New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-08-31

pretence that this was unauthorized, and so In
| some unlmpOrtant points inaccurate, the second
instalment which did nothing but repeat the
rawlings of the first, was put upon the market.
Neither Of them has disturbed In the least the
tranquil surface of affairs. Except the dis
turbanee in MIR. Dorsey's own mind and the
manifest disappointment Of our Democratic
friends, nothing has come of it all.
And SO our Democratic friends hide their
| chagrin under the insinuation that Mr. Dorsey's
arevelationsn are SO damaging and so unau-
swerable that the only Republican refuge Is
silence. Not so, dear friends. The. I" revela-
tionsn are damaging, to be sure, but they oriy
damage the person they reveal, and that person
is Mr. Dorsey himself. His moral and intel
lectual proportions had before been hrnned
with much distinctness upon large canvas ny
the disclosures made in the long trial In when
he occupied the position OF chief criminal. vi
his own vOlitlon he now stepped forth from the
canvas and posed under the sunlight OF DIS
own arcvelations.n And it is because the pub
lie knows Mr.. Dorsey himself by his Own con-
fession that it takes so little interest in what
he says and writes We are sorry, OF course,
that our Democratic friends are nettled by this
neglect, but really how could it be otherwisef
Have they considered how much it involves
TO take any account whatever of Dorsey's state
mentsf In the first place, they must remem-
Der that to give him any standing as credible
witness we must discredit their own ott-re-
peated charges against him as rascal, perJurer
and thief, and must abstract from the Demo-
cratic treasury all the political capital upon
which they counted in charging the Republican
party with the responsibility for his alleged
fraudulent transactions. Mr.. Dorsey is one,
indeed we may say chief, of the Arascals who,
The DAILY Parrot and its echoes say, must be
turned Out": on account OF whose rascalites
they say 1the Republican party must CO." But
IL he is q truthful man--aud he must he man
OF the highest character fOr veracity to have
his stories believed duplicating In dishonoraole
transactions men whose character has hitherto
been unassailed-then the clam0r against him
as rascal " has beeL groundless, and the cry
against the Republican party OH his account
without justice or reason.
Ii must be remembered that the essential
part of their arraignmeut OF tho Republican
party is based upon their assertion OF the base
ness and untrustwOrthiness Of Dorsey and tie
party's responsibility for him. Having be-
smlrched his reputation and impaired his
credibility as witness, they lead him out to
testify against the Republicans, forgetting that
the very fact of his so testifying disproyes ut
trrly their own charge that the Republicans
were responsible for and defended him, and
clears the party's skirts of all participation in
or responsibility for his alleged crimes. And
they usk us to believe this witness, whose We
racity they themselves impeached before putting
him on the stand when he charges that men in
high place in the Nation, who have been re-
spected, bonnIed and coDfded in, trusted and
loved by the people, were in n conspiracy In
1880 to defeat the popular will ny widespread
system of bribery and corruption, and that he
being the active instrument and chief executive
knows all the details and is NOW disclosing the
secret history OF the plot We are required to
believe that eminent citizens procured Official
position by open purchase, and that by the
connIyance aud consent of scores of men OF
pure lives and high character against whom the
breath of suspicion had never blown, the
Republican campaign Of 1880 was a shameless
political debauch begun in treachery and deceit
and carried on in fraud, corruption and bribery.
Il would not be easy to believe these things at
the mouth Of an unimpeachable witness of the
highest character. IL he were merely an nc
complete turned States evidence it would be ex-
ceedingiy difficult. From Mr. Dorsey. i'm
peached before testifying by those who put
him on the stand, and incriminated besides by
his owh confes sion, it is simply impossible.
Our Democratic friends are asking too much
when they desire the public to give their WIT
ness any credence or to treat him as anything
other than a somewhat picturesque rasc-I.