The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-08-21
Mr.. Blaine's Slanderers.

I
the Sentinel of that place, which pub
llshed the atrocious ISLANDERS, is the indig-
nant utterance of brave and honest man
who keenly feels the wrong that has been
done him and his cultured and happy family.
Not moment was lost in consultation or
advice, but as quick as thought could be
placed on paper, after reading the scurri-
lous article, the lightning conveyed his de-
mand for the criminal arraignment OF the
slanderers, and in the most public manner,
either to prove their foul allegations or suf-
fer the consequences.
The vile calumny whichAhas thus been
so effectually squelched has been limited at
on the streets and through the Democratic
press, and by insinuation the impression
created that some dark and terrible crime
was to be laid at the door of Mr.. Blaine,
if possible, to counterfeit the charges OF
immortality against Mr.. Cleveland, pre-
ferred and circulated by Democratic pa
pers, land with which Republicans had moth
ing to dc, if they were not withdrawn, or at
least suppressed for the present. Several
of our Virginia contemporaries express
their yirtuous Indignation at the base
falsehood given to the public against Mr..
Blaine by Democratic papers, and at the
same time seek to classify the truthful
charges of immortality against Cleveland
with the utterly baseless fabrication
against Mr.. Blaine, and place them both in
the same category. The friends of Mr..
Blaine accept no such arrangement. He
has met the brutal iattack upon himself
and his party as a true man, conscious OF
innocence and the rectitude of his life,
should have met it. His course has
touched sympathetic sentiment with
every brave and loyal husband and
father and the atmosphere is cleared by
the one electric current that conveyed
his response to Indianapolis, of even the
faintest suspicion that the publication
ocratic press is compelled to acknowledge
this, yet they couple it with plaintive
appeal to 'call off the dogs" which their
own household had set upon CLEVELAND,
-
as clear as that of the other.
There is no parallel in the cases. The
immoralities charged against Cleveland
have been confessed by those who at
tempt his defense. They clearly establish
/. that .'he is not fit to be President, as the
New York Sun, Democratic, has repeat
eddy said Not only is all that has been
published against Cleveland substantially
? true. but much more that is true of the
same character, has neveryet been given to
vote for man with such a character for
the highest office within their gift would
be an insult to every virtuous woman in
the country-a vile stigma upon our ma
tional character, and an offense to the
moral sentiment of the christian world
Partizan necessities could offer no sufh
, Gent excuse for the endorsement that a
deliberate ballot for such man would
convey. Parties may be. in degree, cor
rupt That must be expected in aggrega
lions of wicked humanity, whatever
the organization, but the moral sentiment
F of the Nation cannot afford to accept, as
it's representative character, a man who
stands charged with such offenses as are
established against MI. observation-disclosures
, that cannot be successfully disputed
which, indeed, have been acknowledged
even by those who sought to break theil
force land in doing so, in several instances
, made them. worse than they at first ap
, peared. Even in the mad whirl and ex
!, citement of partizan contests there is
something due to the refnements and deli
cate sensibilities of social relations, and
,, good and true men cannot forget the obi
cations which rest upon them to guard the
sanctities of social life and the purity Of
N orr national hearth.
Kit is an insult to the virtue of the Ma
tion to institute comparison between the
candidates for the Presidency in their so
cial relations. Blaine and Cleveland, in
this respect, are as wide apart as the poles
and it must indeed be an obdurate obtuse
4 ness that could even remotely suggest thai
the one stood in the same relation to the
! most sacred form of our social organism
as does the other.
If the Democrat press cannot reprobate
the foul ISLANDERS upon Mr.. Blaine and his
family, without asking that Mr.. Cleveland
} be elevated to an atmosphere OF limo
cence, let them withhold their words OF
simulated denunciation OF the defamers
of virtuous woman and innocent children
{ let them shrink back from approach to al
) ! that is lovely and attractive in the Ma.
' TONS homes, and conceal their mortilica-
! tion in dense silence in the presence OF
the man whose acts are defenceless and
| who stands before the country condemned
by his own life and unfit for the office will
which his name is connected, by the verdict
of his own party friends.
No Mr.. Blaine's friends wish no ten
der mercies from that class Of journalists
and political ghoulS, who have fed ON the
foulest ISLANDERS against his public and pr.
vate character ever since and even before
his nomination. They will not forget the
hireling who invented the tattooed man.
and the eager activity with which it was
circulated broadcast over the country
the repetition of the false charges made
against him in 1876, by his personal and pO-
litical enemies, after they had been proven
to be false and such men as Judge Jere S.
Black and Senator Matt. W. Carpenter,
after careful scrutiny and investigation,
had pronounced them without the least
foundation Prominent for thirty years
in the public affairs of the Nation, many
: times leading in the discussion of pollt-
cal questions, the recognized leader OF the
party in Congress for half-dozen sessions,
and always an aggressive fighter, it might
have been expected that he would have in
vited unfavorable criticism from political
opponents. But there has been no act or
} association of his that his friends were
ashamed of, and none that will not bear
the light of day and the most critical
scrutiny. From every ordeal he has come
out without stain, in defiance of the most
malignant prosecutions by partizan enc
mics that ever man was subjected to-
He has never appealed to the charity or