Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-08-15

Ad1lCdStEt fUtEllt4HuCGI.
TUESDAY EVENING. AUG. Is, 1854.
Dsrsey's Letter.
The Philadelphia Press informs the
New York Times that Norsey's letter to
Garfield is not ian after.thought and
an impudent forgery As the Times be-
lieved." It avows that /" the letter was
written and mailed to General Gar.
field;" and reminds its contemporary
that it is dated there q few days before
the celebrated dinner at Delmonico's,
given in honor of Dorsey, at which he
was extravagantly lauded for his work
in the presence of select company of
politicians, and no less parsonage than
the present president, who was clear in
his pr0testation of the debt his party
owed to the man he was thus honoring.
But the Press finds that the letter does
not damage the fame of Garfield, be-
cause he did not follow its recommen'
dations, but did appoint MacVeagh
and James to his cabinet.
1t is true that the letter does not
seriously damage Garfeld's reputation
because it only reflects upon him in that
it was possible for such letter to be
written to him by such man. That
would of itself be a very damaging
thing to make public of any other man
who had achieved the presidency, but it
is an old story of Garfield. His fame
has been too deeply smirched by his con-
nection with other men of Dorsey's
class to make it possible to damage it
much by showing this intimacy of Dor
sey's address to him. Perchance the
answer to this letter, which Dorsey holds
in threatening reserve, may be very un-
pleasant to those who would hold in
reverence Garfield's memory, but until
it is made public they are entitled to as
sumo that it does not exist. The con-
nectiOn of Arthur and the Repub.
lican party with Dorsey is more
pertinent for consideration in the light
of the revelation of this letter
than those of the Star Route trials. 1t is
not possible to efface the fact that Dor
sey's position of power in the party, re-
vealed in the tone Of this letter, was
awarded to him at the time; that the
Delmonico dinner and the declarations
of its eaters and the connection with
it of President Arthur clearly place on
record. The editor of the Press himself
was one Of the invited guests and lent
his name to Dorsey's glorification along
with most distinguished company of
Republican politicians. They knew
Dorsey's work and met to place on
record their judgment that it had been
of the highest value to the party. 1t
was from this accorded position that
Dorsey spoke to the man he had elected
to the presidency by ways that were
charged freely not to have been honest
ways, and which few can doubt, in the
contemplation of his character as since
developed, were not honest ways.
This man, now freely denounced by
the men who then upheld him, in full
knowledge of the character of his work,
was then the director of the Republican
campaign, and still holds the position
of secretary of the Republican national
committee. A man of his kind was
needed to do the work that had to be
done to elect Garfield just as like men
had been needed and found, in the pres
ent secretary of the navy and in Robert
w. Mackey, to do the necessary dirty
work to put Hayes in Office after he had
been defeated by the people.
This letter of Dorsey damns the Re-
publican party in its revelation of the
tone in which it enabled public
thief to address the president-elect
of the United States. The men
who sustained him then may de-
sert him now. but they will IN
vain try to clear themselves or their
party from responsibility for him and
his base acts. President Arthur may
yield him to the punishment of his
crimes under the stress of a necessity
forced upon him by public knowledge
and opinion, as lie yielded Guiteau,
but he cannot escape the moral respon-
sibility for the wrongful acts which his
support, with that of others of influence
in his party, gave him the power to per.
form. Arthur is not fool he had long
been "a politician he knew the methods
which, Dorsey used to aid the Republi-
can election cause. lie exhibited
himself in public as his end0rser and
applauder with this full knowledge
and now that the public have tie same
knowledge he had he cannot prove his
innocence by turning upon the scoundrel
he lauded, associated with and used
while his rascallty was an undemon-
strated fact. Some of the Republican
politicians who sat at that Dorsey din
ner may plead the baby act in extenua-
tiOn, but Arthur is not one of
them; and quite probably Dorsey
has the documents to show it, and they
may he effective to keep him from the
penitentiary.
Public opinion is by no means we'll
settled that justice is to be allowed its free
course against Dorsey. His counsel asks
The jury whether it is possible that the
president really desires to "crush' "his
friend, his familiar, his acquaintance,
one with whom he was on terms of kind
ness and hospitality, one with whom he
had associated in political life for years,
and one for whom, about a month before