The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1882-07-14
JUST THE SITUATION.
Some Facts that Commend Them
selves to Alliance Members.

Germ. anu as we nave beioIc Te-
marked, there is but single paper in
this District that is in avowed Oppo.
sition to Gov. Wakefield's candidacy |
for Congress, and that paper is the
Mankato Rerieac. The Rerie@ pur.
ports To he Il Democratic organ. and
those who peruse its columns weekly,
readily conceive and unanimously
concede that it Is endowed with all
the attributes necessary to do the
small and dirty work for the party;
has no regard for truth. unless indeed
1t may be to evade it in every pos
sible instance; has no respect for CON-
mon propriety; consistency is a
stranger to it's management. and
nothing seems too small nor con-
tcmptible for its editor to dSbble in
where he can hope to gain through
the coniiding and unsuspecting public,
by his despotic hypocrisy.
No one will dispute the right of
any man or set of men to oppose Il
candidate; but where the opposition
is brought out through misrepresen-
tation, insinuation and malice afore-
thought. it is cowardly in those who
will resort to the employment of such
means and dishonorable to the cause
they champion.
1t is not necessary to call attention
to the past political course of the
Reciew. Its record is already too well
known by the thinking, reading pub
lie, rs being vacillating and unreliable.
by this we mean, that it has not in
the past echoed the true sentiments
of the opposition party; it has belied
it in every possible way; it has mis-.
reported facts; in short il has belittled
itself in numerous ways, beside in
dieting upon its readers trashy non.
sense too silly even to be worthy il
passing notice. The past character
OF the paper gives rich evidence that
nothing short of perpetual wallow-
ing in the mire will satisfy the greed
of its editor, hence the frequent vague
insinuations cast against Mr.. Wake.
field, and the frequent assertions that
he is not the choice of the people.
We have several times exposed to
public view the absurdity in argu-
ment, or rather the want ofargument
or uniformity in Mr.. Wise's diScor-
dant statements. and he has yet to
successfully and truthfully contradict
our assertions. We have proven him
u falsitier 10y his own writings which
he cannot deny. We have shown him
to he unprincipled in his political lc-
tions, and he has shown himself Il
coward by adhesively clinging to that
which he knew to be false. And yet
in the face of this shameful record he
persists in still further lowering him.
self in the scale of human: estimation
by disingeuuOus and acrimonious
illusions to Mr.. Wakefield and the
men who nominated him.
so far as Mr.. Wakefield is con-
cerned, he is far above the reach of
such owbred calumny as flows from
the corroded pen of an unprincipled
demagogue.such as the ReCie,r editor.
and the Republicans of The Second
District who had the honor of placing
him in nomination us representative
are quite willing to abide the voice
of the people 1T the polls.
But there is one thing that we de-
sire to bring to the attention OF the
Alliance members, that they may
gain an insight into, and guard
against, the intrigues of the Recieo
Z. man who is Ostensibly their friend
but in reality only Il "wolf in sheep
+ clothing 1t is acknowledged on all
, sides and 10y the Republicans every.
where throughout the District, to
I gether with large number of DEM
| ocrats who have openly avowed their
, intentions of supporting him, that
Mr.. Wakefield is in every sense an
, acceptable candidate. We have
personally and frequently since the
nomination, had interviews with IA
majority of the leading Alliance men,
bcrs Of Blue Earth county, and have
. yet to find the man who is not openly
and ardently a supporter of Mr..
Wakefield. He stands upon plat
, form that even the Reriew, withal its
self-importance and dogmatism, dare
not gainsay, and the Alliance, teach.
ing as it does. the election of men
identified with the farmers interests,
recognizes the gratifying fact that the
Republican nominee is all that could
be asked for.
The Reeie,o. however, pretends. rs it
is merely pretention or an unmitiga-
ted prevaricatiOn, that the Alliance
is hostile to Mr.. Wakefield. Read
the imposition cast upon the Alliance
and the Republican party by this man
Wise:
The pretended anti-monopoly platform
adopted by the Republican congressional con
attracting TO Mr.. Wakefield the support of
the farmers alliance-but that element il not
only hostile IT, him, but determined to put an
opposing candidate In the field, and to do II
convention of alliances and oranges has been
called for the 10th of July, at this city, To
slider the ACCESSIBILITY Of nominating farm
ers candidate. From the approval already
| given this movement, il Is quite certain that
| by the time tho canvass Is fairly opened the
alliances will have candidate in the field,
who will receive surprisingly large vote
this fall.
Only couple of weeks since the
Reoteso, in speaking of the Republican
Congressional Convention, said that
it was, "as a whole, a very creditable
representative body. The delegates
were mostly young, active and intelli-
gent gentlemen, and yet. by the
above extract, we see this same edi-
tor insult the intelligence of these
gentlemen by hurting the epithet of
"pretenders" back into their teeth.
Webster defines pretend "to hold out
falsely; to offer, AS something untrue
or unreal; to show hypocritically or
for the purpose of deceiving." This
is in substance what Mr.. Wise now
claims constituted the Republican
| Convention. Oh. consistency where