The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1889-02-20
PROFITS FROM MURDER.
c. X. BRECKINRIDGE WILL HOLD ON
TO Ills SEAT.
To the StttsmeEt of the Brothers of the
Murdered Clay ton the Arkansas Member
Has No Answer.

To the Stttsmert of the BROTHERS of the
Murdered Clayton the Arkansas NJ ember
Has No Answer.
Washington Special to Chicago TrIbunel
The most tiled man in Congress to-
day is Clifton II. Breckenridge, of Ar
kansas To the sorrowful yet temper
ate statement made by the brot lers
of the murdered Clayton he has no
answer. Neither by word nor act has
he shown an unwillingness to become
the beneficiary of the assass nation.
Breckinridge is little man with a
weak voice and insignificant appear
ance. He rarely gains the ear of the
House, but if at any time within the
last week he had seen ut TO rise In his
place and declare that he would not
hold seat tainted with murder he
could have had the closest attention of
his colleagues to every word he u
tered. Yet he persistently refuses to
disavow the intention of sharing the
fruits of crime. He will hold onto his
place in the Fifty-first Congess till he
is unseated. A week ago, when the
first news Of Mr.. Clayton assassina-
ton was recei ged, Mr.. Breckenridge
was kind enough to deplore his oppon-
ent's death. He was also good enough
to say that he had believed that the
theft of the ballot-boxes at Plummer-
Vile had been committed in the inter
est of Clayton 10y parties who wanted
to raise the cry of fraud. But in view
OF his opponents murder while trying
to run down this theft, he was ready to
admit that his impression had probably
been mistaken one, and that some
lawless faction, acting in the supposed
interest of the Democrats, had carried
out the fraud. He was also free to say
that this lawless faction might have
committed the murder to prevent dis
covery. To the suggestion that it
might be his own duty to resign his
seat in the Fifty-first Congress as a
protest against assassination in politi-
Cal campaigns. MIR. Breckenridge re-
turned decided negative. He merely
viewed it as case of murder for the
local authorities to detect and punish.
A group of Congressman were dis
cussing this wide variance of opinion
to-day, when one of them summarized
the case as follows: 81 suspect that we
people up North don't appreciate
Disadvantages surroundings. If my
opponent had contested my seat, and
in gathering evidence for that contest
had been assassinated, L would have
had to do two things: First, get right
home and do my best to discover and
punish the assassins: second, resign
my seat in Congress and ask the people
of the district to show their adherence
of such methods and their confidence
in my guiltlessness by re-electing me.
If l did not do those two things,
would never dare go into nv district
again. But in Mr.. Bleckinridge's sec
tion, we must remember, that the con-
ditions are different. They have prac-
ticed those methods so long that ]
don't believe he would dare to go back
home and publicly condemn them.
Other men have accepted elections un-
der circumstances fully as bad, and
their frat inquiry would be what he
means by going back on his friends"
This may be harsh judgment, but
there is good deal TO support it,