National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-10-11
The Attorney General and Mr.. Cor
ham.

| conVlCuon-Ncg l0rR 1ftOuneS Wdshtngton C0r-
| respondent
The Tribune correspondent in Washing
ton is a reputable journalist, and incapa-
bic of giving the foregoing words to the
public except upon good authority. He
stands sponsor for the fact that Attorney
General MacVeagh has really said to
friends, for publication, what is attributed
to him in the above extract We accept
the statement, then, as true that the At
torney-General has stated, and authorized
the statement TO go to the world
First-That Mr. Gorham desires to
ncutralze the efforts made to push on
the star-route trials to conviction;" and,
Second--That the President can be in
fuenced by Mr.. Gorham TO aid in neu-
tralizing those efforts.
l. And first as to Mr.. Gorham's desires.
He desires to put the best construction
on the acts of men, and to hold every
man TO be innocent until found to be
guilty. He knew General Brady, and
believed him an honorable man;
knew that he had been vindicated from
all charges of improper motives in the
star-route business by both Houses of
Congress; knew that in that investiga-
ton General Garfield, then member of
the House, was his friend, and thatin the
Senate Senators Blaine, Window, and
Kirkwood had defended him upon the
evidence; knew that after that investi-
cation President Hayes and Post
master-General Key continued their
confidence in him, and that his in
crease of mail contracts had been
met by appropriations voted by
Congress after full debate. Mr.. Cor
ham had been earnestly, and almost OBJ
sequiously, assured by Thomas l.. James,
stmaster-General, on the day after
Brady's resignation was demanded, that
there was in his Department nothing
whatever against him BRADY, and that
it was merely required to make room for
another. His previous good opinion of
General Brady being thus fortified by the
support Of General Garfield, Senators
Blaine, Kirkwood, and Window, both
Houses of Congress, President Hayes, and
Postmaster-General Key, and sustained
in the final hour by Postmaster General
James's positive declaration that there
was nothing in the Department against
him, it seemed strange to read in the
papers of the next day the commence
ment of the assaults with which the press
has ever since teemed. Mr.. Gorham
then and after deprecated this mode of
warfare. He advocated a judicial in
quiry He never did seek to discour-
age that If any man has offended
let him be accused in legal
manner, convicted, and punished. The
depraved and notorious characters with
whom Mr.. McVeagh surrounded himself
from March till August were not the men
upon whose word he was justified in
presuming guilt instead of innocence in
any man. The later introduction of such
men as Benjamin II. Brewster and George
III. Bliss into the Government service is
an earnest that legal proceedings are to
take the place of the trial by newspaper,
in which McVeagh and James had the
ear Of the court, witnesses being entirely
dispensed with. Since legal proceedings
commenced THE REPUBLICAN, has made no
comments, except to approve the trans
fer of the matter from the newspapers to
the courts, the sneaking innuendoes ofMr.
McVeagh and his scribblers to the con-
trary Notwithstanding.
III. And now as to Mr.. MacVeagh's base
and utterly unfounded calumny. In
whole and in part, in letter and
in spirit, in assertion and in in
nuendo, by what is said and what
is meanly sought to be conveyed,
the thing which the Tribune says Mr..
MacVeagh tells his friends is false to the
core. No person connected with the
President socially or officially, much
less the President himself, has
ever heard word from Mr..
Gorham, directly or indirectly, con-
: corning the star-route cases. He has no
wish concerning them except that the
law shall take its course, reach where
and whom it may. He is as incapable of
expressing wish on such subject to
= the President as the latter would be of
hearing it. IfMr. MacVeagh's training
leads him to consider such business q
proper subject upon which to attempt
Influence with the President, it is for
: tunate for the country that he is eager to
run away from the wreck he has made
OF the Department of Justice. If he has
been taught better, then his insult to the
! President is coarse and intentional.
His spokesman in the Tribune further
says:
Mr.. Gorhnm's candidacy for the secretaryship Is
an embarrassment TO the Republicans Some of
the Senators who are nearest to the President are
still advocating his election, but he has atterly
been so conspicuous as a defender Of General
Brady and the other alleged star-route consplra-
tors. and as an assailant of their prosecutors in
General Garfeld's Cabinet that there is consider
able opposition, and II Is quite certain he cannot
. be elected That he should be pressed by the in
innate friends Of tho President Is interpreted in
some quarters as u rebuke to the men who have
been pushing on the star. route Investigations.
, This explains all. THE REPUBLICAN
has denounced the Attorney-General for
, prosecuting General Brady in the neDrS'
popas for sic months bgore taking single
step IN court, For this he is angry and
) seeks revenge. Mr.. Gorham is the nomi-
nee of the Republican caucus for Secre-
tary of the Senate, and Mr.. MacVeagh, in
childish spite, falsely assails him rs dc.
fender of "star-route conspirators." II
was infamous in two Cabinet officers to
surround themselves with such char.
acters and, studously avoiding the
courts, TO create hell Of news
. paper abuse in which TO immediate