Fair play., 1888-06-02
GhtSaAM IN POLITICS,
eome of the Sis"fs In Hts Record Whicl
Can Not he Wiped - way.

eome of the Sis"is In Hts Record Which
Can Not he Wiped way.
A nan never knows himself until he
gets into politics. At least, he never
gets his past life pulled together in
such shape that he can see it all at
one glance until he becomes formid-
able candidate for some political Office.
That is why Judge Gresham is perhaps
better acquainted with himself to-day
than ever before. 1t is altogether
probable that he never realized what :.
small potato he WAS until the Blaine
folks got to editing his record. Up to
within the last month or two the
judge had reason to he stuck on him
self, for pretty much every body else
was stuck on him. He had been Il
Cabinet officer, Judge of the Federal
Court. and had held various public
trusts, and yet every body spoke of
him aS Il clean man, who was guided
in public affairs by a sole desire to do
tn. square thing. If judge GrcSham
had never become Il Presidential can,i-
date. he would have gone down into
history as one nf the purest men that
ever adorned public life. But it
doesn't look that way now. The
Blaine folk, are talking a good deal.
and what they say is calculated to
,arnish the Judges good name and to
knock the spots out of his Presidential
boom. They indulge in Il good dead of
mysterious undcrtnnc talk about the
political trades the Judge made to get
INTO a Cabinet office and from the
Cabinet to Il life position on the Fed
cral bench. And then they profess to
have somcthin. that they are holding
back to be sprung at an opportune
time, which will show that Judge
Gre~hams celebrated ruling in the
Jay Gould railway case WAS not
so purely un>rlf>h as the Judge $
friends would have the public
believe. In addition to these
mysterious intimationS of crooked
transactions on the part of one who is
held up aS an example of immaculate
purity in American political life. the
Blaine people have gone TO work and
uncarthcd Judge Grcsham's political
record. thirty years back, and, as a re-
suit. show that he was an ultra Know
Nothing. who went about breathing
slaughter and thrcateninys TO all
American citizens of foreign birth.
''Amcrira for Americans was the
Judges political war cry thirty years
ago.
SO far as The intimationS thrown out
by the FL mites concerning Judge
GreSham's rrnokcinc>> in politics or
his ruling in the Wabash eases, they
will count for but little against him
unless subStan,ia;ed by proof. But so
far rs his Know Nothing record is con-
cerncd, it is bound to give the Judges
Presidential aspirations a very black
eye. Not because of any special preju-
dice in the Republican party against
know-Nothingism, because the old
knowNothing party was the germ of
the Republican party, but it will be
because of the general recognition of
the fact that a man with an unmiStaka-
bic know-Nothing record would not
:uake an available Presidential candi-
date That record would ALLEVIATE the
entire f"re:gn-born population at the
start. without any show of at,ractin"
strength from other quarters. because
the entire Know Nothing element is
already inside of the Republican party.
Judge Grc>ham's friends must have
been ignorant of their candidates 5
past record when they started his
boom, or they undcrcstimatcd the
hycna-iikc capacity Of the Blaine lead
crs for delvihg into the dead past
81 Pant frIOLc