The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-06-21

Reckless and even malicious scan
dals are among the inevitable crea-
tions of important political cam.
paigns in every country, and in
America, with the greatest measure
of freedom Of press and speech, cam
paign scandals have little or no re-
straint beyond the natural revolt of
intelligent public sentiment against
them.
As intelligence grows among the
American voters, independence grows
with it, and as they both grow and
advance hand INLAND, they strip
mere campaign scandals Of much of
their terror and most of their power.
1t is now expected that the Republi-
can Bugle and Democratic Clarion
of Bungtown will each assert from
week to week until election day, that
the Presidential candidate Of the
other is a thief, a knave, or fool or
both and aiming at the absolute an
Inhalation of our free institutions.
Aud what the Bungtown organs say,
will be reflected with more or less
directness, in the organs of greater
pretensions to good repute; but the
intelligence and independence Of the
people, which are sustained by the
fearless and independent journals Of
the country, are now fully armed to
make the shafts of mere campaign
scandals fall harmless at the feet of
the candidates assaulted.
1t is evident that the Blaine cam
paign is certain to provoke what the
organs denominate reckless and ma
licious campaign scandals, and the
organs are certifying against them in
advance. There is one distinction,
however, between the ordinary cam
paign scandals and the scandals with
which Mr.. Blaine is threatened, that
is distinction with difference, and
with difference that is clearly Wis
ible to the public. 1t is the anoma-
lous fact in our political history, that
the accusations made against Blaine,
come not only from leading oracles
of his own party, but from the most
dignified, reputable and potential ex-
ponents Of Republican faith. 1t is
not from the Bungtown organ that
they come; it is from Harper's Week
W, from the New York Times, the
-Ecening Post, the religious hide
pendent, the Boston Herald, the Bos-
ton Adcertiser,th Springfield Repub-
lican and Others of equal character
and influence.
What effect the peculiar source of
the personal assaults upon Mr.. Blaine
will have upon the public mind, is
problem that is yet to be solved. Had
these grave assaults broken out in
the usual way and at the usual period
of a Presidential campaign, there
would be no reason to fear them as
factors in the struggle; but they come
from entirely unusual sources and at
an entirely unusual period of the
contest. They come from the most
respected Republican sources and
meet Mr.. Blaine on the very threshold
of the battle, before the public mind
has been infamed by partisan preju-
dices, and their effect upon dispas-
sionate public sentiment is as vet
unknown. They may lead to the
immediate disruption of the party or
they may prove as harmless as the
scandals which were flung upon
Garfield with equally plausible war
rant. The regulation campaign scan
dals of the past have ceased to be
dangerous weapon, except to those
who employ it; but the campaign
scandals which take the field abreast
with Blaine himself, under response
BILE leadership, are new to modern
political contests and their power is
one of the unknown quantities of the
great battle of 1SS4.-Philade1phia
Times.