The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1890-04-18
misce11anep11s.
An Open Letter to President Harrison
His Course Condemned by q Republican.

|
| our political history than the charges brought
against Senator Quay by the New York
World in its issue OF February 10 and March
8. 1t would be useless here to recapituate
them further than to say that, with full de-
tails of names and places and dates, the World
asserts him to be a man whose political
career has been succession of fiagrantly dis
honest acts, including the temporary abstrac-
ton from the State Treasury of $96O,OO0 in
one instance and $4OO,0 in another.
"No such accusations, involving iniquity
80 varied and SO continuous, and supported
by such an array of minute details, have
ever before, believe, been brought agaiost
| politician so conspicuous. Ifthcy are true,
Senator Quay ought to be in the peniten-
liary. If they are false, he is cruelty libeled
man his accuser is journal of the highest
| financial standing, and no jury of his coun-
irymen would refuse him exemplary dam
ages that would put him beyond all future
reach of want Vindication and profit both
await him as an incentive to prove his inno
cence but although two months have elapsed
since the gravest of the charges were
made public, neither solicitude for hischarac-
ter nor desire of gain has prompted him to
break silence. II is his own fault if the pub
lie should regard him as acquiescing in the
truth of the charges.
NATIONAL SCANDAL.
ut is true that the crimes alleged against
Senator Quay are connected only with his
career as Pennsylvania boss, but your con-
nection with him has rendered his career as
Pennsylvania boss, but your close
connection with him has rendered
the scandal national. You were du-
ly warned in advance from a friendly
source of the danger of such an alliance, yet
by accepting his man, Mr. Wanamaker, as
member of your Cabinet, you assumed re-
sponsibility for both of them. In pursuance
of this alliance, you have enlarged Mr.. Quay's
importance by virtually giving him control
of the Federal patronage in Pennsylvania,
thus rendering him the dictator of the Repub-
lican party in the State. He boosted of your
subserviency to him when, in explaining his
triumph over Representative Dalzell in the
struggle for the Pittsburg Post Office, he
publicly said that the President, though
very anxious to crafty Mr.. Dalzell, for whom
| he has high esteem, could not, under all the
circumstances, well avoid complying with
my wishes Even Mr.. Quay's remarkable
silence under the accusations of the World
does net seem to have lessened his influence
over you. He signalized his return from
Florida week or two since by capturing
the Pittsburg Surveyorship of Customs
| against candidates urged respectively by
Secretary Blaine and Representative Dalzell
Indeed, his power would seem to be as great
| in Washington as in this State, for the party
organs now tell us that he has been endeavor
| ing to buy off superduous candidate for the
| Goyernorship with an Assistant Secretary
ship of War. In thus entering into polti-
cal partnership with Mr.. Quay you must
share the losses as we'll as the gains of the
venture. 1t lie not Pennsylvania alone, nor
even the Republican party only, that has a
right to protest; every citizen of the land
| must feel humiliation at the smirch thus in
flicted on the Chief Magistracy of the nation.
AN ACCOUNTING DEMANDED.
GAS Republican by conviction, ardently
| desiring the success of the party 80 long as it
deserves success, let me request you, Mr..
| President, to take calm survey of the
| situation and render to yourself an account of
your stewardship. Thirteen months ago you
entered upon the duties of the highest Office
which the world has to bestow; your party
was supreme in the control of both houses of
Congress and of the executive; everything
promiseda prosperous and useful admins
tration, in which you, by simply adhering to
the pledges under which you were elected,
might earn another term from the confidence
and gratitude of the people. The only cloud
upon the political horizon was your ac-
ceptance of a Postmaster General at Mr..
Quay's dictation ostensibly as q reward
for certain services performed during the
canvass. That cloud, then no larger than a
mans hand, has spread till it covers the fir
mament. Look back now and reflect upon
your work. You have sedulously devoted
yourself to the distribution of patronage ;
you have turned out nearly forty thousand
Democratic ofice-holders, and in this igno-
BILE business you have filled vacancies thus
made by giving recognition to the worst
elements in the party. You have thus de-
graded it to the lowest level, till it no longer
deserves or enjoys the public confidence,
and its interest, as well as that of the nation,
demands its publication by defeat. You have
earned for it the denunciation OF the Hebrew
prophet:
"'The heads thereof Judge for reward,
and the priests thereof teach for hire, and
the prophets thereof divine for money, yet
will they lean upon the Lord and say, Is not
the Lord among us? None evil can ome
among US. Therefore shall Zion for your
sake be plowed as field and Jerusalem shall
become heaps
A WARNING FROM THE PEOPLE.
"But it needs no prophet to foretell the result.
The elections of last November were warn
ing that the people would not tolerate your
methods. You have refused to heed the les
son, and the elections of next November will
emphasize it, The narrow Republican ma
iority in the lower house will be swept away
and your path for the latter half of your adj
ministration will be a path of thorns. You
have rewarded the magnificent ajority of80, :
600 given to you by Pennsylvania by riveting
upon her the chains of Quayism; you need
not wonder that disaffection is spreading
rapidly throughout her borders in manner
that may render even her allegiance doubtful.
The outlook for 1892 is even darker. Were
the Presidential election to take place to-mor-
row there could scarce be doubt of Demo-
cratic success. Let me counsel you, Mr..
President, as a friend, to reflect that this has
been your work in one short year of misused
power. M
| TIME FOR REPENTANCE.
"If this retrospection should bring with it
repentance and amendment, you still have be-
fore you three years which may be fruitful
for good. Bear in mind that faithful are the
wounds of friend, but the kisses of an
enemy are deceitful.' Discard the advisers
who are Turing you to your downfull. Re-
cognize that the truest political expediency
lies in the application of conscience to public
affairs, and that you can serve your party
best by stimulating the nobler aspirations of
The nation, rather than by pandering to the
baser appetites of spoilsmen. Cease to ex-
pect to gather figs Of thistles. or to touch
pitchwithout defemeni. Apply to your public
i =