Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1883 — PINKING FISHBACK [ARTICLE]

PINKING FISHBACK

[From Ihe Ihdianapolif- Sentinel.]

A Master of ( Tiicankry on the Retreat. A Very HhndSomk Uiece ob Tanning the Human Skin and Preserning Like, Hon. W. P. Fishback: Sir— l read your letters, addressed to Hon. Stanton J. Peelle, upon tariff reform as they were published, a nd closely watched to see what influence they might have upon the politicians oi your party, and what might be the sequel of your apparently bold and independent action. It was not long till were rife that your Commissioner States Court vffnzPPrbp into the basket as the penalty of your having dared to condemn the action of your party and its officials. At this point I became still more eager to see what the result of your course would be because I felt that if a man could be found who was willing, for the sake of principle, to surrender a position worth $20,000 a year we might still hope tojjfte able to throttle the gigantic monopolies that now threaten the existence of our Republic. I found, however, by reading your letter, addressed to the editor of the Franklin Democrat, in Saturday’s News, that the elevation you attained only served to increase the force and velocity fall; and that, like Mr. Peelle, whom you so bitterly denounced, when it came to a question whether you should vacate a lucrative position, principles were readily sacrificed for the sake of place. To the quesby the editor of as to whether you would be loyal to your convictions at the next election or vote the Republican ticket upon a high protective platform, you not ontysubmit to the lash of your party,, but attempt to fortify your retreat with a clap-trap that has become stale and offensive to all fair-minded Republicans. After stating that you will vote the Republican ticket (which no one who was acquainted with you ever doubted) because pou have greater hones of reform from your own than the Democratic party, you descend, in your attempt to excuse your utter lack of sincerity, to a depth of degradation of principle that shows you to be more of a fawning partisan than Mr. Peelle, even when he bowed to the behests of the Eastern monopolists and supported the iniquitous tariff bill you so bitterly denounced. — While he followed the leaders of his party and supported a measure which he believed would contribute to its success, you pretended to rise above party and from honest motives condemn an act which yon believed an outrage upon the laboring people and before your words of indignation have grown cold, from personal considerations you crawl back into the ranks of your party and don that old, tattered and dirty garment, “the bloody shirt,'’ that even Mr. Peelle long since cast off as indecent. My object, however, is not to call your attention to the unenvi able position you have placed yourself In, and thereby the attention of the public to the fact that genuine reform is less to be expected from you than any member of your party, so long as you have any personal interest at stake, but to expose the falsehoods behind which you have taken cover, and no doubt feel that by their utterance you have more than reinstated yourself in the affections of your party. Your charge that the leaders of the Democratic party opposed the war, the payment of the bonds and the raising of money to pay the soldiers, etc.,

has been so often answered by s ich men as General Hancock Lymati Trumbull anl otlie. s that I am surprised that you could find nothing better to cover your retreat. In concluding your answer you say, “You ask me if I shall repudiate a party which has always been right for a party that has not been on the right side ot anything for a quarter of a century. I say no!" Mirabile *dictu! What of the whisky rings, the custom house frauds, the Indian frauds, the Star Route fraud. ? Et id omne genus. Your memory must be short indeed. Only last March in a letter to Mr. Peelle you said: “I think I understand when you say the interest of the party demanded sncli laws. Such laws put money in the pockets of bankers and manufacturers. Bankers and manufacturers will contribute of this money to the campaign fund, and men like Dorsey will come to Indiana again as they came in 1880, and disburse 400,000 in the Denison House parlors, to be used in buying voters, hiring repeaters, bribing election officers to stuff ballot-boxes and falsify election returns.” After all these frauds of the Republican party, which have become a part of the history of its reign, and after your own voluntary confession that it is now in power by bribery and corruption,your discovery “that it has always been right” is j n the nature of a revelation. Continuing, you say: “You certainly do not seriously ask about my vote for State officers and members of the Legislature. Whatever remnant of confidence the public may have had in the ability of your party to manage our State a (fairs was lost by t the conduct , f the last Dem-! ocraticLegi tore.' 1 Wi*l you please infor the public what I the Legislature did that you do no? indorse: Was it! the enactm: , of a law permanently endowing the State i Universitv? W as ill lie amend- \ mentof the uacedents’ estate §,ct so that widows and orphans could not be/robbed by Master Cor«3missioners? Was it the passage of the Metropolitan police bill, now indorsed by all good citizens of Indianapolis? Was it the defeat of the State House steal, by which it was sough t to rob the Treasury of over $300,000? Or was it the provision for the construction of Asylums for that helpless class, the incurably insane, now confined in poor houses upon’beds of straw without protection or care? I call upon you to name one act passed by the last Legislature which has caused you at once to swallowtail the corruption and rascality of your own party and declare “that it has always been right.” If you know anything the last Legislature did which has had such a wonderful influence upon your mind you should enlighten the public, and not keep it a secret locked withintyourown breast. After you have pointed out some particular measure it! will be time enough for me to un- ! dertake ade fense,and attempt, in some degree, to relieve the Democratic party of the terrible load of your everlasting displ easu r*. Respectfully, Observek. Indianapolis, Oct. 3,1883. The old front door-sill of the Lexington, Kv., Court House has been purchased by Slaughter Basse! because of a historic interest that attaches to it from the fact that Aaron Burr and Henr; Olay steod upon it when Bur. gb ve ( hay iiis wont that lie was guiltless of con spiracy and received the latter’s pledge to defend him. A mixture of hard soap and kerosene, a half pound of each to 3 gallons of water has been found by Prof. Goff, of the N. Y. Experimental Station, to be very effective in exterminating that p6st, the cabbage worm. The remedy is simple.