Year: 1876

at a second class target, and if three classes
are necessary let the distance against
special military rifles be not more than fifty
yards.


The Late George IL. Pendleton.


The political corpse of this distinguished
Presidential aspirant will be conveyed from
Washington, the place of his decease, to
Cincinnati the city of his birth, for final
burial. "Man goeth to his long home"
says an ancient writer, ''and the mourners
go about the streets" The greenback dem
ocrats will sincerely lament the untimely
fate of their chief apostle, but their tears
will be unavailing to restore their late candi-
date to political life. Dean Swift had
whimsical fancy that the very seeds of hemp
tend to suffocation even when stepped and
passing down the inside of the throat in the
innocent form of q tea but there can be no
doubt as to the external effect of full grown
hemp when applied to that part of the hui
man frame. Poor Mr.. Pendleton died of
greenbacks, for, although he wonderfully
survived the dilution of the currency
when taken internally MS mental theory
lie
The greenback theory is the seed of the
greenback practice, imitation stimulating the
desire to become suddenly rich Mr. PEN
dleton has not been politically suffocated by
greenback seed, but by the matured fibre
applied, not to his neck, but his fingers
There is no form in which either hemp or the
greenback is so deadly as by external con-
tact. With only the greenback heresy in his
head Mr.. Pendleton might have continued
to go in and out among us as an eminent
politician, but with the concrete greenbacks
of railroad company and minor children
sticking to his hands he is rs dead ns Schuy-
Ter Colfax. Those eighty thousand dollars
are garment of greenbacks which serve
both as Nessus shirt and winding sheet


The honest voters of no political party
would desire President who would admin
lister his public trust as Mr. Pendle-
ton has administered private trust.
1t was q double trust which Mr..
Pendleton abused In the first place, he
was president of the railroad to whom the
money was due, if due at all, and he had no
right, rs the responsible guardian of its in
terests, by a bargain between himself as
president and himself as claim agent, to
convey into his own pockets the greater part
of the money which really belonged to the
road In the second place, he was the ad-
ministrator of an estate which owned three
ifths of the road, and o great part of the
money which he appropriated to his own
use was the property of minor children in
capable of defending themselves and depend
ent on him to protect their interests. If he
had had no official connection with the road
and no fiduciary connection with the heirs of
the estate, and his whole relation to the case
had been that of an outside counsel or claim
agent, the driving of such bargain would
not have been creditable; but in his double
trust as the representative of parties to whom
the money belonged such bargain was
disreputable and scandalous The consent
of other parties in interest is no defence nor
even palliation. The minority interest
could not help themselves, and he, as the
representative of the controlling interest
betrayed his trust when he took advantage of
his position to divert their property into his
own pockets. 1t is idle to say that it was an
agreement, because he was the only party to
the agreement on either side. AS president
Of the road it was his clear duty to collect
the claim in its interest and exact no greater
compensation than is ordinarily given for
similar services. A man of n fastidious
sense of honor would have taken no pay at
all for such service, beyond his regular
salary as president OF the road of whose
interests he was the guardian but he might
honestly have reimbursed the expenses of
his two journeys to Washington with
reasonable compensation for his time on the
scale he would have charged an ordinary
client. His npacity and breach of trust
have given him an everlasting quietus as an
aspirant 70 high political honors.