Year: 1877

THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.


There was cynlc who, on reading 'The
Resurrection in the Neao North West, OBJ
served that the editor of that paper had never
slung any large amount of mud, but develop
ed remarkable capacity for eating it. 1t
was "a shallow observation, and only illustrates
the proneness of men to take narrow view
of passing events. The editor'of that paper
wholly loses sight of the impulse of the At
torney General in furnishing this letter to
Secretary Schurz, and treats it as it it was a
merely personal quarrel between Potts and
himself, which, if he forgave, no one had q
right to complain of. The fact is that letter
is a revelation. 1t betrays an ignorance Of
the duty and mission of the government, and
shows how utterly unconscious the writer is
of the idea of civil service reform. Accord
ing to Capt. Mills own account, the Attorney
General had joined a ring of thieves and plum
derers in Montana, and was using his power
to shield them from the consequences OF their
larceny. Captain Mills saw this Iason of
Plunder and Power, and mildly divulged it to
aid the government.


Whereupon the.Governor, with character
istic stupidity, as he could not consign the
editor to the flames, nor prescribe for him
the rack and thumb-screw, proposes to visit
upon him the Gubernatorial wrath and he
invites the aid of the General Government
to the crusade, hoping to deprive Capt. Mills
of $52 wages for some well done work.
And lest the Government should decline to
engage in so small performance, he writes
to the Attorney General that Mills had abused
him roundly. hoping to excite his animosity
against private citizen of Deer Lodge so
that he would launch the national cannon
against the New North West and destroy it
utterly. Capt. Mills own statement of the
case is the Governors certain conviction.
That cartoon of Nast's in the last Ha7per's
Weekly of Jackson riding blind swine, as
serting that the spoils belong to the victors, is
a feeble exhibition compared with the one
which the Governor makes of himself on
Capt. Mills own showing. The Governor
wants not only the spoils but revenge, and he
does not hesitate to lie in an officia: commune
cation to obtain it, so Capt. NJ. says.


A crusader of ignorance, he would smother
all independence of thought, expression and
action. He has aspired in all his action in
Montana to be what he was toward Captain
Mills, in the instance which Capt. Mills so
sweetly forgives-an official bully. He has
never once given expression to noble
thought, nor warmed himself or others with
a noble endeavor. His lofty speech is yet
unspoken his inspiring poem is yet unsung.
His letters are the laughing stock of all who
know any thing of them between the two
oceans.


President Hayes respectful mention of the
mistaken, incorporate, but honest zeal of ex-
Senator Wade is model of the new era, and
shows that under his administration there is
to be the freest scope for opinion and its ex-
preston, and that the day of such men as
could write in an official communication of
Capt. Mills as ''mud-slinger," and invoking
on him for discharging what he considered
patriotic duty, Executive revenge, has pass
ed away. Captain Mills may forgive all this,
but it is every other persons business.


No man who knew the province of govern
ment; no man who was deferential to others
opinions; no man who was not content to be
spy and tattler, could have been guilty of
that letter. Gen. Devens so regards, it and if
Mills forgives, there are many left who think
Governor should not slander, persecute, or
whine officially at a little healthy criticism,
who do not forgive, and who have right to
insist that such coarseness shall content itself
with the inconspicuous position of private
citizenship.