National Republican., 1880-07-26
An ASSAULT upoN GENERAL ARTHUR


ance, says: There Is danger in intrusting
| the control Of the whole law.makiug power Of
government to q party which has, in almost
\ every southern state, repudated obligations
| quite as sacred as those to which the faith Of
| the nation now stands pledged" Only one
| Interpretation can be put upon this sentence,
4 and that is that the southern states have re-
pudiatcd their pccuniary obligations. In this
| assertion General ARTHUR Is not sustained by
! the fucts. No single southern state Except
| Mississippi, many years before the late
war has yet ropudiated its obligations.
| 1t has beon attempted in Virginia, but the
| honest men Of that state have been powerful
| enough so far to prevent the infiction of that
disgrace upon her An effort has been made
| in Tennessee, too TO rcpudiate part OF the
| debt, but il has not yet succeeded, and the in
/ dications are that IL will not succeed.
proposition has been submitted to the peo-
i pie OF Arkansas TO dispose of u portion
| OF the railroad Indebtedness OF the state
| by Reputation, but the best Informed
| men of the state are confident IL will
be defeated at the coming election. At
any rate the repudiation has not yet been &C
| complished The state credit of Georgia is
above par. Her bonds command premium.
| This is also true Of Missouri, aud the credit OF
| South Carolina, Alabama and other southern
states has steadily improved during the past
two or three years. General ARTHUR will.
| perhaps, find out that such wild statement as
lie has made in regard TO the reputation of
state obligations will detract from the force of
his entire letter.-Ercinq Star.
We will not allege that our professedly
| non.partisan, impartial and fair.mindcd
contemporary has the infrmity of Mrs.
PARTISGToN, who said that every time she
opened her mouth she put her foot in it.
Nor will we charge that in making the
IaN frnp - Ann -
letter Of acceptance and its comment there
upon it is guilty of a willful pcrversion of
fact, but we do say that if the Star had
| reproduced the entire paragraph from which
that extract was taken it would never have
appended the charge that General ARTHUR
has made ~ wild statement in regard ito
"the repudintion of the pecuniary obligations
| "of the southern states, which will detract
"from the force Of his entire letter." unless
it intended to misrcpresent him. To show
that we are right in this conclusion, we will
now do what the STIR in fairness and JUS
tice should have done-we will present
the fun text of the paragraph in which the
extract that has called forth the severe
criticisms of our cotemporary occurs. Here
tits:
Four years ago, as now, the nation stood at
| the threshold of q presidential election, and
the republican party, in soliciting contiuu-
| ance of its ascendancy, founded its hope of
success not upon its promises but upon its
history. Its subsequent course has been such
us to strengthen the claims which it then
made to the confidence and support of
the country. On the other hand, con-
| slderatiOns moro urgent than have ever
| before existed forbid the accession Of
| its opponents to power. Their success, If
success attends them, must chiefly come
from the united support of that section which
sought the forciblc disruption of the union,
and which, according 10 all the teachings of
our past history, will demand the asceudancy
of party to whose triumph it will have
made by far the largest contribution.
There is the gravcst question for apprehen-
sou that exorbitant claims upon the pub.
lie treasury. by no means limited to the
hundreds of millions already covered by
bills introduced in congress within the past
four years, would be successfully urged if the
! democratic party should succeed in supple
| menting its present control of national legis
lation by electing the executive also There
is danger in intrusting control OF the wholC
law-making power OF government to party
| which has in almost every southern state re
, pudated obligations quite as sacred as those
to which the faith Of the nation now stands
pledged.
This shows clearly that the extract wa
! cunningly disconnected from its contex
and has been used, whether purposely o
c not, to mslead the popular mind and d,
+ rank injustice TO General ARTHUR. 1t i
followed with the distinct allegation tina
O he has made "a wild statement in regarC
I to " the reputation of state obligations" o
n financial character, when in truth
made no reference whatever TO that elias
|, of obligations, but referred solely TO tn
political obligations that had been violate,
. in an attempt to forcibly disrupt the unio
and TO push exorbtant claims upon til
= public treasury.
= Its scarcely tolerablein professedly nor
: partisan journal TO indulge such distorte
statements in regard to any candidate fC
office, be he republican or democra
Indeed, up to this time we have not di
- covered in the most bitter democratic az
"a vocate SO wide departure from truth an
~ fairness as this assault upon Gener
- ARTHUR involves.
=, And here we desire to say that at SON
> future time we shall present facts and fig
ures which will show that had Gener
. ARTHUR referred to the Reputation by IL
: south of their pecuniary obligations
: which he clearly did not-he would hay
!. been fully justified in so doing,