The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1883-09-29

The Origin Of the Republican Scandals
1t is curious fact, deserving more
notice than it receives, that very large
proportion of those loud-smelling scan
dals which have made the Republican
party both odorous and odious, owe
their exposure to Republican jealousies
and quarrels. Usually it is the opposing
party that does the exposing, but in this
instance the Democrats have been
spared the trouble, their antagonists
taking it upon themselves, and display
ing the soiled linen of the family to an
astonished and Disguised public with as
much nonchalancc as if it were white as
the driyen snow and sweet as the bed of
roses. All that Democrats have had
to do has been to hold their noses, open
their eyes and make the most of the
political advantage thus gratuitously
bestowed. As far back Us 1861. when
the war had just begun, Secretary Cam
eron was suddenly invited to leave Tie
Lincoln Cabinet, for reasons MT then
specified But it soon leaked out that
the veteran Pennsylvania statesman had
been ''improving his opportunities
rather more vigorously and exclusively
than other statesmen of his party,
equally hungry for spoils. thought fair,
and thatin his greed for contracts he
had omitted to grease those who
needed greasing in order to stop
their mouths. So the Cameronian
scandal crept into the light of day,
the first in long line of such, but
considerably smaller and less infamous
than the majority of its notorious sue
cessors. The systematic stealing which
was familiar feature in military and
naval affairs from 1861 to 1865 seldom
escaped the eternal vigilance of Repub-
licans who failed to get their share, and
the woald-be thieves, unless meanwhile
silenced by a judieious application of
hush-money, FASTENED to expose the
real thieves and demand their punish
ment. And so it has been ever since.
Take the immortal whisky ring as an
illustration. If the ringsters, who were
all Republicans, of course, had not in
sisted upon making their conspiracy to
rob the Government very close cor
poration, it might have remained unre
vealed much longer than it did. But
Republican outsiders, no more honest
they could not have cash they would
have revenge, and SO gave Bristow the
! points he worked up--not as they ought
to have been, but as well as he could
with the combined forces of the ring
and Republican Administration against
him. Belknap's dealings in Indian aeen-
cies and traderships, which hustled
him out of Grants Cabinet, and
came near bringing his impeachment,
were first proclaimed by certain Repub-
Leans who wanted agencies or trader
ships for themselves or their friends
and did not get them, therefore pro-
ceeded to "get event. by denouncing
the too monopolizing Belknap. "Laun-
delet'' Williams was slaughtered in the
same way and for the same reason, and
if Robson had been as generous in his
division Of the plumber as he was i'm
pudent in acquiring it half his doings
might have gone down to posterity IN
much better shape. The ineffable in
famies of Republican reconstruction
would not have been fixed in history
half as firmly as they are if the white
and black Republican rogues in the
South had not quarrelled over the pro-
ceeds of their roguery and told on each
other. If every carpet-bagger could have
been United States Senator, Governor,
or State Treasurer, and every negro
could have had all the land and
mules he wanted, the Republican per-
formances in Southern States during
that dismal period would not be as well
and widely known as they are. And if
the Republican visiting statesmen"
and acknowledgements, who cheated the
American people out of their fairly elect
| ed President, had not been embittered by
mutual jealousy and suspicion that
browning Republican crime would not
be as clearly set forth as it is for the
| execration of future ages. If there had
been enough of the Star-route s'slush
to go round the circle of Republican
| politicians the Star-route swindle might
still be on its legs, and if Dorsey and
Brady had not been dragged into court
by disappointed Republicans we might
| never have known how Garfield obtained
| the Republican nomination, how the
$4,000, 900 Republican campaign fund
| was raised, and how the Republicans
| carried Indiana in 1850. And If Repub-
lican Malone had admitted Republican
| Dezendorf to an equal partnership in
| the distribution of Federal Offices, does
anybody suppose that Dezendorf would
have told how Republican voters were
l manufactured at the Norfolk Navy Yard,
| and how much it cost to s'repair the
| Pintap
The cases we have presented, though
not one-tenth of the whole number, are
| -, a. a. ubD.xr that u o,,,,b1soau