The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-09-16
A CASE OF MORAL SUICIDE.
Garfield, as q Public Man,
Unworthy of Public
Confidence.
Conspicuous Examples of His Moral
Cowardice.
rFrom the New York World.l

at Boston, In referring to the tergiversa- /
tions of certain public officer, said |
that when man went back upon his
friends it was called ingratitude, or upon |
his enemies it was called revenge, but |
when man went back ON his own prin- |
ciples which he had avowed it ought to |
be called moral suicide. Daniel Web
ster referred to John Tyler, but he might |
have used even stronger language had
he lived to witness four of the conspicu-
GUS tergiversations of Gen. Garfield
upon decided questions of principle.
One was in regard to reconstruction ;"
one in regard to the disputed election of
1875 one in regard to freedom of cleo
tions, and one in regard to reviving the
issues of the war. On New Years day,
1857, Gen. Garfield wrote to his friend
Hinsdale:
am less satisfied with the present aspect of
public affairs than have been for a long time.
find that many of the points and doctrines
which believe in and desire to see prevail meet
with more opposition than heretofore, and are
in imminent danger of being overborne by pop
ular clamor and political passion. In reference
to reconstruction feel that if the Southern
ments within a reasonable time we are literally
bound to admit them to representation. " = =
My own course is chosen, and it is quite proba-
BILE it will throw me out of public hfe.-B,tndys
Biography, page ".
Nevertheless, within two months after
the utterance of these brave words, Gen.
Garfield was In line with the extremists
OF his party in worrying the South with
special statutes on reconstruction and
when the Southern States had adopted
the constitutional amendments he still
kept them, as long as his vote could keep
them, from representation. He even in
troduced the bill which was intended to
abolish Gen. Hancock's office as Major
General in punishment for that Gener-
ais practical enforcement of Gen. Gar
fields avowed principles.
On Nov. IL, 1876, Gen. Garfield wrote
to his friend Hinsdale:
Last evening the President telegraphed me
from Philadelphia requesting me to go to New
Orleans and remain until the vote is counted,
acting as witness of the count. was good
deal embarrassed by the request. I did not
know who else was going, and might find my
self associated with violent partisan Repub-
icans who meant to count our side in, right or
wrong.
Nevertheless, his embarrassment yield
ed, and did not even return when he
found himself among the visiting states
men at New Orleans, or when he after
ward found himself on the Electoral
Commission at Washington associated
with violent partisan Republicans who
meant to count our side in, right or
wrong" And only a week after the
date of this letter to Hinsdale he was
writing from New Orleans to his friend
Hill, of Boston, in a frame of mind
which showed the writer to be amenable
to the specific and unanswerable criti-
cism which ex-Gov. Hendricks recently
made in his speech at Marion, Ind:
Garfield went to New Orleans to assist his
party in making up a case, and after his return
to Washington, of all his associates he was the
only man who took his seat upon the Electoral
he should have been excluded from the jury
box. BY his own sworn statement Of what he
did in New Orleans Garfield had charge Of the
returns from West Feliciana parish. In one of
the inner rooms of Packard's Custom House he
| did his work, examined the affidavits, and,
when they were not sufficiently full, he prepared
| or had prepared additional interrogatories to
bring them within the rules adopted by the Re-
| turning Board. The testimony SO received by
Garfield went back to the Returning Board,
and the result was that West Feiciana with its
| Democratic majority was thrown out. In
| Washington Garfeld's vote was that Congress
could not go behind the returns thus made.
As agent for his party he helped to make re-
| tdfns by manipulating the evidence and, as
| juryman for the nation, he held such evidence
| as conclusive and binding.
On April 81, 1880, Gen. Garfield again
wrote to his friend Hinsdale, and in the
course of the letter said:
| am Just now in antagonism with my own
party in legislation in reference to the election
| law.
Indeed. of the Bayard bill as to Fed
eral participation in elections, Gen. Gar
field was practically an author, for he
had entirely favored its principle, its
theory and its formulas at the time of its
| introduction, and it was in regard to
this measure that he wrote himself down
as " in antagonism to his own party"
Nevertheless, when the vote came up
on the bill his vote went upon the roll
along with his party colleagues, against
all his previous speeches and declara-
| tions.
A few days before the meeting of the
Chicago Convention Gen. Garfield, in
the course of speech in Congress, said:
The man who attempts to get up political
excitement in this country ON the old sectional
issues will find himself without party and
without support.
But when he had himself become a
candidate upon a platform which had
no other vital idea in it than an attempt
to galvanize the issues of the war, fifteen
years after its conclusion, Gen. Garfield
had no word to utter In depreciation OF
that which he had to all appearances
earnestly deprecated from his place IN
Congress, and, since his nomination, nc
member OF his party has taken more
pains to revive "the old sectional Is
sues" than Gen. Garfield whenever he
has been called upon for speech at q
serenade or upon car platform.
The Inference from any one of these
actions would be and ought to be in.
furious to Gen. Garfield as public man.
But when these things are considered
together no inference can possibly be
drawn from them except that Gen. Gar
field as apublic man is not entitled topub
lie confidence. His is caseof moral sui
eide, to repeat Webster's phrase, and il
proceeds from moral cowardice, as al
suicides may be said to proceed from
cowardice. HIS is not partisan from
the temper of his mind. He is both tot
scholarly and too apathetic man tt
lose his head in times of not more thai
ordinary excitement. He is a partisan
, | DOCdu60 uc 10 d uOr1 COHdIu duu Dc
cause he cannot Withstand the pressur,
of men whose knowledge is less ant
whose wills are stronger than his own
He is one of those unhappy men to whom
it is given always
To see the right and to admire it, too;
, To loathe the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.
It is true that very active hostilit,
to the wrong is inconsistent with every
thing that is known of Gen. Garfield
public career. But his intelligence gen
orally sufices to make him at least Sc
the right" and his weakness always al
lows him to be bullied into doing wrong
His political use to his party has bee
to furnish plausible reasons for what uic