it might
point to the evidence collected by the Investi-
cation Committees of Democratic Congress-
The last exploit has been that of Senator
Wallace's Committee, sitting in New York to
investigate the charges brought against U. S.
Supervisor Davenport-that he had prevented
sundry good and true naturaliZed citizens from
voting, had taken away their papers, and had
detained their persons i'll unlawful confine-
ment. In the last session of Congress, Mr.
Davenport was held up to public reprobation
as the chief enemy of popular liberty on this
continent. The English language was ran
sacked for words to describe his villainies, and
several new and curious expressions were
added TO the vocabulary of Congress in the :
fort. But no one ever adopted the plain and
easy way of putting stop to his doings. No
Democratic voter sued him for false imprison-
ment. No naturalized Democrat demanded
back his papers under form of law. And al
though there are large Democratic organiza-
tions in New York who could well afford the
expense of prosecution, and who would have
much to gain from his conviction, they all
maintain a masterly inactivity. Are we to
suppose that the ''unterrfed" were frightened
by one undersigned official?
Mr.. Wallace'S committee came along to clear
up the enigma, and Mr.. Davenport Igot a
chance to tell his story to the whole country.
In 1865 New York was to be carried for Messrs.
Seymour and Blair. There had been large
immigration of foreigners, Irish, German and
Italian since the war, but the precaution had
not been taken to put them in the way to be-
come citizens. Some had not been two years
in the country. Others had declared their in
tentions, but within two years. Others had
taken no steps although here long enough. But
three Democratic judges were found equal to
the work before them. OF the three, two have
since died in the odor of infamy. Judges Bar
nard and McCunn will be remembered in the
history of American jurisprudence, as two OF
the most corrupt men who ever sat on the
bench. They undertook the heft of the work
and under their auspices over $1,000 per-
sons were naturalized in the month of
October, 1868. A Philadelphia judge can
naturaize from eight to ten persons an hour.
These New York judges never sat for more
than five hours day, but on October II,
Judges Barnard and McCunn each natural
lied over 400 persons an hour, being 1920 citi:
zens and voters made by the two in one day.
The law requires that each candidate for natu-