Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1884 — MENRY B. PAYNE. [ARTICLE]

MENRY B. PAYNE.

The Lies About the New Ohio Senator. (Prom the New Yoik World.] A melancholy wail goes up from the Republican press of the country oyer ike defeat of Mr. Pendleton in the Ohio [Senatorial contest. He is pointed out as a Democratic sacrifice to the glorious principles of Civil Service Reform. The election of Payne is ascribed to •corruption and the power of monopoly. One or two Republican organs have gone so far as to express a doubt about the ability of the American Republic to survive such a b ow. We find these sad words in the Troy Times: The (hotoeof Mr. Payne as Senator from Ohio is one of the greatest scandals ever •developed in the political history of the •country, but it stands in accurate line with the spirit of the political organization to which he belongs. When Ingalls defeated old Pomeroy <or the Senate out in Kansas there was talk of the use of money, but the Republican prtss repressed its agony. When Sabin bought the seat in the Senate that Windom held there was no bowl of despair. Neither did the Republican press lose faith in humanity when Jones and Sharon purchased a .seat in the Senate; likewise Bowen and Tabor. The Republican press stifled its sorrow when the Credit Mobilier rascalities came out, and it turned its back to the wall and wept in silence when Belknap tripped and fell. Recently, when Huntington’s letters were published, detailing a great Republican money king’s methods of dealing with Congress, the Republican press saw no reason to lose faith in the popular system of government. We have an idea that even our depressed neighbor of the Troy Times, which is so shocked <by the elevation of Mr. Payne to the Senate, will be able to take a cheerful view of life in a day or two. Mr. Pendleton lost his seat in the Senate sim-

ply because he was in no sense qualified for leadership; solely because he failed to attach men to his political fortunes; because his aristocratic surroundings were distasteful to many Democrats; because he incurred the hostility of a powerful newspaper, and because he was unable to protect himself against the organized effort to defeat him. The story about corruption originated with his followers, who felt that they were forced to explain their weakness on unnatural grounds, and it has since been repeated by the Republican press for partisan reasons. Mr. Payne is a pure and honorable man of the old school. (From the New York San.] In the first place, we are convinced that Mr. Payne has no part or interest in the Standard Oil company. He is not a stockholder, and has .never in any way been connected with its affairs. His son is a stockholder, and, no doubt, he ‘was naturally interested in his father’s election; but we do not believe that a single cent of money or any -Other corrupt influence was either employed or tolerated by Henry B. Payne in the canvass which terminated in his •election. Mr. Payne is emphatically not that kind of a man. His past life is a guarantee of his integrity, and that guaranty is not to be put aside upon any vague accusation or without the clearest proof. Besides, the magnitude of Mr. Payne’s majority in this case precludes the idea of corruption. There may always be a few loose men hanging on the skirts of any party in a State Legislature, but it is impossible to believe that the mass of a party is corrupted. In the Democratic caucus Mr. Payne was nominated on the first ballot.. He had 48 votes, Mr. Pend.eton 15, Mr. Ward 17, Mr. Booth 1, and Mr. Geddes 1. Here is a clear majority of 14 votes, and it could not have bee* procured by base methods. Moreover, Mr. Payne is a far abler, sounder, wiser, steadier, more competent, and more trustworthy statesman than his predecessor. The election of such a man is in the interest of good government, and wo rejoice at it accordingly.

Civil Service. We are told by Republican organs that they are in favor of what is called ■“Civil Service Reform,” a policy which, discarding political predilections or affiliations, seeks only for qualifications suited to official employments under the •control of the Federal Government. All men, who know anything at all -about Republican • managers and the Republican party, know the assertion to be as devoid of truth as the statement which cost Ananias his life. There ds not the semblance of truth in it—a vicious falsehood from rind to core, inside and out. A lie coolly concocted and repeated for the purpose of catching the unwary, and for manufacturing political capital. In his recent speech at Columbus, Ohio, Henry B. Payne, United States Senator-elect, said: “For twenty-three years the dispensation of Federal patronage had been in the hands of the Republican party. The public offices,numbering in the aggregate more than 100,000, had been supplied from one party, while ninetenths of that party and the entire Democratic party have been, and are now, absolutely proscribed and debarred the public • service. ‘During jthis period money by tho thousand millions has been collected and disbursed, and the books kept by these partisan agents, furnishing an "opportunity and a temptation for peculation, fraud and concealment to which I should dread to expose, even the ironclad integrity of Democrats. Inevitably, corruption and great abuses have crept in and have been covered up; favoritism; protegism, nepotism, imbecility and senility have obtained secure lodgment; demoralization has followed, and the public believe that a f tid mass exists, permeated with rottenness and gangrene. Now, can this service be reformed, and how? I answer, yes. And the process is: First, by electing a Democratic President, and that is assured the present year, unless unwisdom and madness from the gods are permitted to block the way. Secondly, by a pitiless and radical overhauling and purging of the present service. An Augean stable cannot be cleaned with a tooth brush! You must turn on the hose, ply the hickory broom and scrub brush, disinfect the premises

and give them • wholesome atmosphere 1 for the incumbents. Then let oare be taken that none bnt such as bear the Jeffersonian stamp of honesty ] and capacity be allowed to enter, and those only from the Democratic party, i until its'full ratable share enter to guard and protect the public interest. If pnblic office be a sacrificial burden, all citizens should be compelled (by conscription if need be ) to share their portion. If, on the other hand, as most believe, it is a privilege and a blessing, one-half or three-fourths cf the whole population should not be excluded from enjoying their just and fair share of it. By this means reform is practicable, and, until accomplished, no stable settlement of the question can be obtained.” The declarations made by Mr. Payne are absolutely true. The Republican party, with a hu*dred thousand of its pimps and pals in office, talks glibly of civil service reform, talks of justice to the people, talks of fair play in appointments, talks of qualification being the test of appointments to office—when all men know every word is false. By slow processes, characterized by circumlocution and made odious by red tape, it may be possible for a Democrat to obtain Government employment, but the Republicans do not now, nor did they ever, intend that any form of civil service should be adopted which, to any appreciable extent,should diminish their power to control the spoils which they hold belong to the victors. The hundred thousand offices in the gift of the Government are filled by Republicans, and it would be as reasonable to suppose that St. Peter would admit Dorsey and John Sherman into heaven as to expect a Democrat to obtain Government employment under a Republican administration. Civil service reform will be inaugurated when the Republican rascals are turned out, and when a Republican boss organ asserts that the Republican* party favors civil service reform it is only required to respond “you lie.” —lndianapolis Sentinel.

Republican Statesmanship. The statesmanship of the Republican party is remarkable. The Secretary of the Treasury is bewildered by the enormous surplus revenue and the manner in which money keeps flowing in upon him by the millions. Like the miser in the “Chimes of Corneville,” he clutches at the gold and seeks to hide it away, only to find it scattering about and piling up in confusing heaps on every side. The Secretary calls in bonds. But that is a trifle. He still cries for relief. The people say decrease our burdens. Take off the taxes on the articles we consume in our daily lives. Let us have more reasonable rents, cheaper olothing. Cease paying off the debt. Decrease the heavy expenditures of a prodigal Government. Let the toilers of to-day have the benefit of the surplus, and give life and vigor to the business of the country by ceasing to lock up these hundreds of millions in the Treasury as a fund for extravagance and corruption. What says Republican statesmanship through its organs? It is true we have an unwieldy and troublesome surplus revenue, but don’t decrease it by reducing taxation or tariff. There are two ways of cutting down the revenue, they say—one by reducing customs duties on articles not produced in this country; the other by raising them so high as to reach prohibition and stop importations. The latter they avow to be the remedy that commends itself to Republican statesmanship. Let us see where this Republican policy leads. By levying prohibitory duties we certainly stop the increase of revenue, for no one imports and no duties are collected. We encourage false invoices, forgery, perjury and smuggling. With Canada lying along an extended open border, the new Republican policy would compel us to keep up a vast revenue army, or allow ourselves to be overrun with smuggled goods. One of the first principles of legislation is to so arrange taxation that it will not injuriously affect our trade with other countries. Republican statesmanship reverses this and proposes to so arrange taxation as to shut off our trade with other countries. It seems incredible that a great and intelligent party can seriously advocate such an imbecile and ruinous policy.— New York World.

Ashamed of Themselves. Dispatches from Washington state that a desperate effort was made to keep secret the influences which were potent in securing the appointment of Gol. Sims, of Virginia, to a lucrative office under the Senate. Sims is a brawling Mahoneite, an ex-Confeder ate, and a rampant repudiator. It was he who, in an inflammatory at Danville, advised the negroes in that vicinity to • arm and organi. e agci ist the whites, and who, more than any one else, provoked the only disturbance that occurred in that State on election day. Politically and socially he is an objectionable man for any position of profit or trust. He could be appointed to no place in the gift of. the United States Senate without the consent of the Republican majority, and that could be obtained by nobody but Mahone and Riddleberger. The attempt to keep such a disgusting bar gain secret is foolish, for it is as plan: as the day what influences were at work in securing it and what the purpose was. It wuß another blackmailing demand on the Republican party by the repudiated repudiator of Virginia, and is the price, or part of the price, of his continued support of that party.—Chicago Herald. James F. Wilson and William B. Allison, both of them Credit Mobilier statesmen who figured in Oakes Ames’ celebrated diary, side by side with Schuyler Colfax and Patterson, are now Senators from lowa. No other State, we believe, has yet attained this distinction—two Credit Mobilier Senators at the same time. —New York Sun. Keeper wanted a complimentary vote for United States Senator. He does not seem to realize that he is a corpse.