The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-06-17

Wheeler's. Uncalled.for Attack Upon
StantOn's Memory.

The Southern brigadiers in the halls of
their fathers have at last cot expression for
the venomous hatred they bear TO the men,
DRY of Edwin NJ. Stanton. There appears
in the Congressional Record to-day the
complete speech of Wheele- of Alabama,
which has been delivered in part mt the last
two Friday night sessions. Wheeler gives
as reason for the speech that his acct
dental and unprecedented assertion that
Stanton's talents had been sometimes used
to disparage and even TO destroy
those who did not conform to his
views" was being misconstrued.
This accidental and unprecedented
assertion" was made during the debate on
the military appropriation bill. II was then
that the ex-rebel cavalry General de-
nounced Stanton as an arch conspirator
who sought to conspire and destroy those
who did not agree with him. This brought
out Hepburns savage rebuke that since
Stanton was dead the very men around
whose necks he had drawn the halter and
who owed so much to his forbearance were
the foremost to malign the great War Sec
rotary. This seemed to rankle deeply in
the hearts of the ex-rebels in Congress. 1t
was about the time jeff Davis was receiv-
ing the plaudits of the Southern people,
and the Brigadiers seemed to think it in
cumbent on them to make some sign by
which it would be known that "A Democrat
ic administration was again in power. This
is done in Wheeler's speech, which for vir-
ulence exceeds anything ever put forth by
Northern Copperheads. 1t is an elaborate
attempt to make out that Stanton should
stand out in his countrys history as re-
markable only for infamy.
In the first discussion Wheeler confined
his malice to denouncing Stanton's course
with reference to the two Northern idols of
the rebels-McClela and Fitz John Por-
ter. In his calmer and more deliberate as
SAINT he has undertaken to show that in the
closing days of Buchanan's Cabinet STAN
ton was guilty of degree of turpitude that
would have made Benedict Arnold blush. All
this because Stanton had recognized that
slavery and secession were both crushed
by the agency of the Republican party,
which was soon to take the reins of the
Government. Wheeler shows much feel
ing over the War Secretary's treatment of
Isaac Toucey, the Naval Secretary, who
had dispersed the war vessels of the United
States into distant seas upon empty err
rands. The secret of Wheeler's malice
crops out in his declaration that the Demo-
cratic party of the North crushed the re-
bellion; that Buchanan would have done it
anyhow had he been let alone; that the
Southern members left the Cabinet because
they thought it right to do SO; and much of
the same sort. Probably the most atrocious
suggestion conveyed in the following
words:
"Can it be possible, then, that Mr.. STAN
ton maintained secret and confidential re-
lations with third body Of men whose
secrets he Systematically disclosed? If SO,
could this third body have consisted of Sc
cessionists pure and simple and their SYM
pathizers? II seems ll-nigh incredible,
and yet that conclusion seems TO be una
voidable. But. irresistible as this conclu-
sion appears to be, reject it utterly. 1
had rather be thought illogical than so sim
ply credulous as to permit even the most
potent reasons to convince NV judgment of
so arrant On absurdity as that Mr.. Stanton
ever established or ever held-for even the
briefest period-confdentia relations with
the Secessionists. | almost dare be sworn
that he never was so associated. IL is not
merely az absurdity-it is an impossibility.
So firm is my faith on this point that fire
could not burn it out of me-"
This cowardly stab is based on the I'M
questionable services which Stanton rem
dered in ferreting out the plots of the
traitors who were conspiring to destroy the
Union under Buchanan's eyes. Concern
ing the sentence of the court martial in the
FitZ John Potter case, Wheeler calls it "the
triumph of deception, and says the means
by which effect was given to the sentence
still further confirm the presumption of
preauanged determination to work the ruin
of the officer at all hazards. Wheeler fur
ther goes into much war history to prove
that the War Secretary had absolutely moth
ing to do with the successes of the Union
forces. This is sought to be shown by a
few garbled extracts from Gen. Grant, and
also officers of the caliber of j. b. Fry. He
repeats all the stale ISLANDERS about Mrs.
Surratt, and sums up his assault by claim.
ing to have proved that an innocent woman
was executed, despite recommendation to
clemency; that Stanton Systematically vio-
lated the trust reposed in him by Buchanan
and the Cabinet; that he professed fealty
to one set of party friends while Sc
cretly aiding their enemies; that he was
Unsuitable In engrossing power and arbi-
trary and ruthless In exercising it; that he
conspired to disgrace and ruin one officer
of the Government and secured the dis
missal of another by the most reprehensible
devices. IL is scarcely conceivable that
these ISLANDERS will be allowed to go un-
answered. Most of them are entirely con-
sistent with Wheeler's view that the men
who, while holding offices of trust under
the Government betrayed it, were moved by
sense of duty. While the Republican
members recognized that it is proper under
a Democratic administration for the Demo-
Gratis to give voice TO their true feelings,
and while any reply to Wheelers challenge
may bring out the cry of bloody shirt, yet
some one probably will be found with the
hardihood to offend the sensitive mug
wumps by hurting back the insinuations of
Stanton's traducers. Decorations Day the
only flowers on the War Secretary's grave
were placed there by stranger. This ac-
cidental oversight might be taken TO show
that the people of to-day sympathize with
the rebel view of his character, unless some
voice is heard in the halls of the fathers
defending his memory from the malignant
assaults of those about whose necks, as
Hepburn said, he drew the halter.