The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-01-18

incubation of false ideas of Republic
anism by Senator ingalls, for years be
fore 1880 left our party in a bad cond1-
ton. In 1890 Senator Ingalls, stood Tor
reelection. There had been growing
- discomfort against him for years. The
Popuists charged that he had entered
the senate eighteen years before poor
man, not able to pay his current bills,
and not even able TO respond to cred
itOrs who had been his clients; that he
had lived extravagantly at the rate of
$4,000 to $4,000 a year, and out of a
salary of So, coo per year was enabled
to lay by from three to four hundred
thousand dollars. They charged that
his election in 1879 was VIGOROUSLY and
openly corrupt and secured by bribery
of the most fragrant kind; that for
years he had practiced blackman upon
his appointees; that he had secured at
last the craftsmanship OF the senate
committee of the District of Columbia,
which position he had used in the most
shameful manner for personal gain;
that his vote and influence were for
sale to the corrupt lobbyists that
swarmed around Washington.
THE Populists further alleged that
Ingalls, posed as a great friend of the
soldier, and asked what he had done for
the soldiers of his country, and Repub-
leans had to remain silent, while the
Populists answered that he had never
been in the army; that ne had gained
membership in the G. A. r. through
fraud and false representations. He
has since been dropped from the rolls
of the Loyal Legion
THE Populists further asked what
had he done during his eighteen years
in the United States senate for his par
ty or the nation, and Republicans again
had to remain silent, while for the past
few years prior to his retirement he
had become so inflated with his own
imagined greatness that he had to go
to New York City before coming to
Kansas for the campaign of 1890, and
be interviewed and have his picture ia
ken in seventy different pastures, and
sent the paper containing them to the
state as a campaign document. The
POpuliStS established his reputation in
Kansas to be that of a notorious and
corrupt bOOdler, and the worst of it is
that they made the people believe it.
The Populists charged that he collect
ed $3.50 from certain individuals in
Washington representing large inter-
ests pending before congress, and came
to Topeka for the purpose of trying to
buy his election, in January, 1891 They
also said that in addition to this
amount 5000 was sent to the chair
man of the state committee from other
sources to help pay the expenses of the
senatorial struggle; that this money
was turned over to ingalls,; but that
he did not use the money for the pur-
pose for which it was contributed. but
to use a western phrase, he showed it
down his jeans
ingalls, being a candidate for rec &C.
ton, he naturally became an issue in
the campaign, and as result the party
went to pieces. Immediately after the
election the senator gave it out that
he would again be a candidate for his
old place. The defeat of ingalls, had
a strange effect upon him. He thought
the world was coming to an end-an
because he was defeated.
During the summer and fall of 1891,
when we were trying to rebuild the par
ty in Kansas, Ingalls, was going around
with a wall of woe, prOphesying the
speedy destruction of the Republican
party, and giving out the most rabid
sOcialistic interviews He refused to
take any part in the campaign that
year, and his general department had
been so bad that when Senator Plumb
died in December. 1891, not a single Re
publican in Kansas asked Governor
Humphrey to appoint Ingalls, to the
vacant seat in the United States SEN
ate.
ITO illustrate something of the char
acter of the man, the nature of the at
tacks upon myself and the relations he
bore to the party in 1892, he was very
anxious to be one of the delegates at
large to the national convention that
year. He wrote ne begging my sup
port for the place. I at once answered
that if he would stay away from the
state convention he might possibly be
elected, but that under no circumstan-
ces would it be wise for him to be pres
ent. After my friends and myself had
succeeded in electing him, he wrote me
a warm letter of thanks for my eff
forts in his behalf and showed his al