Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1881-06-23
JOHN BHATTYON FOSTER.

Fraud, Kept AfiOat by His Cash Bal.
. anee"- Scathing Analysis Of CalicO's
MOuntebank Antics-"The Republi-
can State Platform a Sham and the
Head Of the Ticket a Fraud.'
General John Beatty, of Columbus, has
been interviewed. The General is an old
Republican member of Congress, the
leader of the Ohio Stalwarts and Conk-
ling man. The following is a portion of
the interview which we find in the En-
qltfrer:
II the Administration succeeds in kill
ing off Conkling it will be the duty of
the Stalwarts to kill off about thousand
such Half Breeds as Foster, in the way of
retaliation, and then we would lose more
in brain than they, for all of the political
frauds ever manufactured by the news
papers and kept afioat by the aid of a
good cash balance, he is the biggest. His
appointments have invariably been made
as rewards for dirty personal service. His
advisers have been blatherskites whose
political opinions are controlled by the
highest bidder. The public institutions
under his management have been no way
improved. The Legislature, under his
influence, was incapable of accomplishing
any thing in the way of reform. Its
members spent half their time cavorting
about him upon the supposition that he
would go into Garfield Cabinet, and
that he would be all-powerful in the dis
tributlon of government patronage. A
wink of his eye was, therefore, sufficient
to secure the defeat of the most whole
some measure. With him no question of
principle had influence. The supreme
motive was personal success. So the
effort was made to satisfy the tenn
perance people bv proposing temper
ance legislation, and the whiskey men
by defeating it. In short, his admins
tration has been a disgrace to the party.
It has been marked throughout by inde-
cision, duplicity and falsehood.
"Foster seems to have become crazy for
office. First, he wanted to beVice- Presi-
dent. and played double with Sherman in
the hope that he might get on the ticket
with Blaine or Washburne. Then he was
bound to be Senator, and had his strikers
travelling all over Ohio to set up the Leg
islature in his favor. Then he concluded
that he ought to go into the Cabinet and
have himself escorted to Washington by
brass band. His chief clerk was taken
from the staff of the Cincinnati CONNER
cidl, and has organized a class of buffers,
who are ready at all times, to puff him.
One day we are told Foster has been offer
ed 100000 or less, per year, to accept the
the presidency of aS4ilroad; next he was
going to Washington VI advise with Gar
! field; next he is about to accept d first
class mission; next he is going to turn
| Blaine and half a doxen others out OF
the Cabinet and reconstruct the whole
thing to suit himself. If this keeps
on Foster will in time get to be as great g
man as Baron Munchausen. | am moi
quite sure that he is not even now the
equal of that distinguished character in
point of veracity. OF course he is mucf
| bigger man than Conkling. Bickhanl sayl
so and Bickham has only about fourteen
brothers.in- law in office or looking fol
office and is therefore disinterested wit
ness. Francisco says SO and there arr
only three men connected with the Jour
nal whose mouths water for the public
teat. The fashion of the hour is to abus'
Conkling and ex-President Hayes, who's
name has for four years been the sy
nonym for political treachery and mean
ness, tumbles to it with the alacrlty OF :
ward hummer. To prove that Conkl!n!
is wrong, he introduces the testimony o
j. S. Robinson, a man who obtained hi
nomination for Congress by transferring
to Sabine the railroad commissionershiE
promising Holland the Collectors office
and by further agreeing to run a railroa
through every township of his district
Z yTyn
enough to know that he could not Ii
about small matter, and therefore prt
sented him to the public as a reliabl
witness.
81 see by the papers," said Beatty, 6
we drifted to fresh topic, "that whe
John Sherman said at the Cleveland cor
vention that there never was, and neve
would be, a boss in this country't tthe dell
gates laughed. l do not doubt it. She
man must have laughed himself (in h
sleeve) 1t was a fine stroke of iron,
Sherman has dictated all the importar
federal appointments in Ohio for the la
twenty years. His creatures are to
found every where. They do his biddin
as readily and blindly as if he owne
them body and soul. If Conkling provic
ed for his henchmen in New York, he d
precisely what Sherman has done in ON
what Blaine has done in Maine, VIII;
Garfield would have insisted upon doir
had he taken his place in the Unite
States Senate. Nobody knows this bett
than the lying scamps who attempt
curry favor with the Administration
denouncing Conlling as boss.
1.-The President, by undertaking to bo
) New York and encourage a faction, h
inaugurated a war which is as likely
l lead to his own destruction as that
Conkling, for of all bosses the preside
/ tial boss, who executes private vengean
by the use of public patronage, will
{ found the most intolerable. Whenever
boss needs to be taken down, the peoF
, themselves should be permitted to do
and they should see also that this war
7 bosses is conducted in fair and man
way. The senatorial bosses have righ
} which the presidential boss should
compelled to respect, and if the latter
a determined to fight, let him, like bra
and chiyalrous boss get down from Il
Z stone pile and meet his adversary (
equal terms. If we cannot have peace
s the Republican party, let us at least ha
fair play.
} "We are told that Conkling is arroga
and dictatorial. The same charges W
| made against Henry Clay and DAM
Webster against every leader the cou
, try has ever known. What the peop
mean by the charge was that they we
not ordinary finger mixers like Charl
Foster, but men who had convictions, al
, the manliness to stand by them. Th'
say Conkling is an autocrat. The yee
, fact that he resigned and submitted
case to the people gives the lie to tn