The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-31
QUAY TO EXPLAIN.

And Senator QUAY is about to reply to
the charges of malfeasance in office which
were made against him last year. The
principal of these allegations, if we re-
member correctly, was that while state
treasurer of Pennsylvania he misappropri-
ated (stole, some of the papers said) some
thing like half million dollars, some of
which cash he devoted to his own use, and
some he employed corruptly in politics.
The newspaper which was foremost in
making the charge was the New York
World, while the New York Epentng Post
was an earnest and vigorous second, and
numerous other journals Of influence were
not slow in reiterating the allegations. The
World not only preferred the charges, but
presented what purported to be documen-
tary proof to main tain them, and cordially
invited the Senator to sue for libel, both
civilly and criminally, if he were slandered.
These accusations were made early last
year and were repeated daily by one paper
or another until the close of the campaign.
But Quay was silent all the time,
positively refusing to affirm or deny
or explain. No solicitation could induce
him to speak He even refused ito talk
when prominent members of his own party
said openly that they could not sustain him
or his candidates if the charges were true.
He let the matter rest and saw his nomi-
nee for governor slaughtered, while the
ticket generally suffered. Now, after
months of waiting, and his silence has con-
WINGED thousands. that he is guilty, comes
the announcement that he will speak. We
don't believe the Senator authorized this
statement He is very shrewd man. and
it strikes US that it would be anything but
shrewd for him to speak now. If he were
innocent the time to have spoken was the
day when the accusation was publiehed,
and the speech should have assumed the
form of a complaint in a libel suit against
the offending newspaper. Last fall, just
before the election, some Republican jour
nails, in their partisan zeal, charged the
Democratic candidate for the governorship,
PATTIsoN, with official dishonesty, and
the next night the editors and publishers
would have slept behind prison bars if
their friends had not found bondsmen for
them. PATTIsoN didn't wait year to re-
ply to the accusation. He replied in
stautly, the result being that he at once
established his innocence in the public
mind, and was elected governor by hand
some majority over the man who was rec
ognized as the mere tool of QUAY
Whatever Quay may now say will have
no beneficial effect whatever as regards his
own character or in the way of refutation.
Having remained silent so long and per-
mitted the time to speak to pass by, he
should continue mum, and thus induce
people to forget that he was ever accused
of wrong-doing. There is nothing that he
can say now which could not have been
said six or eight months ago, when its
utterance might have counted in his be-
half.
We cannot think the gentleman is going
to talk. We cannot believe he has lost his
cunning, nor do we believe that if guilty
he has repented and proposes to confess
and ask forgiveness. Rather must we
think that the newspaper which says that
Senator QUAY is about to explain the charges
preferred a year ago has been drawing
upon its Imagination.