The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-03-16
GARFIELD AND RosECRANs.

NC ioto ECsidCut OdIHcIu anu 6eucI4i
now congressman Rosecrans in the aF-
ny of the Cumberland is unfortunate.
Is continuance can do no good, and we
hope il will be buried in the grave of
We were glad to read ia a
telegram from Washington Tuesday
hat General Rosecrans had determined
neither to write nor say anything more
nbout the trouble. II he adheres to this
determination, he will pursue the course
which will commend itself to all sensi-
bic. people, and TO those Of all parties
who do not wish 10 have the grave
for food 20 feed what /
ever demand there may be for the
qualification ut morbid desire |
for sensation. Whatever effort may be |
made out of this trouble TO affect the |
political affairs OF the country, and eS-
pecially to divide the Republican party,
we are satisfied will entirely fail, as We
cannot believe General Rosecrans viii
lend himself TO such . cause.
The most disgraceful feature of
the controversy 50 far is furnished in
the letter of Justice" to the Washington
Post, and is given in the associated press
report Of the 18th. The public de-
nounces It's utteranees not only rs in.
famous, but VIGOROUSLY false. Gar.
fields life needs no defense from the at
tacks Of such vile slanderers as "Jus-
tice." We shall refuse to believe that this
letter emanated from Chauncey I. FIlley,
OF st. Louis, IS Is stated, until the proof
Ii furnished. Certainly Mr.. Filley could
not falsify his reputation for
many years, as one Of the leading
men Of Missouri, by such an exhibition
Of Ignorance, hatred and malice as Is dis
played In this letter. If he is its author
he will be consigned to that oblivion
from which he will never emerge As q pO-
litical factor, and from whence his name
will not again offend those who love
decency even in the political walks Of
life.
As TO the Chase letter We must say we
can see nothing in It but the spirit of
friendly criticism upon the action of
General Rosecrans. 1t was written as q
confidential letter to friend. Garfield
was then but about thirty years old,
and his soul was full Of the love OF his
country, and the enthusiasm which
characterized so many of the successful
young volunteers OF the union army.
He could not understand the more con-
servatIYe ways of the older regular army
officers, and this letter simply told the
feelings Of heart impatient for action.
The letter breathes nothing of the treach-
cry to the superior Officer which is charg-
ed. 1t is full ofexpressiOns Of loyalty,
love and appreciation Of the good
qualities of ROsecr4ns. In fact, Gar
fields history shows that he was
incapable of harboring jealousy
or malice toward anyone. His great
good heart was bound up in desire for
the success of our army, and this letter
is nothing more than an expression OF
that desire, IN a confidential way, to an
old and valued friend.
The following, from the New York
Mail and Express, reflects so aptly
our views on this whole matter that we
copy It:
The campaign OF calumny against
Garfield goes on as vigorously rs when
respectable politicians and journals af-
fected to believe in the genuineness OF
the Morey forgery. Though dead, Gar
field yet speaks. His countrymen cher
ish the memory Of his great achieve
ments and good deeds. And his hold
on the hearts of the people is what makes
1t necessary for those who fought and
slandered him living, to pursue and
vIllify him dead. The last phase Of
this graveyard campaigning is the
meanest and most contemptible. A
confidential letter written by Garfield in
the army, on the 9th day of July, 1868,
to Secretary Chase, is first published,
without any comment As well as We
thought we knew Garfield, this letter,
written with the most evident unre-
serve and with free pen, raises our
| opinion of his ability as q military critic
and thinker. Briefly and vigorously it
| outlines the situation confronted by the
army Of the Cumberland and shows the
need of greater executive energy and
promptness in its commander. There
| probably was. not an intelligent ana
OuAINDS OAllCA Vi AoAA a. VIC Va
the Cumberland, at that time, who did
not feel that "Old Rosy" was too slow,
however much attached to him they
might have been.
There is nothing in the letter, or in
the circumstances under which II was
written, which requires the slightest de-
fence at the hands of any friend of Gar
field. If the letters received by Lin
coin and his cabinet from prominent
officers, during the war, about their su-
perior officers, were printed, it would
be found that the best of these letters,
and the most creditable, were those in
which affection or admiration for su-
perior was subordinated to an earnest
desire for the success of the cause.
or course, on the publication of Gar
fields letter, Geberal Rosecrans was
brought in TO play his part in the grave
yard campaign, by interviewing him as
TO Garfield's statements. OF course,
Rosecrans insisted that he was not slow,
and that everything he did, as command
er of the army OF the Cumberland, was
all right and above criticism. He has
always done this, and always will. as
long as he lives, and we don't particu-
larly blame him for 1t. If we should
take their own statements as final, all of
our generals were models of prOmptness,
failed and were superseded.
But it is not likely to profit Rosecrans
much to get into One-sided controversy
with dead man who can't talk back.
Especially is IL imprudent for him to
furnish such letter from Garfield as he
has given to the Herald, dated Washing
ton, June 10, 1880, in which the follow
ing expressions occur:
alt lie true that / was an occasional
correspondent of Secretary Chase. Sew
eral times, while / was your chief of
staif, he wrote me in regard to the pro-
gress of the war and asked my opinions
on various questions connected with it,
but / fearlessly challenge all the rascals
in the world to publish any such letters
written by me. They are welcome TO
all the capital they can make out of
them"
Garfield's confidence was well be-
slowed. The letter that is paraded as
though it was Il terrible disclosure of
treachery Is q fresh revelation of the
glowing patriotism, the military genius
and the eagerness for action of the Gar
field Of 1868. Nobody but jackal
would scent any foulness or treacherY In
this manly and vigorous epistle. Do
the people who are carrying on this
campaign of calumny on Garfield think
that the American people are idiots or
asses, or are they simply trying to d.
vide the Republican party into two hos
tile camps, with Office holders and
non- office-seekers in one and the ma
chine politicians and officials IN the
other?
H0WD Avn oVW WE'D