Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-07-23
months from now there will BIZ no
lamenting over hard Zines, for such
times will have flown far, far away.
A NECESSARY Statem ent.
From the washington Post, Dem

From the Washington Post, (Dem.)
If it be true, as stated, that certain
Departments of the Government
have inaugurated the practice of
hearing and acting upon charges
against incumbents without giving
the latter any opportunity to answer
or even know the nature of such
charges, we wish to remark that the
practice has our cordial and enthu-
siastic disapprobation. We can i'm
agine nothing more cruel, more re-
voltingly tyrannical than this Star
Chamber proceeding, which was
abolished centuries ago as being out
of place in an era of human liberty.
To receive-nay. to invite-the prep
Grafton of charges against an official,
to receive and consider those charges
in secret, and to pass upon him the
final condemnation without his hav-
ing been informed without his hav-
ing had an opportunity to refute or
even explain-and to add to this
frightful injustice the cruelty of ex-
pulsion for an unknown crime-this
is barbarism which belongs to the
middle ages-not to the nineteenth
century.
Things were managed thus by the
Council of Ten when the life and
honor of the noblest in the land
were at the mercy of every anony-
nous assassin. Such methods flour
ished in the days of ToRQUEMADA;
even later, when malice, tyranny,
hatred, savagery nursed into evil life
the Iettre de cachet, But civilization
has long ago condemned them, and
every fiber Of q freeman's heart pro
tests against their restoration.
If civil service reform is so poor
thing as to need such aids; if it
must shun the light of day, crawling
through the slums of secrecy, work
ing by stealth and fearing beyond
everything the bright sun of Heav-
emf these are the methods we
have brought to our assistance in the
sacred name of reform, then the
sooner We repudiate reform and put
on another garb the better for the
fragrance of our memory and for
every decent and reputable cause
throughout the land.
But this is not reform. 1t is the
sick, distored nightmare of some
dreamer who thinks he dreams of
reform. 1t is caricature, a sarcasm,
a grinning masque from the Dark
Ages, a relic of LoYoLA. tits impos-
sible that the Democratic Admins
tration really means to father and to
nourish the unwholesome thing. 1t
is incredible that into this free couu
try and enlightened age we intend
to transplant the most loathsome
meanness and cruelty Of the
Inquisition.
Surely the transfer of the Govern
ment to the Democracy can be eff
fected without resorting to methods
so unwholesome and abhorrent. The
victory was fairly won-openly, by
honorable means, with the whole
world looking on. We are entitled
to its fruits-no one questions our
right to take possession; on the con
trary, it is expected of us. Is there
any reason why we should approach
10y stealth and compass by brutality
that which we are free to take in
peace and honor We wish to re-
peat-and we speak in the name Of
every fair-minded man Of either
party-that this practice of incrim-
mating, prosecuting and condemn
ing Republican ofice-holders-try-
ing them without hearing and cast
ing them out branded with name
less crime-is the most repulsive
thing to which our politics has ever
given birth, If persisted in it will
disgust and ALLEVIATE every manly
soul, and it will bury its authors and
contrivers fathoms deep in odium.
THE Portage Register of the 18th
4. r 49,, ~ q con, QUO