The record-union., 1891-06-26
THE REAL CAUSE.

The reason for the failure to confirm
General Chapman to the headship Of the
Department of Horticulture is now fully
disclosed. Some of our contemporaries,
with that petty malice which indicates
both enfeebled moral conviction and pro-
vincial tendencies, declare that General
Chipman's defeat was attributed to
personal partisanship in favor of his con-
f1rmation. 1t now appears that our fell
low-citizen was opposed and defeated
solely on the ground that he was the
Judge-Advocate who brought to Justice
the conspirators who compassed the as
sassination of President of the United
States-Abraham Lincoln-and who at
tempted the life of his Secretary of State.
Among these conspirators was Mrs. Sur
ratt, who was punished by hanging as
her great crime deserved. The opposition
TO General Chapman proceeded from a
representative of a Southern State-a
bulldozer from West Virginia by the
name of Sinclair. For more than half a
century the South has had one trump
card. 1t would have its way or it would
not play. 1t has been afflicted with the
necrosis of secession from everything.
When the Board of Trade of the city of
Chicago passed a resolution against the
free coinage of silver, the Southern States
declared that they would not exhibit at
the Worlds Fair at Chicago. And so this
asinine idiot from West Virginia, in op-
posing General Chipman's confirmation,
declared that if the Judge-Advocate who
secured the conviction of the assassins of
Lincoln was appointed to the headship of
the Department of Horticulture, the en-
tire South would secede from the Worlds
Fair.
When Abraham Lincoln was elected
President of the United States, the South
seeded from the Union and was
whipped back into it, and if it chooses to
secede from any other propositions, it
ought to be let alone or whipped back, as
the exigencies of the case may demand.
Highly as we have always esteemed Gen
eral Chapman, we find in the reason for
his defeat new occasion for admiration.
He appears to be a patriot of such distinc-
ton that fifteen of the late rebel States
of the Union would secede from the
Worlds Fair if he received any recogni-
ton at the hands of the National Direc-
tory. The man who is thus distin-
guished by his hatred of treason deserves
the highest position among the patriots
of the country. According to Sinclair of
West Virginia, no man with war record,
no individual distinguished for his devo-
ton to the flag of his country, must re-
ceive the slightest recognition at the
hands of the Columbian Exhibition.
Sinclair would not have objected if a
Southern brigadier had been appointed
to the position. On the contrary, to his
conception, treason to the country in
which he lived would have been a very
high recommendation. There are but
two classes of persons who will be ac-
ceptable to this un-reconstructed West
Virginia rebel: Those who can prove an
alibi as to the late unpleasantness, or
those who took up arms to destroy the
nation; and the National Board, with that
stupidity which has characterized its con-
duct up to the present time. listened to
this species of argument against the con-
frmation of thoroughly competent can
didate.
In the meantime, General Chapman ac-
quired more honor by the reason alleged
for his defeat than could possibly have
been conferred by any confirmation
within the power of the National Worlds
Fair Commissioners to bestow.