Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1880 — GARFIELD DENOUNCED BY THE REPUBLICANS OF HIS OWN DISTRICT. [ARTICLE]

GARFIELD DENOUNCED BY THE REPUBLICANS OF HIS OWN DISTRICT.

GENERAL GARFIELD’S REPUBLICAN CONSTITUENTS PASS JUDGMENT. On the 7th of September, 1876, the Republicans of the Nineteenth Congressional District of Ohio opposed to the return of James A. Garfield to Congress met. in Convention at Warren, Ohio, and organized. A. committee on resolutions was appointed, which, after mature consideration, submitted the following, which was adopted: Be it by this independent convention of Republicans of the Nineteenth Congressional District of Ohio, First. Rcsdlved, That dishonesty, fraud and corruption have become so common, notorious and obvious in the administration of our national government, as to be not only humiliating and disgraceful in the estimation of every honest and intelligent citizen, but to imperil the prosperity of the people, if not the stability of the government Itself. Second. Resolved, That this deplorable condition of the administration of ournational government is largely due to the election to office and continuance therein of corrupt, dishonest and venal men. Third. Resolved, That it is useless and hypocritical for any political party to declare for reform In its platforms, papers and publie addresses, while it insists on returning to high official place and power men who nave been notoriously connected with the very schemes of fraud which render reform necessary and urgent; that to send those to enact reform who themselves need reform to make them honest, ia worse than setting the blind to lead the blind. Fourth. Aexoiwetl, That there is no man to-day officially connected with the administration of our national government against whom are justly preferred more or graver charges of corruption than are publicly made and abundantly sustained against James A. Garfield, the present representative of this Congressional District and the nomine® of the Republican convention for re-election. Fifth. Resolved, That since he first entered Congress to this day, there is scarcely an instance in which rings and monopolies have been arrayed against the interests of the people, that he has been found active in speech and vote upon the side of the latter, but in almost every case he has been the ready champion of rings and monopolie^^fe ;; Sixth. Resolved, That we especially charge venality and cowardice in permitting Benjamin to' attach to the Appropriation Bill of 1873 that ever-t<F§e-re-membered infamy, the salary steal, and in speaking and voting for that measure upon its final passage; and charge him with corrupt disregard of the clearly expressed demand of its constituents that be should vote for its repeal, and with evading said demand by voting for the Hutchinson amendment.

Seventh. Hesolved, That we further arraign and denounce him for his corrupt connection with the Credit Mobilier, for his false denials thareof before his constituents, for his perjured denial thereof before a committee of his peers in Congress, for fraud upon his constituents in circulating among them a pamphlet purporting to set forth the findings of said committee and the evidence against him, when, in fact, portions thereof were omitted and garbled. Eighth. .Resolved, That we further arraign and charge him with corrupt bribery in selling his official influence as Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations to the De Golyer Pavement Ring, to aid them in securing a contract from the Board of Public Works of the District of Columbia; selling his influence to aid said ring in imposing upon the people of said District a pavement whieh is almost worthless at a price three times its cost, as sworn to by one of the contractors; selling his influence to aid said ring in procuring a contract to procure which it corruptly paid $97,000 “ for influence; ” selling his Influence In a matter that involved no question of law, upon a shallow pretext that he was acting as a lawyer; selling his influence in a manner so palpable and clear as to be so found and declared by an impartial and competent Court upon an issue solemnly tried. Ninth. Resolved, That we arraign him for the fraudulent manner In whieh he attempted," in his speech delivered at Warren on the 19th day of September, 1874, to shield himself from just censure in receiving the before-named $5,000, by falsely representing in said speech that the Congress of the Unitedtetates were not responsible for the acts of said board, noMlie United States liable for the debts created thereby, when in truth and In fact, as he then well knew, the said Board of Public Works and the officers of said District were but the agents and instruments of Congress, and the United States was responsible for the indebtedness by them created. 'Tenth. Resolved, That we arraign him for gross dereliction of duty as a member of Congress'in failing to bring to light and expose the corruption and abuse in the sale of posttpiderships, for which the late Secretary Belknap was impeached, when the same was brought to his knowledge by Gen. Hazen in 1872, and can only account for it upon the supposition that his manhood was debauched by the corruption funds then by just received and in his own purse. Eleventh. Resolved, That the law of 1873, known as the act demonetizing silver, was enacted in the interest of gold rings, bondholders and capitalists and against the interest of the taxpayers and without their advice or knowledge. That this act, by a single blow, has seriously crippled our power to resume specie payments or pay our national debt in coin. That no sufficient reason has been given for this legislation, so dishonest and palpable in its discrimination in favor of the small creditor class and capitalists and against the great debtor class and the industrial interests of the country. That James A. Garfield, during the last session of Congress, was the conspicuous defender of this crafty attempt to sacrifice the interests of the people to bondholders and foreign capitalists. That when it was proposed to restore the old silver dollar to the place it had held during our history as a nation as a legal tender for all debts, public and private, he denounced the attempt as “ a swindle on so grand a scale as to make the achievement illustrious ” and as a “ scheme of vast rascality and colossal swindling.” Twelfth. Resolved, That neither great ability and experience or eloquent partisan discussion of the dead issue»of the late war will excuse or justify past dishonesty and corruption or answer as a guaranty of integrity and purity for the future.

Thirteenth. Resolved, That believing the statements In the foregoing resolutions set forth, we cannot, without stultifying our manhood and debasing our self-respect, support at the polls the nominee of the Republican Conventioaof this District for rc-eleetion, ner can we, without surrendering our rights as electors and citizens, sit silently by and see a man so unworthy again sent to represent us in the national legislature. That, strong in the conviction of right, we call upon the electors of the District, irrespective of former or present party attachment, who desire honest government, to unite with us in an earnest, faithful effort to defeat the reelection of Gen. Garfield, and elect in his stead an honest and reliable man. The result of this expose was a majority for Mr. Garfield of twenty-nine hundred and nleety-oae votes less than the head of the Republican state ticket- received in the Nineteenth District. Garfield’s majority w« 3,669 less in for Congressional District in diun Hayes received in it his President. AN ADDRESS TO THE REPUBLICAN VOTERS OP THE NINETEENTH (OHIO) CORaRBSSJONAL DISTRICT. September 10,1878. Fellow CUiuns; We who address you were appointed a committee for this purpose by an independent convention of Republicans assembled for the purpose of putting in nomination a suitable person as candidate for Congress in opposition to James A. Garfield. The eause whieh Impelled the ealling of that convention and inspired its action are set forth in the resolutions by it adopted and printed herewith. To the indictment contained in those resolutions and the evidence submitted in support thereof, we respectfully eall your attention and ask year aandid consideration. * We have no grievances. We never sought favors at Mr. Garfield’s hands, and have no personal ntarrelwith him 0n the contrary we have been among h& warmest political friends and supporters and now only attack his acts and conduct in public Bfe and the character he has thereby attained. It is easier to float with the tide than to row against It and we regret the necessity that compels us to denounce him. It is fitting that as true men wo should seek the cause and remedy for this state and w» look not to nor long.

Corruption in office and want of wisdom in legislation loom up before u». We review with pride our party history and achievements, but we now tee fraud in high places eating at its vitals. Its revenue officers are found stealing and dividing with whisky rings. Its secretaries sell post traders^ips 1’ Congressmen raise their own salaries and make them retr - active ; take great fees for argument on pavement jobs beta boards of their own creation and pocket the dividends.^. great frauds like the Credit Mobilier. Corruption rides in $1,600 landaulets, purchased at government expense, and Congressmen build palaces at the Capital while the people toil and sweat under their burdens—they forget that they but the servants of the nation and act as if they were its owners seeking to wring from it the greatest possible number of dollars for their own purposes. The Republican party has done mueh to purify itself within itself Its Whisky Ring revenue officers are convicted and imprisoned, Belknap is deposed and impeached, and only escapes conviction by a technicality. Its Salary Stealing, Credit Mobilier, Pavement Jobbing Congressmen are mostly retired. James A. Garfield remains. Richard C. Parsons, his compeer as a great patent pavement lawyer, nominated without opposition in a district Republican last year by 6,500 majority, was buried at the polls by Henry B. Payne, a Democrat, by 2,500 majority. The office-holders nominated him, but the brave, honest people rebuked them. James A. Garfield fell from 10,935 majority in 1872 to 2,526 majority in 1874. “ Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! ” Rebuked, shorn of character tor truth and integrity, all that is noble in manhood almost defeated, he stands a sad and blackened monument of avarice and greed. By the arts of the orator and demagogue, of which he is a consummate master, he is striving and struggling and may postpone the day of his final doom ; but he bears upon his front the writing on the wall, “ mene, mene, tekel upharsin.” “ Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” Forgetting his duty to his country and his constituents, in his haste to serve bis bond-holding masters, on the 13th of July, 1876, he committed himself to the defence of that great fraud upon the people, the demonetization of the silver dollar, and denounced its restoration as a “swindle on so vast a scale as to make the achievement illustrious?’ That, speech) so weak in its logic and so damning in its political heresies, and so ruinous te the high pretensions of. statesmanship of its author, is suppressed by the Republican, editors of his district and is only to be found in the Congressional Record. Holding post-offices and places of emolument at his will, they dare to raise their voices only in his praise. If the Republican party would survive, it must strike from its rolls the . last dishonored name and select only honest, true and brave men to fill its high places. Flaming .oratory upon the horrors of Andersonville and Libby, and ihe disordered condition of the South, are a poor compensation for want of integrity. The fools who believe that another great rebellion or payment of the rebel debt are imminent, are only found in the post-oifiees and lunatic asylums. The people know better, and that cry of the demagogue to arouse their fears, that he may get their votes, ought to be of no avail. 6 G. N. Tuttle, P. Bosworth, H. H. Hine, of Lake county. z _. J. A. Giddings, of Ashtabula. [Son of Joshua R. Giddings.] D. E. Durfee, of Geauga. L. D. Brown, of Portage. A. Youmans, of Trumbull.