New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-03-14


and we doubt not that if he could have fore
seen what was to happen he would nave
avoided them.
The Administration is peculiarly unfortunate
in its inheritance of the support or certain
newspapers which were not only conspicuous
in their thick-and-th support OF Mr.. Conkilhg
against the Garfield Administration, but were
Extensively hostile to President Garfield ana
constantly disgusting the public by the mde-
cency and brutality of their assaults upon
his personal character. This inheritance,
made more embarrassing by the monop-
oily which they claim of representing au-
thOritatively President Arthur and his ADMIN
istraton, is liable to become absolutely dlSas-
trous through the egregious plumbers for when
they are trying to make the Administration
responsible. What, for instance, could be
more nsanely foolish as well as wickedly
cruel and brutal than the attempt which they
all seem to be engaged in ut present TO
blacken the character and defame the memory
of the man over whose suffering sick bed the
Nation hung with fearful sympathy so long, and
at whose open grave hardly six months ago the
whole people bent in the agony of Il common be-
reavement and a universal grief What posi-
bic purpose is there to be answered by TINS
outbreak of malevOlcnce Apparently none
whatever except to Justify the action OF the
men who not quite a year ago began inc
causcless war against an Administration of
their own choosing upon the preteXt that they
were not awarded all they desired in the dis
tribu.ion of the Offices. Could there be greater
folly? Is it not plain enough that of all things
In the world the most to be desired is that that
quarrel, the circumstances that led to 1t, the
conditions under which it went on the tragic
consequences, the salient features, in fine, oil
the whole transaction, should be permitted to
fade from memory at least that the recollec-
ton of them should not be deliberately kept
alive and the embers Of the fatal faction quar-
rel famed
But these men will not be content to let the
world forget to let the dead have rest TO
leave the public have a little peace. They lack
the sense to appreciate the situation or compre-
hend public sentiment. The success of Presi-
dent Arthur's Administration and his renomi-
nation, if he desires it, in 1884, depend not on
the COnkling fight being remembered and
COnklng himself being indicated against the
memory of the dead Garfield, but upon the
quarrel being forgotten upon that factlonal Is
sue disappearing; upon President Arthurs
ability to smooth over the rough places which
his own friends have made, and establish har-
mony in the party. The sole argument that we
have yet heard in justification of the late nomi-
nation of Mr.. COnklng to the Supreme Court
Bench was that it would take that gentleman
out of active politics, be a full discharge Of the
Presidents obligations to him, whatever they
were and by eliminating his implacable temper
and arrogant, oyerbearing manners from the
political situation, clear the way for the estab
lishment Of harmony and peace in the party.
IL is not impossible that this may have been
the Presidents purpose If it was, il does some
thing to redeem an appointment which seems to
lis otherwise inexcusable. 1t shows al least a
desire on the Presidents part to remove the
causes which have so long disturbed the har-
nony of the party. But if this were his object
the strange conduct of some Of the newspapers
which are most ollicious and offensive in their
efforts to be considered his organs and mouth
pieces goes far to defeat it. For they are TAX
ing precisely the opposite course in their at
tempts to keep alive the memory of the events
which preceded President GariicldS murder and
their foolish and wicked assaults upon the name
and fame of the dead President. The wonder
is that these men can be so blinded by their own
spite and malice as not to see that they are
iniurng their own cause. 1t is almost incOn-
ceivable that persons possessed of ordinary in
telligencc can be guilty Of such incilable per
versity and folly.