The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1884-09-23

INC VO88089 - O9e1es
II 10 with humiliation that ws print
this morning the extraordinary eorrs-
spondence, now FIRST given to the public,
between Mr.. Blaine aud Warren Fisher.
The amazing exhibit made by these let
tiers of sordid subserviency and Of guilty
implication on the part of Speaker OF
the House Of Representatives is one to
bring the blush Of shame 10 every Amer
lean, and no mere partisan feeling can
quite overcome the sense of national
humiliation at the dishonor to the cOun-
try.
No one can read these letters of Mr..
Blaine without arriving at the~conviction
that the writer was using his position in
the House of Representatives for the
most ignoble and selfish purposes. The
Internal evidence of direct and systematic
collision With railroad jobbers and lobby
lists is unmistakable cit will be in my
power at the approaching session of Con-
gress," writes Mr.. Blaine to Mr.. Fisher
with regard to the establishment of a
bank at Little Rock, ." to cast an anchor
to windward in your BEHALF" and cit
will be to some extent matter of tavorlt-
ism as to who gets the banks. The proof
of manipulation of railroad bonds IL spe-
cifc and minute and, what is still worse,
the evidence of distress and fear growing
out of the shameful association is as plain
as words of abject acknowledgment can
make it. "The personal hardships,"
cries Mr. Blaine, OF this connection, care
to me bitter and burning and humiliating
TO the last degree"
And we can readily believe it when we
find this speculative statesman acknowl-
edging, as he did on the l4th of June,
that he was in every painful and en-
barrassed condition growing out of his
connection with the Fort Smith enter
prise" and again in November, writing,
elf you knew all the agonies | have suf-
fered in this matter you would pity me,
am sure"
But we are carried degree further
down, from speculative audacity to per-
sonal humiliation, when we find Mi.
Fisher writing to him in April, 1872:
hny" loaned you at curious times, tchen you
eosre comparatively poor Uery large sums Of money,
and neoer haze you paid one doUr from your
men picket either principal or interest. h,loe
<fb.r nh
indebted. and these debts you hde Gtoned u stand
unpaid IKE tue notes ,chich I holt 1 h,oe pIrced
| you in posit.ons chere6y you have recetced cery
| urge Sums If money without one dollar "t ex-
pense TO yon and you ought not TO forget the act
| on my part. Or Ill the p,rties connected with
| the Little r ck and Fort Smith r .iroad no one
has been fortunate as yourself in obtaining
money out OF II.
And yet in the face of this defiant taunt
and indignant reminder of the principal
to his tool that sowing to your political
| position you were able to work off all
your bonds at very high price," We fnd
this high-minded statesman, unmindful of
the shame implied in this letter and only
anxious to cover up his tracks, replying
to Fisher with cringing and pitiful ap-
peal. And what is that appeal Simply
that Fisher will exonerate him, and to do
it he, Blaine, incloses the draft of a letter
which he wishes Fisher to write, and
which will stop all ISLANDERS before the
| Republican Convention assemblies.
| And even here Mr. Blaine takes one
more downward step, for after he received
the desired letter he interlines it with his
own hand to make it stronger.
We place these documents before the
intelligent reader in sorrow rather than
in triumph. They show, we think, con-
cusively and without the shadow of a
doubt, that James G. Blaine is unworthy
the suffrages of citizens who believe that
the highest Office in the gift Of the people
should not be given to man who is by
his own admissions the tool and confident
of jobbers; who prostitutes his position
and influence in the House of Represen-
tatives to lobbyists and spectators =;
whose guilt betrays itself in the painful
cries for help, and whose wretched SER
Witty to the men who owned and used him
make even those men treat him with con-
tempt
Every line of these letters should be
read carefully and thoughtfully. Mr..
Blaine cannot complain if he is judged by
his own selfmade record And having
read them this question remains for the
people: Il it not burning insult to their
honor and intelligence at this crisis of
official venality and almost universal fraud
and corruption, when all issues sink into
insigni6cAnce beside the crying necessity
for reform, to see this s=lt-convicted polt
ical prostitute presented u the suffrages
of great nation for their highest honor
the place once held by a Washington :?
Harrison Reeds Forida Journal is
now published daily, enabling it to tell
'em six times a week
The fact that Mr.. Blaine intends go
ing on stamping tour through the West
is All evidence that the Republican man.
| 4 L. Il D.