Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-02-08
HOW GREAT MINDS DIFFER.

Some one has said that great minds
run III the same channel. But here
is an important exception to the rule.
Ii is afforded ia the editors of the st.
Paul Pioneer rrcss and the GAINESVILLE
Gazette Both are republican news
papers. The Pioneer Press is an
especially able journal, and probably
without pccrin the country While
il advocates republican principles, it
is not an organ. 1t leads but does not
follow. Ii gives all the news whether
it hurts or not, and when the grand
old party let's its foot slip, the L. L.
lashcs it as vigorously rs it does the
democratic nags when they are simi.
larlv careless. All this can not be
said of the JaneSville Gazette, but
both papers are republican, and both
editors are great men and both ex-
pressed themselves on the Fjtz John
Porter business. The JaneSville Ga
zette said:
4 greater insult to tho men who fought against
rebellion and treason could not have been con
ceivod tkan the bill 10 renStatc FitE John Porter,
IL treaehery, that lost tho Union cause battle,
that made nearly one thousand federal soldiers
bite the dust at the feet of rebels, that wounded
4oo0 Union volunteers, and that lost 5000 prison
crs, was punishable by death, then Porter should
have been shot II he was guilty of trcachcry
and cowarice in 1852, twenty years conld not
wip, that guilt cut aud the merciful sentence Of
the court that fairly tried him. should be allowed
to remain 10 the day ot his death,
The Hioneer Press took this view of
it:
At last a house of representatives has been
found to listen To the voice VI justice i'll the case
Of Fitz John Porter The crowninS and criminal
error OF every congress has hceu to make his
aquestieu OF party politics, and on that basis the
votes sf a majority have bscn decided, The last
day's talk in the house was more than usually
full Of tho customary stuff aud nonsense about
tie opinions OF Lincoln and Garfield and stan
ton which was the stock in trade OF the op-
position - of appeals from thu living, who base
their opinions on knowledge. 20 the dead, who
never knew the decisive and determining
facts But in the dreary waste of such
talk there were at least GASES OF intelligent de
Tense of Porter; and that. too, by men whose
loyalty in the days when he was tested is unQues
toned And there is cause for congratulation
both in that perennial question is finally oat OF
the way and in that there were raised in favor of
the right.ng OF great wrong the voices of not a
few republicans who were brave enough and
honest enough to decide that justice is greater
than party Obligation |. is shame to Mime
sofa to find her full contingent of congreSSmen
blindly obeying the crack of the whip and voting
with the machine IN case whose merits have SC
long been evident, and in which all competent
authorities tcho hare e.rdmiaei the testimony
are in earnest accord There are in the Mime
sofa delegation men of whom better things thar
this might have been expected; men who would
not have found it TO their own disadvantage L
take stand OF manly Independence in favor o
reversing an unjust sentence that has weighed
down an innocent man for twenty years. The
bin now goes to the senate, where the war whoop
of Logan will again be heard and the same preju-
dices played upon which influenced the narrow
minds of the house.