The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-06-17
penitential Politicians.

admirable. Their meekness is phenom-
email. They are reviled and they revile
not again, they are slandered, maligned.
-ridiculed and actually kicked down the
back stairs at the White House, and yet
they always come up smiling, manifest
ing spirit of forgiveness which is more
than the humility OF Uriah
sHeep.L u : Il Vii = IL
On the other hand what could be more
heartless than the treatment accorded
their half-brothers by. the Stalwart poll
ticians? Directly and indirectly. openly
and covertly. in tho Cabinet and in the
Senate, the Half breed leaders are as
sailed mercilessly. Their forbearance
and brotherly love only increase the
contempt in which they are held and
assure the 800 that their power in the
party is irresistible and the mode of
punishment entirely safe.J -aliHt- af
Not a leader of the opposition to the
SOC at Chicago escapes persecution, and
not one dares even to enter plea in be-
half of mercy. Now and then some
bold editor pipes out protest against
this wholesale slaughter and indiscrimi-
nate punishment, but he isso lonely, and
his voice is SO hollow and weak, he is him
self ashamed of it, and soon swears it
was only meant in q Pickwickian sense.
President Garfield was not buried be-
vented by the ingenuity of his oppo-
lnents; his public and private life was
assailed, he was accused of treachery
and duplicity, of a lack Of firmness, of
weakness, of cowardice. 1t was said he
betrayed Conkling; that he. stabbed
Rosecrans in the back; that he was al
ternately the tool and enemy of Blaine.
No crime or weakness which could
lower his position in the opinions of
men or lessen the esteem of the people
was omitted from the catalogue of his
shortcomings, as enumerated by the
friends of his successor.
1t is safe to say no man after his death
has ever been assailed with the devilish
malignity manifested against Garfield.
His ASSISTANTS have been utterly shame-
less and openly rewarded. 1t is chap
ter of political history altogether unique.
Nor has Blaine Jared any better ex-
cept for the fact that he still lives, and,
though he is weak and cast down,
though his former hauteur has vanished,
though his knightly plume is lowered
and he shuns a conflict, cowardice is
still the Characteristic of his opponents,
and they think perhaps the day may
come when Blaine's star may be in the
ascendant; so he is attacked with rather
more caution, though with equal deter
mination.
John Sherman is another victim
marked for slaughter. He stood in the
way of the BOG at Chicago. and he asked
Mr.. Arthur to leave the New York Gus
tom-house. He will be made to plead
forgiveness, and it will be refused. He
stands as the last remaining member of
the Administration of President Hayes,
and no means that spies or detectives
will furnish will be spared to destroy
him. ~ fif
One can not fail to admire the thor
oughness of the Stalwarts, whatever
one may think Of their objects. They
are both cruel and cautious, but they
are Just as determined and as vindictiye
as at Chicago. The same infiexible sell
fishness, the same bitter animosity, the
same intolerance shown when Robert
son was nominated, when Conkling re-
signed, when the Senatorial contest was
carried on at Albany--whichi naturally
eliminated in assassination because it
paved the way to MURDERS shown now
in the management of the party, in the
reconstruction of the Cabinet, in the
contempt manifested for Civil-Service
Reform in the Boston nominations.
This is not so remarkable as the heav-
emily peace which fills the bosoms 0. the
Half-breeds; it passes understanding.
When, in defiance of the wishes of the
New York Senators, Robertson was
made Collector, those Senators re-
signed; when Arthur appointed, in op-
position to the wishes of Senators from
Massachusetts,-a Stalwart editor Col
lector Of the Port of Boston. Havper's
Weekly .'yiews it with regret" and the
New York Post says tit Is deplorabIe, {"
but thinks the Republicans viii take it
"calmly."
OF course they will; these Half-breeds
are nothing if not calm, all except the
excitable Halstead, who threatens to
kick out of the traces and turn Ohio
over to the Democrats, not because of
the assassination or the failure of Civil
service Reform, or because Grantism is
the dominating influence at Washing
ton, but merely because of some local
measures relating to whisky and Sunday
drinking, which disturb. his ideas of
right even if they do not restrict his
personal liberty. All this calmness and
humility, this exhibition of brotherly
love, this determination to forgive
Arthur in spite of himself. must bring
comfort and consolation to those who
believe in the near approach of the
millennium. No insult, no indignity,
nothing the Administration can do will
disturb these saints of the Lord. They
are in the world but not of it. All life
seems to them but a fleeing show,
scarcely worth living. Such meekness,
such resignation was not expected.
The brave words they uttered last
spring, when Garfield was President;
their contempt for Conkling and Ar
| thur their hot in n ION ofson whov, ocooo