Year: 1876

DEAR SIR:-In your issue of last
week, in your comments on the base
and slanderons insinuation of GER
tain democratic editor against the
character of Hon. HI. S. Neal, in
which it is alleged that Mr.. Neal
was plant tool in the hands Of dis.
honest men to white wash the report
of the committee TO investigate
frauds in Indian affairs, of which


Mr.. Neal was chairman, you neglec
ted to state a fact of which perhaps
you were not aware), and which
every voter In the district should
know, and that is, that the said com
mittee, with Mr.. Neal at its head,
was offered and refused FIFTY Thou
sand Dollars to aohite'vdSh that re-
port.


Now, any editor, or 'any other
man" who will attempt to traduce or
vilify the character of as honest and
honorable gentleman as | knoW Mr..
Neal to be, is either knave or Il
fool. A knave, If he attempts to de-


fame man for no other reason than
because the people have selected him
to represent them in capacity
where honest men are needed, and
fool-a wilful one at that, il be does
not know what he publishes to be
true, when he has ample means for
knowing. Now, | have no interest to
he gratified, more than every lover of
his oountry's veal should have, and
I unhesitatingly declare that l be-
lieve H. S. Neal to be incapable OF
base or dishonoroJle act. l have
been personally acquainted with him
for twenty-five years, more than half
of which time we have lived in the
same city, and l have never known
him guilty Of q single dis4QSQrgdle
act, and have never heard him even
accused of any aot that would in tho
least soil the character Of true gen.
tleman. Iknow him to be a natural
gentleman-the same all the year
round, without the ShddOw of an
aristocrat, He will not kiss every
mans paw just before election, and
look over his head after it is over.
He will not 60 grilning around
among the darkies, calling them tiny
colored brethren" "fellow citizens,"'
&C., to gain their voting favor, nor
will he go "snooping" around the
groceries and dogeries, taking drink
here and there to gain the votes of
that class, but will keep straight fnr-
ward, soaring as far ahoYe the truck
ling sycophants that stoop to such
baseness to obtain an Office, as the
proud eagle scars above the terrapin
that waddles in the mud beneath
him. With such men any party can
preach and teach and act reform.


am glad that reform is the ory.
Compare any democratic and Repub-
lican administration, past or present,
National, State or Municipal, and see
where reform is needed. How can
the democrats reform the admins
tration till they find the frauds. Their
investigating to find fraud they find
like picking blackberries in a dark
night-more thorns than berries.


Talk about reforming anything
with party that can be led by such
a scamp as the democratic press made
T:lden out to be before his nomina-
tion. Satan with his host might as
well claim that he could "reform' the
administration of heaven, if he could
be elected for that purpose.


] Thought when the democratic par
ty run Horace Greeley that they had
reached the climax of inconsistency,
but they have now run up another
splice. What won't they do or try to
do2 Anything that they opposed
last year. Anything like principle
is as scarce in that party now as
feathers on mackerel.


The most consistent argument that
I have heard from any democrat this
season was given the other day by a
hard-shell, as the reason why he
would not vote for H. S. Neal. He
said that when he was a hoy, he took |
some wheat to Nears fathers mill |
and did not get -four enough for it.
That Is pure democratio consistency.
1t is too bad that so good boy as H.
S. should suffer such disastrous de-
feat by an indiscretion of the sold
man." but then the sins of the pa
rents are visited upon the children to
the third and fourth presidential elec-
tion.


Allow me to act the prophet about
one minute, while say that Mr.. Neal
is as sure to represent US in our next
National Legislature as his name con-
tinues to be II. S. Neal till election