Year: 1870




How Berener Does Up His "ArEuments'' In


EnveIOpes-His Wnr RecOrd-LOwry Gives


the People n "Smelp' of the DencOn's VIle-


ness.


Senator Lowry has kept his promise and fur
nished us with another epistle addressed to
Deacon" George Bergner, the leader of the
Harrisburg ring. The letter reads as follows


HARRIsBURe, March g. 1870.
DEACON GEORGE BERGNBR-


At the conclusion of my letter of yesterday
/ left you kissing like serpent at me for voting
against the Metropolitan Police infamy, because
you could not use me, and cooling like dove
to Governor Geary for vetoing this same
measure, that thrift might follow fawning"
In this you manifested about the same consist
ency as you do upon the bill for the establish
ment of a new county with its seat at Titusvile.
In your vile paper heretofore, which boasts
of leading the great Republican party of Penn
sylvania you have charged me at least a score of
times with being personally interested In it to
q very large amount in securing the passage of
the measure; and in the same paper OF the oath,
after you had done your Infamous work, there
you say that went back upon my personal
interest Ga thing that you were never accused of
doing), and defeated the passage of the new
county bill in the House. In my simplicity
had not supposed, until you made the wonder
full discovery that controlled both branches of
the Legislature. But was led to believe from
rumors ia the ears of every one, and what was
manifest to all, that there we're at least more
than thirty men of the House who could each
produce two hundred better reasons than you
give in your paper. These private reasons, If
rumor be true, were given by you to them in
envelopes.


You always have boasted that you could pur-
chase more Democrats with the same money
than you could Republicans, and your negotia-
| tions upon the new county bill satisfies me that
| for once you told the truth. You always pur-
chase at the lowest market price, and sell at the
| highest.


But this is q depression from the main object
| of my letters which have started with. They
were not SO much to defend myself as to expose
| you and will not in the future be switched off
upon any side track. How dare you question
| my Republicanism, and that of a band of men
| too honest to be bought anil too brave to be
| driven into voting for candidate for State
| Treasurer, when they knew, and everybody
| knew that your organization had corrupted q
majority of the caucus before you had called
| them together?


| George Bergner, you sir, have had an unnter-
rupted career of fraud at the capital, gathering
| gains from every act of wrong perpetrated by the
vile of both parties in the Legislature, and were
always more willing to enter into alliance with
political foes for plundering the Treasury than
to unite with political friend to protect it. 1t
| is no secret that your paper is vile organ of a
| dangerous 'ring," and the defender and coverer
persistent practice, have lived in the faith that
| the end of all public life should inure to the
| corrupt fortunes of prohigate adventurers, of
whom you, few years ago, were mere ap-
prentice, but are now chief should not call in
question the integrity or Republicanism of any
| man.


now propose in this letter, and that which is
| to follow, to dissect your political course, and
let the people of this State smell of you, and
they will be enabled to say with certainty who
have been the betrayers of the party and the
plunderers of the State. For forty years have
been careful observer of politics at Harrisburg,
and for nine years, and during all the reign of
terror through which we have passed, 1 have
been watchful man of your course. Among
the masses of the great majority which compose
the Republican party its principles are held
sacred and dear, and those Republicans who
this year refused to vote for your candidate for
State Treasurer are among the best men in the
State and from the most faithful Republican coun-
ties. You were here at Harrisburg when thou
sands laid down their lives in their devotion
to the principles of the Republican party,
and to-day the country is filed with the widows
and the orphans of the heroic martyrs At Har-
risburg, in the circle where you move, when the
nation was bleeding at every pore the only in
centive that entered the heart of you and your
associates was to plunder-feasting on the holy
offerings that others made to insure the safety
of the Government! You, during these times
were clinching your games, and selling and re-
selling your influence with your horses and
mules, when the brave, the generous, and the
patriotic were spilling their blood and scatter
ing their fortunes to crush treason.


The war, thank God, has now passed. Recon
| struction is a fixed fact, and good mems fears
are not that the Government will be lost from
| enemies without, but that it will be destroyed
by coYruptionists, like yourself, from within
The Office of State Treasurer has been one o


the mediums through which you and your con


federates have boldly corrupted State politics


debauched both political parties, and outraged


the people at large. 1t Is no secret at Harris


burg that every man, probably, save one, who


has held the office of State Treasurer since 1860


and many before that day, purchased, or by dis


honorable means procured, the votes of a sufIi
| cient number of members to elect him before


the caucus was called. The caucus system o


nominations, which is a protection for party or


ganization, has under your management becom
| gigantic machine moved and controlled b,
| bad men 10 perpetrate stupendous villainies
The breaking up OF this organization by an.
means and by all means was not only publ
, duty but private virtue, andyour indignation a
those who broke 1t up Is the best evidence o
| their virtues. By means of the caucus the candi
dates for State Treasurer are forced by you an
: | your paper and your co-conspirators, to eXpen
thousands of dollars to obtain the place, or {


give you the whole treasury of the State to b


used for venal purposes. There is no attemI
, | to keep this fact secret. You have been a
!, | active dealer In such business fC
: more than ten years, managing in thi
: | time Qor before that you were compari
IS | lively poor many TO amass an immens
n | fortune, and which by far the greater porto


thereof, by this and other legislative and go


ernmental rascalities, has come out of IL


pockets of taxpayers or corporations th


sought legislation at Harrisburg. All these gail
l. were accumulated to gorge the avarice ar
IN greed of the vile body of men that the be


men in Pennsylvania now look upon as Il
Of greatest criminals of the age. do not asse