The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-06-14
A Better Man Than Garfield.

tinguished republicans and so many
hitherto faithful republican newspapers
refuse this year to support the candidate
of the party.
The grounds of objection resolve them
selves mainly into the assertion that Mr..
Blaine is personally a corrupt man. Gas
Speaker of the House Of Representatives,
says the New York Times, che bartered
his official influence for private gain"
The Brooklyn Union speaks of ''his We
nality." ''Mr. Blaine says the Satur-
day Evening Gazette, of Boston, sis
man whose integrity in private life has
been successfully assailed." The semi
religious, semi-political Independent has
record. We regard it," adds the Inde
pendent, cas- not that of man fit to be
the candidate of the republican party"
Another religious contemporary, the
Baptist Weekly, remarks: Caesars wife
should be above suspicion, and a man
who aspires to the Presidential chair
should be above the charges which dis
honor the official life of Mr.. Blaine"
The expressions of individual opinion
correspond to the utterances of the dis
satisfied newspapers. We find the belief
in Mr.. Blaine's personal dishonesty pre-
sented with every degree of candor from
the declaration of Daniel Chamberlain,
the head Of the gang who plundered
South Carolina, that ''to ask support for
such a candidate is an insult to any hon
est man or republican" to the blunt as
sertion of the fellow who was put out of
the New York custom house for calling
Mr.. Blaine thief
The boiling republicans say that they
cannot support Mr.. Blaine because he is
q corrupt man. AS the st. Louis Globe
Democrat put the case, few days before
the convention, she is an unclean man,
and the people will not have him. He
stands self-cOnviCted Of prOstituting the
high offices he has held to build up pri-
vate fortune, of cohabiting with corrup-
ton for dishonest money"
If the republican opposition to Mr..
Blaine proceeds from a sincere belief that
he is unfit to be President, and from the
single desire to promote the cause of hon
est government by repudiating a candi-
date.Of proved dishonesty, the movement
is highly creditable to the newspapers
and the men who are its leaders Is
that the case?
Four years ago, every one of the news
papers from which we have quoted I'M
favorable opinions respecting James G.
Blaine's personal integr rity, supported
James A. Garfield for President of the
United States. Many other republican
journals that now decline to lift finger
for Blaine were Jealous advocates of
Garfield. Some Of them, in accepting
the nomination of the Ohio man. were
forced to swallow utterances of their
own respecting the candidate of 1890
quite as positive and damnatory as any
thing ever said about the candidate of
1884. Whata season of humiliation, of
retractiOn, of self-stultifcatiOn that was
for the republican press! Yet, without
any conspicuous exception that we now
recall, the newspapers that had Judged
Garfield and condemned him on the re-
corded evidence of his personal dishonesty
tumbled over each other in their eager
ness to shield and defend the convict as
soon as an accident had made him the
candidate of the party. The Garfield of
the Poland committees report and of the
De GOlyer investigation was Immediately
replaced for campaign purposes, and
since then for historical display, by an
other Garfield of a very different moral
complexion. 1t has been proved that
such transformation is not impossible:
why is it not undertaken for the benefit
of Blaine?
We have failed to discover any process
of comparison that does not exhibit Mr.
Blaine as Gen. Garfield's superior in
point of moral respectability, as he I'M
questionably is in intellectual force Say
the worst that has been charged against
Blaine, and worse still has been proved
about Garfield. Mr.. Blaine's personal
dishonesty has been declared by a
committee of his republican associates in
Congress; he was acquitted of participa-
ton in the Credit Mobilier bribery by
the very court that convicted Garfield.
Mr.. Blaine has no occasion to pray for
the suppression of the Poland report.
Nh. Blaine is accused of using his oppor-
tunit,es as Speaker of the House for the
promotion of his private fortune; we
know of no check that has been traced
directly from the lobby into his hands
Mr. Blaine's republican constituents have
never demanded his removal from office
because he was a bribe-taker and a per
jurer. Was there anybody personally
acquainted with the two men who would
not rather have had Blaine's word thar
Garfeld's bond? Mr.. Blaine suffered
sunstroke at time when his testimony
woe H. ,1,,,