Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1882 — LETTER FROM WASHINGTON. [ARTICLE]

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.

P The New York Tribune puts it this way - It the Guiteau Stalwarts will now retire permanently from business the country will rejoice. Goodland Herald: Bans Howland of the Rensaelaei Marble Works was in town this week, The flue »»on< er. ct d over th- grave of Mrs. WieKwire was put un by Mr Ho ' 1 n 1 A new system of fraud is I < " practiced-that of splitting goven-m-nt notes without disturbing ue liber, making two dollars for every one. Several cr.se s have recently been discovered. General Hancock refused to call a court martial to try Sergeant Mason, the man who attempted to shoot Guiteau Garfiield triumphed over Han cock but the General evidently has a strong contempt for the doomed murderer. Valparaiso Vidette: At Laporte last spring Luke Francis broke his arm; s on after lightning struck and burnt. Lis barn, since then he was laid up with rheumatism until week befor last wh-n lie sU'pt out and slipt down, breaking Loth arms and 1 kg. The Chicago Times, in a well dig sted arti-de. shows the fallacy and a surdity ->f the ci emies of Fitz John Potter to crush him by giving publicity to two letters writtin by James A Garfield in 1880, one to Mr Lee, Consul General to Frankfort, and th-) other to Mr. Jaeob D Cox, of - Ohio, in which he reaffirmed his con vietiou of Porter’s g iil r . In both of these letters Garfield assumed that a condemnation of himself, and could, therefore, not be thought of. This is no good argument why the Fitz John Porter case should not be reopened amt reversed. The finding of the court was a travesty upon justice. and history so records it. Reynolds, editor of the demoeratic paper at Monticello, recently skipped leading many creditors to mourn his absence. He was an ex lowa republican. Moral Nevar trust an exlowa republican editor to run a democratic paper.—Rensselaer Sentinel. Too true Mac. When a republican editor gets low enough to run a democratic newspaper he’ll stand a good deal of watching.—Monticello Herald.

Yes, just so When a republican editor gets low enough to run a democratic paper, he is about as low as was Judas when he presumed to play the part of an apostle. The cause of democracy is all right and is not damaged thereby, but the hypocrisy of a Republican, in attempting to assume the robes of a democrat is only equaled by that of Judas when he attempted the role of a ChristianJudas went and barged himself. Is it asking too much for these fellows to “go thou and do likewise.” A writer in the New York Tribune comes to the rescue of scoville in his charge that ‘Ex Senator Conklin, expresident Grant and President Arthur are mcrally responsible for the hideous crime committed by a ‘Stalwart of the Stalwarts’ under the influence of their teachings.” As a matter of course Mr. Scoville will never be able to saddle any considerable per cent, of Geiteau’s crime upon the distinguished Stalwarts named, but it is ikely to be universally conceded that but for the factional fipht in which they engaged with Blaine and Garfield over spoils, Garfield would be alive to-day. The writer savs: Of course Mr. Conkling did not mean to cause a physical assassiution of the president. But he did mean to assassinate the character and reputation of President Garfield, and so far succeeded with one passionate follower that Guiteau was moved to put the president out of the way. So of General Grant and President Arthur; according to the measure of their zeal in making unjust war upon President Garfield, they are responsible before God and their countrymen for results which they never contemplated. The Tribune writer proceeds to dis cues Guiteau’s sanity, and concludes that, while the acts of Conkling, Grant and Arthur inflneno Guiteau to perpetrate the crime, it does not fellow that he was insane. He says: Guiteau was swayed by the influ ence of those leaders, but that is no proof of insanity. He was fired by their desperate spirit of faction, but that does not prove him irresponsible. Both commited great wrongs, each as er his own nature. The coarse dead-beat and habitual break er o' 1 all laws resorted to a vulgar and brutal crime to wreak his vengeance and gain his ends. The men intellectual power sought to slay in a more refined and far more cruel way. To each. Piesident Garfield was an obstacle. The Stalwart leaders tried to sweep him from the path by the used of their honored names and large influence, by their skill in political management, by rankling insults or poisoned shafts of blander. The stalwarts follower, lacking their weapons and fearing that these would fail, loaded a revolver. If he was crazy to believe their accusations, they were crazy to make them. He was reckless enough to shoot at the man. They were desperate enough to stab the President’s honor, and to aim deadly blows at his rightful official influence, the fuiy and desperation of either will not srand as proof of Insanity. Nor will the people hold either free from responsibility. Such logic and conolusions have a terrible ring in them—all the more terrible because the individuals named are believed to have drawn the “highest prizes in the lottery of assassination.” Mr. Arthur is President. General Grant, it is believed, dictates the policy of his (Arthur’s) Administration, while there is little doubt but that Mr. Conkling will on be at the head of the Treasury Taken altogether, the position occr.« pied by the Republican party could scarcely be worse.

Conreepcmdenoe of the SeutirH. Washington, Jan. 30,1882. And already, almost before you cau bring the charges on “Jack Robin son,” we are within a day of the close of the first month of the New year.” The echoes of our congratulations on th • advent of “the seasons are scarcely cold as February is forceing to tne "front supplant the memory of the joys and surprises’ which but of yesterday. And the Guiteau 'trial is alsc another thing of the past, with a ver diet of Guilty at 5: 30 P. M. of Fri lay i fte !es ; ibnii mi xites telUtii i'll by Ur juiy. l.b’Uled .oub less I.uui a (O’lVi.-ti'H; accent d by the bitter d.-vl.iHitions of Judge loner, that uoihing ei.si <vould Satisfy anexpeciait public deHand, The verdict was rendered a f ter the shades of night had been falling, In a court room render- d more gloomy by the flickering of measly candles, all the aevcssot ies being in keeping with what betit uieh an occassion. The trial is over, but not the end of the case, and how the victim received it and the verdict he passed upon that of the “twelve good men and true”- for conviction - di that you have long ere these lines roach you. With the legal bosibil ities and probabilities, and the air and the newspapers are full of them. I shall not woiry myself nor you. My )\vn views, and tin y seem to be almost exclusively mine, have hcreto.ore been expressed, and they have ludergene no change through or by those in the adverse so eeutculiously xpressed by the wearied juiy. Ex secretary Huitz, late h-.iid oi t lio Interior Department under sneak-thief Hayes, is being very es fectually waimedup. H's official re •ord is male as tortuous as tnose of slimy John Sherman, and Tyner & Brady’s in the post Office depart ruent. Ab a snivling advocate of uivilservice refoim bis profession and his practice have been fearfully at variance. Wether in his individually capacity as a citizen of Wisconsin or in his official relation as a trus tee of the government he is either wretchedly slandered or is one of the basest of swindlers. I need not recapitulate the evidence that impales him between these alternative situ ations, for I doubt not your columns will have already supplied your read ers with the developments that have come out as the result of Senuto r Teller’s resolutions of inquiry about the lapsed land grants. And jus l here let me remark, that as I do not like to read repititions of like mat' ter, although in different forms in one issue of a newspaper, '! am often puzzled how to escape it in my correspondence. Hence, when I strike a topic which I think yoir columns will anticipate, in giving the details I confine myself to comment evoked by the prevailing sentiment of the Capital. In this connection let me ask you, if you have not already done so, to read and print the Chicago InterOcean exposes, and the interview with Hon. Sidney Clarke by a reporter of The World. I think I have before alluded to John Sherman’s posing as the advo cate of a three per cent, issued of bonds. The debate on bis bill has been going o» for some days, ard has developed that ho and his successor, Windom, who extended the matured bonds at three-and a-half per cent., are working themselves up to a point when, but for the cowardice of Sherman, mutual affection would be demonstrated in hugging each other—to death, whieh would be far from a public calanify Secretary Frelinghuysen takes the back-track on the Chili Peruvian imbroglio. Mr. Blaine, December Ist, instructed Mr.Trescott, our representative in Chili, that the United States discountenanced ,the absorption of Peruvian territory, and that if Chili pesisbed in exacting territorial in' demnity the United States would in tervene by force on the 3d and 4th of January, Mr. Frelinghuysen addressed pacific tellegrams to Mr. Treseott, modifying very muqh the bellicose instruction of Ms. Blaine, and on the 9th sent him a long note saying the President desires no dictation to either power as to the merit of the controversy, to indemnity, or change of boundary. Chili was made to un derstand, as against the United States, she could carve up Peru at her pleasure. If both gentlemen spoke the judgment of President Arthur, as doubtless they did, his mind has undergone, and rapidly, a remarkable change. It has been a subject of anxious discussion and reflection by their Senate Sub-Appropriation Committee whether to continue tbe investigation of the expenditures of the Treasury contingued bond. They managed for some time to confine the testimony in theii limits that would uot uncover John Sherman too nak* edly step by step, spito of these precautious, the scope Of the inquiry widened and deepened, discloseing bow tha. ambitious Buckeye “visiting Statesman” had used, it and the patronage of the department to for ward and promote his aspiration for the presidential nomination at Chicago. The expenses of his canvass includeing that of the delegates he managed to secure, were all paid out of the contingent fund. Upon general consultation, it is understood, the leaders have impressed the committee with the conviction that the republican party can better afford to sacrifice Sherman than give the Democrats the handle they would hae in another campaign upon them. This is the aspect the matter presents now, and the investigation is likely to be opened to the full ventilation of all John Sherman’s villainous

cchemes, arts, tricks and official malversation. The latest cabinet rum* ers indicate Howe for secretary of the Treasuy,*and “Me Too” Flat 1 for postmaster general. The appointment of Effigy S rgent to thw Interior still hangs fire. H