Year: 1878

~ OoihLulltee up 10 tnlS Time, the
nfet thing that strikes the impartial


fspuer Is that the investigation has
deVeioped tremendous amount of


fascallty in political movements, 1t
ls equally apparent that the Demo-
efatlc party must shoulder about as


mnch of the responsibility as the Re-
pApllcan. There, for instance, was
4xuthful Jim Anderson, who was to
pe champion witness to produce evil
ofnce that the determination of the
eieeforal vote of Louisiana liz favor
o1 Mr. Hayes was procured by cor
rupt bargaining; and yet Anderson
mas admitted in his evidence that he
was quite willing to sell out to what
ever party would pay the highest
price for his very valuable affidavits.
lt IS due to Anderson to say that
'Gc~ever he may be contradicted on


other points, there is an entire unan-


Unity ipsthe testimony as to his put


ting himself up for auction. His in


dictment of himself on that issue


cannot be contradicted. He wanted


to strike bargain with somebody,


and after he found that Mr.. Hayes


and Secretary Sherman refused his


offers for a trade, he applied with


better success to the Democratic


leaders. They accepted him as a


manufacturer of political capital, but


they bought him at rather higher


price than he was worth. Nothing


more is necessary than reference to


the testimony taken by the commit


tee to show that Anderson is simply
magnificent and gorgeous liar.


Suppose we divest the case of all


partisan symDathies and put the


man in the position of witness to a
certain legal cause. In such case


the Judge would certainly instruct


the jury that the man must have


perjured himself on one side or the


other, and that neither conviction or
acquittal could be founded on his
evidence.


The sole reinforcement of Ander-
sons narrative comes from E. l..


Weber, the brother of the murdered


D. A. Weber, Supervisor of Elec-
tions in West Feliciana parish of
Louisiana. Unprejudiced people may


be pardoned for sneering at the his
tory of the stormy days of 1876 rem
dered by Mr.. Weber. His statement
was undoubtedly a strong card for
the Democratic side. But on top of
it was produced private letter he
had written in 1877, and that entirely
contradicted his latter narrative. The
author puts in the explanation that
he lied in 1877 and tells the truth in
1878. We have not yet seen that he
presents any certificates of a change
of heart inside of fifteen months, and
without them we must presume that
he has not yet ostracised himself
from the class of average Louisiana
politician. Immediately after his
brothers. death Mr.. Emile Weber
wrote very narrowing account
of it that was published in the
North. Now he testifies that he did
this for the sake of making what he
calls political capital" and that he
plunged into infinite falsehoods for
that purpose. The person who capi-
talizes fraternal blood into ducats is
an extraordinary and not altogether
admirable phenomenon. We cannot
think that he has improved his stand.
ing in popular estimation by such a
confession. He is rather a common
place sort of rascal, who will swear
to anything if the affidavit means a
certain amount of dollars. We have
some very kindly consideration for
the Democratic party, and we hope
that it will not go into the next cam
paign with Anderson as capital. The
alleged Sherman letter will never do
as basis of proceedings. That it
ever was written has never been
Weber says that he saw it
and identified the writing as that of
Mr.. Sherman. When he was tested
on the cross ss-examination he swore
that he had leaned over Mr.. Sher-
mans shoulder and saw him writing.
Mr.. Sherman is, of course, the sort of
person who allows any intruder to
inspect all his communications and
makes an especial point of displaying
them to such folks as Anderson and
Weber.


1t is stated that the Potter Com
mittee will hold but one or two ses-
sions next week, and will then adj
Journ until September. This is a
tinge of confession of defeat of its
purpose in this programme. The
committee - to put the question
plainly-is to take long recess be-
cause its proceedings are altogether
farcical and absurd. Still, we can
suggest line of Investigation that