The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-07-05
A NEEDED ~PURIFICATION.

Inc negOLlatlOnS tnaG HdNc ucch
. at Albany to get at the bottom facts in regard
, to the charges of bribery preferred against
l Senator Sessions and others, reveal the des-
perate means by which desperate men en-
l deavor to gain their ends. With unblushing
effrontery the witnesses before the bribery
committee talk of the bribery business as cool-
ly and unconcernedly as they would about a
horse trade or of the buying of a few hogs.
1t appears to be something Of which the re-
publican members have been cognizant all
alCI 8 and from their testimony i, would seem
they consider the buying and selling of a few
votes as a Legitimate business and should in
cite no particular comment or feeling. The
time is not so far removed in the past that we
can not all remember when the mere whisper
of bribery in connection with . senatorial
election was enough to defeat the candidate
against whom it was charged. But it does
not seem to have that effect in the case in
question. Notwithstanding Depew's friends
are seriously compromised in the whole bust
ness, that gentleman holds his vote at the
hallottincs. This has caused some surprise.
''Gath," the Washington correspondent of a
Cincinnati paper, says "the reason why the
disclosure of Bradley had no effect upon
Depcw's vote at Albany is that everybody
knew that such things were going on and that
the only men who are concerned in the de-
velopnlents are those that are implicated"
Gath may be rather harsh in his judgment,
but the evidences of frauds, swindlings and
briberles, in high places, which have recently
come to light, would indicate that he is hear
er the truth than the wrong.
1t would be manifestly unjust to charge
that the whole republican patty is corrupt.
1t would be hardly proper to say that all its
leaders are unreliable and dishonest, but
With the facts before them the people are
justified in believing that there are too many
of its representative men, too many who are
occupying high official stations, who are cor
rupt beyond measure, and whose corrupt prac-
tices are so we'll known that the republican
party must suffer by their presence within its
ranks. We are told the party is attempting
TO purify itself. We have heard that before.
We hear it Immediately after every election
but never before. We find the saints and the
sinners Of the party cheek by jowl at the
ballot box. We don't hear of any of the
rascals being kicked out of 1t for their thiev-
ing operations. They may be snubbed or
meet with a rebuff occasionally, but their
services are too valuable to permit them
to wander off with the army of
independent scratchers. Their little pecula-
tinp, opa epo, rprrotso,, a,l t1nr l,,o,,,
''hail fellows well metz before the next cleo
ton comes of. Such has been the history of
the thieves and swindlers of the party, and
such it will be until the people rise UP and
crush the party that breeds and fosters them.
Our innocent, %credulous neighbor, the In
ter Mountain, says: ''The administration at
Washington is now engaged in hunting down
and bringing to justice public plund erers, and
purify the party "Hunting down and
bringing to justice public plunderers' appear
to be a favorite amusement with republican
administrations. Grants administration in
dulged in the "hunting down bust
ness, but always managed to stop in the
pursuit of the rascals just short of the
prison doors. Hayes adopted the same plan
with eminent success and Garfield will not
likely deviate from it. In fact it is boldly
charged that Garfield is too deeply compro-
missed in the Albany embroglio for his own
good. If so he will stop hunting rascals
"Purifying the party" Does the Inter Noun
tain realize the extent Of the contract the adj
ministration has taken? And has
rpr nnpta,pporarv corroctIv asfifn ata6 tho Siza
of the republican party after it has gone
through the purifying process and the corrup-
ton removed from it? We think not. We
imagine that when the operation of purihca-
cation shall be performed the party will be of
the opinion of the surgeon who after removing
an eighty pound tulnor from a very slightly
formed and fragile patient declared it was
impossible for him to determine whether he
had removed that tumor from the patient or
the patient from the tumor.
The remedy for its ills would kill the par
ty. 1t would SO nearly evenly divide it that
accomplishment of either good or evil, and as
the evils that it has entailed upon the people
far exceed the blessings conferred upon them,
we think the knife cannot be applied too soon
and the corruption removed. In view of the
swindling that has been going on in the Post
Office Department, in the Treasury Depart
ment. in the scores of ,ings which had their
birth in the other departments, and In view
of the recent cases of bribery, in which some
of the shining lights in the republican party
are implicated, it is high time for this much
needed publication to be commenced and
continued, though it leaves it in the same
condition that the patient was in after the ex'
cision of the huge tumor. We join the Int,
Mountain in Xishing the administration WIod