Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1882 — SECOR ROBESON. [ARTICLE]

SECOR ROBESON.

Public Career of the Republican Leader In the Howe, [From The Hour.] Robeson’s management of the Navy Department has made the two administrations of Gen. Grant memorable in our history. In unblushing corruption, abuse of power and general rascality there is nothing to compare with it in this country. It was worse and more infamous than even the robber rule of Tweed in New York. Rings of favorite contractors made enormous fortunes at the expense of the Government; millions of dollars were spent on ships which at the end of his eight years in office proved to be in no better condition than they were before. Mr. Robeson was a poor man when he drew the first installment of his salary of SB,OOO a year as Secretary. Seven years afterward, when a Democratic committee of Congress put him through the fire of investigation and overhauled his bank account in five different banks, it was shown that he had in this short space of time deposited the enormous sum of $467,546.63, or more than eight times his salary for the whole seven {rears. It was also proved that one of lis intimate friends had made in commissions alone on the purchase of clothing for the navy the sum of $150,000. The records show that this favored speculator made Mr. Robeson a present of a Long Branch cottage without one cent of consideration. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were squandered in foolish experiments testing so-called guns ; coal contracts proved to be more valuable than gold mines to their possessors, and alleged shipbuilders made fortunes in repairing and building vessels which a distinguished naval officer said could neither fight nor run away from the enemy in the event of war. The more money Robeson obtained to spend on the navy the less navy we had, and it is very probable that if he had remained in office under Hayes there would not have been even a Captain’s gig left in the service when Garfield was inaugurated. Robeson’s record in the Navy Department may be summed up in a very few words : He destroyed mors ships of war than any naval commander in the world, from Lord Nelson down, and in seven years of peace created more havoo in the American navy than the British in tho war of 1812, or the Confederates in the late “unpleasantness.” * * If Robeson had been at the head of the British Admiralty for the past four or five years, Arabi Pasha would be able to solve the Egyptian problem in twenty-four hours, for it is very cert iin that under his management Admiral Seymour’s guns would be far more dangerous to those who served and manned them than to the Alexandrian forts. [From the Sun.] WHERE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY STANDS TO-DAY. A public man, who, in presence of the House of which ho is a member, and substantially in presence of the whole country, quietly submits to being branded as a liar, a thief and a perjurer, must be deserving of the stigma thus fixed on his front. No invective, no recrimination, and no noisy hurling back of epithets can relieve him from the scorn of his fellow-men. Six years ago, in a formal report, Mr. Whitthorne officially exposed the corruption and jobbery of Secor Robeson. The public judgment was formed on the facts then established. He is universally regarded as the most successful plunderer yet seen in this country. During that investigation, and when the testimony had been made clear that the naval service was prostituted to the personal gain of the Secretary and of his confederates, every effort that a diabolical ingenuity could contrive was employed to impair the moral force of the report then about to be made, and to injure Mr. Whitthorne in the public estimation. At that time W. J. Murtagh was the ostensible proprietor of the Republican , at Washington, and one of Robeson’s most pliant tools. Robeson gave him an interest in jobs and loaned him money. Murtagh was a daily visitor of Robeson’s, and was in his closest confidence. He was also the President of the Washington Police Board. It was proven before a committee of the House that a conspiracy was organized in the police force to intrap Mr. Whitthorne into a house of ill fame, and then to silence him by a threat of exposure. The scoundrels mistook their man, and the plot fell through. It has never been doubted by those familiar with the facts that this infamous scheme was hatched between Robeson and the best Droof of their dread of the exposure made by the Whitthorne investigation, not because either of them cared for the disgrace, but because it would cut off their profits in contracts and their opportunities for public robbery. When this conspiracy became known, it—was intended to make the Police Board inquire into the facts. But Robeson was sufficiently powerful at the White House to prevent this movement. Gen. Grant requested the resignation of all the members of the board except Murtagh, who alone was criminated in this foul business. No wonder Secor Robeson stood unabashed when Mr. Whitthorne branded him in the House. Though smarting with a ooward’s pain under the lash of justice, he was all the while counting his share of the spoili in the monitor job, and calculating when it might go into effect. He would have tranquilly borne more punisnment if there had gone with it a promise of increased profit. This rotten politician whose name is a byword, and whose character is a burning scandal in decent society, stands forth to-day as the leader of the Republican party in the House of Representatives. He made the Speaker. He is Chairman of the Republican caucus. He is Chairman practically of the committee to decide what measures shall be considered at this session. He is second on the Appropriations, second on Naval Affairs, first on Expenditures of the Navy, and second on Rules of the House. No other man in the House enjoys the same distinction, and no other man exercises an influence approaching that which Secor Robeson exerts. Many personally upright Republicans, who shun him as a moral leper, and who denounce him as venal, follow his lead in the party and vote for his jobbing bills, knowing them to be outrageous. The party which is willing to Carry this disgraceful burden, and to sustain a leader whose touch is pollution, and whose pqblio career is th*t of tt reckless

highwayman, is doomed to crushing defeat, and it cannot be long deferred.