Wichita eagle., 1889-03-31
THE OTHER SIDE HEARD.
MI. Watterson Scores the Democrats for
Aiding Republican Senators.

LOUISVILLE, KY, March 3O.-Of Mr..
| Halstead's rejection Mr.. Watterson in to-
morrow's Courier-Journa will write as
| follows:
''rhe rejection of Mr.. Halstead carries
with it primarily warning from the
senate of the United States to the press of
the country to look to its utterances when
dealing with that body or any of its mem
bers. Mr.. Halstead's offense to the Re-
| publicans who voted against his copfirma-
| ton or who did not vote at all lay in his
criticism Of certain Republican senators
! who had refused to enter upon an investi-
CATION asked by the Repu blican
legislature OF Ohio into the election
OF Senator Payne. The election of Senator
Payne was VIGOROUSLY open to investiga-
ton. With the lights now before US no
intelligent Democrat doubts that it was
from first to last corrupt affair. That
party spirit and sympathy with an old
man whom personal knowledge of, and
completely with the means to which he
owed his seat in the senate was believed
by no one at all familiar with his charac-
ter should lead Democratic senators to
stand between him and an impending
scandal, was natural, but why the investi-
cation demanded, the investigation asked
by the Republican legislature of Ohio into
the election of Senator Payne by the Re
publicans of Ohio should be denied by any
Republican senator cannot be explained
even at this late day. In Ohio the contro-
versy was one OF equal import
ance and acrimony, and Mr.. Hal
stead threw all the combatiye
elements of his essentially combative
character into the fight, and especially
against the obdurate Republican sena-
tors. From his party standpoint he was
entirely in the right He did what other
brave and honest journalists would have
done and should have done under the Cir
cumstances. That he may have been too
rough in his methods of attack IS beside
the question. He had the truth of it in
his premises, was sincere and upright III
his purposes and little excess of temper,
more or less, does not materially affect the
case. He is punished therefore, by those
of his own party. whom he dared to call to
account, thus doing his duty as partisan
Journalist The Democrats of the senate
have assisted these Republicans OF the
senate to punish him and thus dual no
tice of both parties III the senate is served
to journalists of the country that when
ever a senator is publicly criticised he will
bide his time to get his revenge by stab
bling his critic in the back and in the dark.
without doubt the Democrats of the
senate, and particularly the Democratic
senators from southern states, think they
are getting even with Mr.. Halstead for his
abuse of the south. But even if this were
so their position would be at once incon-
sistent and injudicious With the fight
over the confirmation of Lamar and ready
confirmation of many confederates to
foreign posts of honor II our mind, it lies
not in our mouth to talk about sectional
revenges. Such talk cannot fail to do
more execution at the breech than at the
muZZle, and in the long run must recoll
upon ourselves. 1t puts stop to our pro-
tests against prescription, and places a
powerful weapon in the hands of our enc
mics. We do not question any southern
senator's sincerity or right to vote against |
Mr. Halstead; nor do we set up any claims |
of Mr.. Halstead's upon our forbearance. |
We are not aware that he or any of his |
friends have made the slightest |
appeal to us in this regard. But we |
thought aud we think that it would have |
been better public policy and at the same !
time far nobler revenge if Mr.. Halstead |
had owed his rescue in the house of his |
friends to those whom he has so incessant-
~ and so unjustly and so openly aSsailed as
the incarnation of all that is intoerant and |
Every forgiving action |
done and every kind and generous word |
spoken on occasions of trouble and trial by |
sectional and political antagonists, one to
the other, tends to heal up the breaches |
wounds of war and to make the union
once more union of countrymen and !
brothers.
when Horace Greedy went to Rich
mond to sign The bail bond of Jefferson
Davis, when Lamar laid a wreath of flow
ers upon the coffin of Charles Sumner,
when the south accepted Greedy for its
Moses, when Johnston and Lee and Buck
ner followed the bier of Grant to the
grave steps were taken out of the morasS
Of mistrust and strife and toward the high
and solid ground of national unification
and the end of sectionalsm. We had
hoped that in the case of Mr.. Halstead,
which afforded a striking opportunity for
the display of a large and liberal party
spirit, there would have been found in the
senate enough senators from the south big
enough in brain and heart to see
his and brave enough to act
lpon it and we can only regret that in this
nope we have been disappointed. We are
more so because Mr.. Halstead is singularly
or the position to which he was named
md is personally as honorable and clean a
nan as he is politically a stubborn and
mplacable tighter. Making his rejection
urn as far as we are concerned upon par
isan objections. which should have had
10 weight, we have 1t from very high au-
hority that if the name of Governor For
lker is not sent to the senate before its adj
Ournment, the governor will be dispatched
Is minister to Germany very soon there
Ifter. If this be so the Democrats
If the senate will have helped malignant
of that body TO wreak their
private revenge on Mr.. Halstead only TO
addle a man like Governor Foraker, who.
N hatred OF the south, double discounts
my other Republican in the country,
n our diplomatic service. On that
ssue we have an impression that the gen
lemen will find it as little easy TO satisfy
heir own consciences as to explain them
elves to public opinion, which, in the end,
; tolerably just in these matters and will
lot give its approval to the conversion of
he senate into den of assassins."