Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1880 — The Republican Candidate for Vice President [ARTICLE]

The Republican Candidate for Vice President

New York Sun. Two years ago Chestei A. Arthur was removed ly Hayes and Sherman from the office of Collector of the Port of New York, on the direct charge

of Ineficiency, with the implied charge of dishonesty. In his message to the Senate of January 31. 1879, Mr. Hayes said: With my information of the facts in the case, and with a deep sense of the responsible obligation imposed upon me by the Constitution, to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” I regard it as my plain duty to snspen : the officers in question, and to make the nominations now before the Senate, in order that this important office may be honestly and efficiently administered. In order that the custom laws might be faithfully executed, Mr Hayes found himself compelled, by a deep sense of duty, to remove Chester A. Arthur. In order that the Custom House might be efficiently managed, Mr. Hayes regarded it as his plain duty to remove Chester A. Arthur.

In order that the office might be honestly administered, he felt obliged to remove Chester A. Aithur. In Mr. Hayes’ view, the then Collector of the Port of New York was neither a faithful, a competent, nor|an honest officer of the Government. What was John Sherman’s opinion of General Arthur at that time? In a letter to Hayes, dated January 28, 1879, Mr. Sherman said: “If, to secure the removal of an officer, it is necessary to establish the actual commission of a crime by proofs demanded in a court of justice, then it is clear that the case against Mr. Arthur is not made out, especially if his answer is held to be conclusive, without reference to the proofs on the public records and tendered to the Committee and the Senate. But if it is to be held that, to procure the removal of Mr. Arthur, it is sufficient to reasonably establish that gross abuses of administration have continued and increased during his incumbency; that many persons have been paid on his rolls who rendered little or no service; that the expenses of his office have increased, while collections were diminishing; that bribes, or gratuities in the nature of bribes, have been received by his subordinates in several branches of tlie Custom House; that efforts to correct»these abuses have not met his support, and that ho has not given to ths duties of the office the requisite diligence and attention, then it is submitted that the case is made out. This form of proof tne Department is prepared to submit.” In short, John Sherman claimed to have proof in his possession that Chester A. Arthur was either a fool, incapable of watching the thieves whom he cherished in his office, or a rascal who winked at. their crimes.— Indeed, he plainly insinuated that no. tiling except the actual legal evidence of Arthur’s criminality was wanting to put that official into prison instead of into retirement.

What a gratification it must be to General Arthur and to his many warm Mends to find this very same John Sherman, and Rutherford B. Hayes now supporting him for Vice President of the United States. The Cincinnati Enquirer thus refers to the result of the. labors of the Chicago radical Convention; * * * The convention had gotten itself into such a condition that it could not name a candidate who could be elected, and the beaten candidates are alone to be congratulated, Garfield is nominated, but doomed to defeat. We shall recall none of the disagreeable things we have said about hili, and shall wage no personal warfare upon him during the campaign ; but we have said nothing which forbids us now to say that nis public record cannot endure the daylight or bear the scrutiny of a campaign. Apart from transactions connected with the public business, which do not become an honorable, lofty, public man, his attitude upon important public questions has guaranteed his defeat. He was nominated in the hope of holding a state never lost to the republican party in a national election. This was his only claim. His position upon the silver question and the currency questions will forbid his carrying Indiana, and his position upon the Chinese question will probably give the States of the Pacific slope to the democracy, Garfield op posed the anti-C’binesc bill in the forty-fifth congress, and voted to sustain the president’s veto- of it. He had previously opposed an amendment to a bill as follows: “That no Chinese or coolie labor shall be so employed as to displace white labor ” This, with the laboring men of the Pacific coast, and elsewhere, will be sufficient. After the Chicago fight Garfield cannot expect to carry New York or the outlying states of Con necticut and New Jersey, nor can he hope to carry any southern state.