Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-09-27
NENDACIUUS BLAINE.

THE Republican candidate for the
Presidency is beyond doubt the most
unprincipled man who has ever asked
the suffrages of the American people
for this high Office. Garfield yielded
to temptation, but Blaine, OF his own
VOlition, marketed the power of his Off
cial position. His ohense is ranker
than that which disgraccd the great
Bacon.
Blsine's mendacity is one OF the
most painful phazes of his corrupt
nature. He affects the open hearted
chivalry of knight errant, but while
he pretends to "throw his lance full
and fair" he is an underhand trickster
and covers his yenality with bold
falsehoods.
This manner of acting has been APP
parent in all of his conduct concerning
the charges brought against him.
When asked in Congress If the letters
he read were all that he had written in
that connection he replied, every
scrap and scrimptOm, as the children
say" At the same time he denied
that he had ever had any transactions
with Tom Scott. The letters that have
recently been produced and their con-
tents prove the falsity of both these
assertions The letter he wished Mr..
Fisher to sign as certificate of char
acter for. him was the perfection of
mendacity and very Characteristic of
Blaine.
The scandal concerning Blaine's
early life that has crept into the cam
paign is, as we have before remarked,
to be regretted by all decent people.
But Blame himself is most at fault for
the prominence it has assumed, and
his conduct concerning it has accorded
with the estimate of his character we
have expressed above.
His letter to Phelps was meant to
throw on the matter the coloring of
injured innocence and to make the
appeal for sympathy which could not
have been done in the answer to the
interrOgatories. The interrogatories
had TO be answered. There was no es-
Gaping them. Silence in that regard
would have been Blaine's political
doom.
But what an answerl Is there q
man in the United States of ordinary
intelligence who will not recognize it
as the thinnest of falsehoods! Is it
not virtual admission of the guilt he
deniesS
The crime of seduction charged on
Blaine might not of itself have affected
his chances for the Presidency. In
the light OF his subsequent life 1t
should not have done SO. But who
can feel anything but disgust at the
manner in which he has met the
chargeH
He has retired from the dramatic
bOldness with which he instituted the
suit for SANDER and brought the
good name of his wife and family be-
fore the public and comes out with u
dime novel story Of his early romance,
and fawning appeals for sympathy.
1t is thought to be strange that a
man of Blaine's native shrewdness
should try to dodge behind such thin
invention. The truth is, twas the
only way out of the strait into which
he had fallen. 1t is, in fact, a cunning
fabrication. II all the people in Ken
lucky swear that there were improper
relations between Blaine and his wife
before their legal union, he has only |
to allege that they were misguided by
their ignorance of his secret marriage. |
Blaine is a bold, bad man, a crafty |
thief and a cunning liar. 1t will dis
grace the Nation if he is elected Pres
ident.