The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-18
Rev. MIR. Balls Letter.

Rev. james FTeemsn Clarke:
Dear Sir Your speech in Trenton Temple,
October l. perplexeS Your easy faith in
Mr. Cleveland and severe judgment against Mr..
Blaine both surprising. Since the days Of
the old Liberty party nave found myself in ae-
cord with your lines of thought and action till
now, but from your present attitude | am COM
PEELED to most decidedly dlssent. Your methods
of inquiry for facts and your processes of rea-
soning unlike you, and, allow to suggest,
unworthy of you You have sought facts where
they were least likely TO be found, and ignored
sources where they should have been sought
You visited Albany and asked the accused if he
bad man, aud believed him when he told
you that he had not done anything for eight or
ten years to disgrace himself that he had been
brought to a much higher plane, and you as
sert, II dout believe there Is any reason to
doubt that he will always continue on that
plane" But you did not inquire Of ministers
lawyers and physicians in Buffalo, who charge
him with gross immoralities, not eight or ten
years" old, but as recent as 1884, and profess to
have ample proof of their allegations. 1t is
strange that you did not come on to Buffalo,
when you were so near, and lo,.cn from us here
about the case
You trust the conclusion of Rev. DR.. Twining
who made a flying visit to Buffalo and spent
lew days here in q frame Of mind that led him
TO believe whatever Mr.. Cevelands special de-
tenders told him, and nothing that clergymen
lawyers and business men, who had motive
10 misrepresent, told him. You also seemed to
forget the significant fact that the Independent
which Mr.. Twining represented, had no conf
ience in his report, but on evidence from more
reliable sources, denounced Cleveland as de-
oauchee, too vile to be endured. though it had
before eulogized him as model of excellence
You forget, also, that all the other religious pa
pers in New York on the same evidence recalled
their Endorsements of mis- character, and counted
lim moral leper."
You rely upon second hand opinion of Hon.
p. Carlton Sprague, that 'no one need be de
5erred from voting for Mr.. Cleveland by any
moral considerations Mr. Sprague is an able
and excellent man, who goes home when his
laily work is done and knows next TO nothing
about the habits of men given to deeds OF dark
ness" and he does not pretend to know whether
Cleveland is a libertne or not
The opinion of Bishop Huntington also
nredicated on ignorance. 1t may be that anothe.
INVITATION to speak would elicit from him diff
'erent view Of the Governors character There
IRE many ablean good men who are ignorant
If Cleveland's vices and find it hard to believe
aim vile, but you are too clear-sghted to
iudge man innocent when reliable men bear
witness so his guilt, merely because men are
ound who do not know anything about his of
ienses.
But "a committee of sixteen gentlemen of
buffalo appointed to search this matter TO
the bottom, and the substance of this report as
.iven by them that he is an upright man,
eading pure life and it is absolutely impossI-
lie that such charges can be true" Who ap-
1ointed the young men who composed the com
nittee of sixteenl No one. Who did they rep
No HnRyi ic hair f1tatY.a 1a1
by sensible people in Buffalo! As striking ex-
.mple of verdancy recklessness and impudenee
t was advertised over tho land that more than
100 names would be subscribed to their docu-
nent, including several clergymen, but only
sixteen obscure men, mostly young lawyers ap
reared How much is their abundant asser-
ion worth against positive proof} They
9re bold to declare that two clergymen
acre "have ventured to state as facts,
;nown to Themselves stories which Test upon
The merest hesrsay." Did you not owe it to
Yourself and to the public to whom you spoke to
inquire of those clergymen whether this severe
litigation is truel Abundant proof of its utter
faseness has been before the public for weeks,
and was certainly within your reach The voice
! Of more than thirty of the clergymen of Buffalo,
in formal statement, rebukes the slanderous as
sertion of those young lawyers. They have not
relied upon hearssy at all on their statements,
but upon verified facts attested by witnesses
personally cognzant of what they state.
Here is an extract from letter prepared and
dpprONsu U! H IdlSc VI Nuo lDuhe.!o hlLu-
sters that is being sent out over their respect
| i've signatures:
Evidence has been laid before which fairly and,
we believe unausweraby, imIeacbes not only the
past but also the recent morality OF Mr. Cleve
| and as respects both temperance and chastity We
willingly excuse ourselves from the unpleasant task
of entering into details which. however in
possession and not vague rumor, but In the
| form of positive and circumstsntsl statements BY
Witnesses cognizaut of that to Which they testify
! will give yo, two or three cases A respecta-
| bic and truthful woman occupies with her hus-
| band apartments in "A business block. On the
| 1oor hove her has for several years resided a
! loud woman" Mr. Cleveland has been aceus-
J toned 70 yis,' that woman down 10 u recent,