The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-07-01


The debasing effect kof party spirit
never betrays itself so shamelessly as in
the vote of General Malone with the
Republican majority of the Senate to
refer the bill for removing the disabili-
ties OF Dr. Tehbs to the judiciary Com
mittee, which disposes of the subject for
the present session at least BY the
vote of Malone the question was
decided against the ex-page of
the, Confederatel Senate. A. news
paper correspondent in Washington re-
marks that this vote was "odd." 1t
was indescribably infamous. This ex-
Major General of the Confedracy had
raised troops and levied war against his
country. Under his orders thousands
of men were hewn down in battle. 1t
is true. enough that he has sought to
enhance his military glory at the ex-
pense of better men; but what reputa-
ton he owns was acquired in the war
for the destruction of the Union. He
entered into this rebellion in the full
ness of his manhood and the ripeness Of
his judgment. When the war was over
he enriched himself by entering into
combinations of spectators who robbed
the impoverished State of Virginia of its
railroads. rE's5t}s9 G
Relieved of his disabilities, Malone
enters the Senate of the United States
and holds the balance between parties
in the. Government against which he
had waged war for four years. Yet this
ex-Confederate Major-G General is seen
giving his casting vote in the Senate
against removing the disabilities of q
young man who desires to enter the
crime against his country was his in
fantile service as q page in the Confed-
crate Senate. When Tebbs, the little
page, was carrying harmless messages
in the Confederate Senate, Malone, the
rebel Major-Gcnerat, was sending dead
ly missiyes into the ranks of his coun-
trymen; yet the ex- Major General who
sits in the Senate, the .arbiter between
parties. with his ofenses pardoned, re-
fuses to pardon the ofenses Of the ex-
page in the same cause. What will the
grizzly veterans on both sides who faced
each other in battle say of such an actp
What viii decent men everywhere
think of it?
The conduct of the Republicans in the
Senate in raising such question was
exceedingly puerile, but the vote of
Malone with them was unspeakably
mean. The Republicans had at least q
partisan motive, though an extremely
small one, in making an issue oyer such.
case of disability as that of a poor
page. Senator Edmunds wanted to
erect a monument that there was q
right and wrong side to the rebellion,
and he pounced upon Tebbs' for that
purpose; but Malone could have had
no other motive but his innate baseness
and servility. Fealty TO his new party
ties required no such act of degradation;
but he performed it with keen satisfac-
ton because it was congenial to his
treacherous nature. BY voting against
removing the disabilities of the ex-page
! he was enabled to crafty in small way
/. his hatred OF those whose contempt he
had already earned Malone, ia his
tortuous career, has not only betrayed
his political associations, but he has
raised an issue which. if successful,
must cast an indeible stain of repudia-
ton on his State, and he has found
apologists and defenders. But for this
last act of petty meanness there can be
no apology or excuse. The, partially
of friendship must turn from its author
in disgust. = Philadelphia Record