Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-08-05
Pleading the Baby Act.

We have always considered defense
valid only when it defends. If a man
seeks to turn the edge of a we'll grounded
suspicion simply by saying: 81 cannot
be a knava because | am a fool the
ground of objection to him will have to
be shifted certainly, but our respect for
him can hardly be increased, and his
fitness for position of the highest re-
sponsibility and trust can hardly be made
more apparent by any such plea.
Yet that is the defense and virtually the
only defense which the friends of Cen
eral Garfield set up for him. Judge
Black, who sustained the relation of
lawyer to client to General Garfield,
was very sure that he had no guilty
connection" with the Credit Mobiiier
affair, significantly ignoring General
given under oath that he had no con-
nection whatever with it. The SUBJ
stance of Judge Blacks defense was
that Mr.. Garfield was not sufficiently
alert to see the trap that had been set
for him. He was regular gudgeon
and snapped at the bait without so
much as stopping to smell of the hook.
His party journals have admitted his
indiscretions, but maintained that he
was unable to see the bearings of his
acts and so was not responsible for
them. These organs are quoting with
much satisfaction Dom Piatt's vindica-
ton of the General, portion of which
is as follows: Garfeld's purity is
so thorough that it gives him perilous
confidence in men, and has gotten him
into trouble precisely as a contiding boy
gets into scrapes. In that Credit Mo-
bilier affair, for example, we know and
have so testified that at the very time it
was claimed he was scheming to enrich
himself through Ames' rascality, he was
shining about Washington, trying to
borrow three hundred dollars to pay
house rent, and so ignorant of the COM
mone5t financial process that he did not
know how to negotiate an ordinary note
of hand"
Does the country desire for its Presi-
dent a man who has "perilous conf
dence in men?" That was the COM
plant against Grant, that he was mis-
taken in men and thus kept himself
surrounded by rascals. Does the coun-
try desire for its President man who
does mot know how to negotiate an
ordinary note of hand?'' The financial
interests OF the country are among the
most delicate of all its interests. The
Hon. Samuel j. Tilden has said in sub
stance that the same principles which
are observed in the successes of the
soundest business men should be OBJ
served by the Government, and
the leading principle is ''live within
your income" The Hon. Marshall
Jewell thought this same rule should be
applied to his department when he was
PoStmaster-General, and doubtless he
believed in its efficiency in all depart
ments of Government. The financial
interests of the Nation are mighty as
well as delicate. A clear head and q
firm hand are needed at the helm to
make this rule to which we have re-
ferred operative throughout all branches
of administration. Obviously a man
who does not know when it lis legitimate
and when not legitimate to receive
money; who is so credulous as to sup
pose men scatter valuable stock and
dividends about for no consideration
but fun, or to crafty a spirit of compre-
hensive benevolence-who, in short,
sis so ignorant of the commonest finan-
cial process that he does not know how
to negotiate an ordinary note of hand;"
is not the man the country needs or
should have for President. We believe
this is an honest deduction from prem
ises to which the friends of General
Garfield have taken no exceptions; it is
another horn of the dilemma, but how
it can help his candidacy we cannot see.
Boston Post.