Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-03-22
Aarlrastcr ftltelltee1lrer.
TUESDAY EVENING. MARCH a.. 1881.


TUESDAY EVENING. MARCH "a, 1881.
4 Ruined Csts.Paw.
Mr.. Speaker Hewitt has only been VIM
dicated by a committee of the House
from a charge of partisanship and un-
fairness in referring bills to committees,
when he embraces the opportunity to
that the charges were proba-
bly, true and the vindication undeserved.
The original accusation against him
fades into insigni6cance beside the de-
monstrated infamy Of his abuse of his
power as speaker of the House. That
the man is knave is too clearly ex-
hibited to be doubted, unless he be
fool. One would say that a man of fair
intelligence, who honestly complained of a
newspaper that it had falsely charged him
with sending to unfriendly committees
measures of legislation to which he was
opposed and to friendly commit
tees those which he favored, would
be exceedingly careful afterward
that his rulings as speaker should
BE- fair. It is a reasonable conclusion,
now that Mr.. Speaker Hewitt has in
dulged himself in an abuse Of power
which ought to bring the blush of shame
to a brazen man, that he was not honest
in his complaint against the Pittsburgh
correspondent. He seems to have in
CURED debt to a certain element in the
House which secured for him its prompt
vindication and that debt he appears
to have been in haste to pay off. Hehas
set himself to help the ring element
which seeks to secure the defeat Of the
repeal of the recorders bill. He appears
to the public as the unscrupulous SER
want of these men. They were the men
who expelled the Pittsburgh correspond
ent. We said on that occasion that the
expulsion was just if the charges were
false. Since the House decreed the ex-
pulsion we were disposed to believe chat
it decided justly. We can believe SO no
longer. A man who could conduct him
self in the speakers chair as Hewitt did
last night is capable of any criminality as
speaker. He is absolutely contemplate /;
not only for his unfairness, but because
he should be so densely stupid as not to
see how injurious it was to himself.
Who despises any man more than he who
shows himself always ready to do other
peoples dirty work l.? What has Mr..
Hewitt in the recorders bill, that has led
him to sacrifice the esteem of the people
of the state and to demolish every polit-
ical prospect he ever had !? Docs he know
no better way to help himself than to
help Mr.. Quay? Can he not see that
Mr.. Quay isjust the last man in the state
that it is healthy for an aspiring polit!.
clan to be seen in company with ? Does
he not know that marked by the people
and deserted by his allies he is bound to
he driven from the robbers cave that
the recorders bill gave him? Cannot
Speaker Hewitt see the handwriting
plainly written on the wall 1t seems
not. He is an ass, besides being a scamp
Probably these words are harsher than
any the Pittsburgh papers used. Yet
they have the merit of being true. We
feared that he demonstrated it when he
drove correspondent out of the House
for saying what the Allegheny delegation
stood by him in affirming and when that
correspondent was received into the Sen.
ate. Sustained by the Senate and the
Allegheny representatives it seemed that
DIR. Palmer, the correspondent, was bet
ter supported than Mr.. Speaker Hewitt
with the approval of a packed committee
and the Philadelphia delegation. The
suspicion is confirmed by the late devel-
opments. Mr.. Hewitt can only do one
comfortable thing, or perhaps two-first
to resign and second to die. He is OF
no use to the state, or to himself, or even
to Quay. Such an exhibition as he has
made of his willingness to abuse his
trust makes him forever unavailable fol
the use OF any person or party seeking
the suffrages of the people.