Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1890 — A NATIONAL SCANDAL [ARTICLE]

A NATIONAL SCANDAL

SCATHING ARRAIGNMENT OF QUAY AND QCAYISSE Serious Charges Against the Chairman of the National Republican Committee—An Open Letter from Henry C. Eea to Ben Harrison. Henry C. Lea, the book publisher, respected as one of the most upright, intelligent and earnest citizens of Philadelphia, has written the following open letter to President Harrison: “To the President : “Sin—No graver scandal has darkened our political history than the charges brought against Soator Quay by the New York World in its issues of Feb. 10 and March 3. It would be useless hero to recapitulate them further than to say that, with full details of names and places and dates, the World asserts him to be a man whose political career lias been a succession of flagrantly dishonest acts, including the temporary abstraction from tho Stale Treasury of $200,000 in one instance and of $400,000 in anothor. “No such accusations, involving iniquity so varied and so continuous, aud supported by such an array of minute detail, have ever before, I believe, been brought against a politician so conspicuous. If they are true, Senator Quay ought to be in tho penitentiary. If they aro false, ho is a cruelly libeled man ; his accuser is a journal of the highest financial standing, and no jury of his couutrymon would refuse him exemplary damages that woul 1 put him beyond all future reach of want. Vindication and profit both await bim as an inc(ntive to prove his innocence, but although two months have elapsed since tho gravest of the charges were made j'liblio, neither solicitude for bis character nor desire of gain has prompted him to bioak silence. It is his own fault if Die public should regard him a 3 acquiescing iu llio truth of the charges. A NATIONAL SCANDAL. “It is true that tho crimes alleged against Senator Quay a o contacted only with his career as a Pennsylvania but your cloro connection with him has nml >red the scandal national. You were duly ' aned In advance irom a friendly source of the dangers of such an alliauce, yet by accepting his man. Mr. Wauamaker, as ft member ( f your Cabinet you assumed responsibility for both of thorn. In pursuance of this alliance, you havo onlarged Mr. Quay’s impoitauce by virtually giving hrm control of the Federal pa ronage in Pann-iyl-vania. thus rendering him the dictator ol the Hepublican party iu the Slate. He boasted of your subserviency to Urn when, iu explain-’ng his triumph over Representative Dalzell in the struggle for the Pittsburg postoffice, he publicly said that ‘tho President, though very auxous to grati.'e Mr. Dalzell, for whom he has a high esteem, could not, under all the circumstances, well avoid ecmplying with my wishes.’ EvmMr. Quay’s remarkabl) silence under the accusations of the World does not seem to have lessened his influence over you. Ho signalized his return from Florida a week or two since by capturing the Pittsburg Surveyorßhip of Customs against candidates urged respectively by Secretary BKinr and Representative Dalzell, Indeod, bis power would seem to be as great in Washingts n as in this State, for tho party organs now' tell us that ho has been endeavoring to buy off a superfluous candidate for the Governorship with an Assistant Secretaryship of War. In thus entering into a political partnership with Mr. Quay you must share tho losses as wall as the gains of tho venture. It is not Peuusjlvauia alone, ncr even the Hepublican party only, that has a right to protest; every citizen of the land must feel humiliation at the smirch thus inflietod on the Chief Magistracy of the nation. /N ACCOUNTING DEMANDED. "As a Republican by conviction, ardently dosiring the success of the party so long as it deserves success, let me request you, Mr. President, to take a calm survey of tho situation and render to yourself an account of your stewardship. 9 hurt en mouths ago you entered upon the duties of the highest office which tho world has to lies tow ; your party was supreme in ;he control of both nouses of Congress and of tea executive; everything promised a prosperous and useful administration, in which you, by simply adhering to the pledges under which you were elected, might earn another term from the confidence and pr.iticude of ihe people. The only cloud upon Ihe political horizon was your acceptance ot a Postmftstor General at Mr. Quay’s dictation, ostensibly as a reward for certain services performed during the canvass. That cloiid, then no larger than a man’s hand, has spread till it covers the firmament. Look back now and reflect upon your work. You have sedulously devoted yourself to the distribution of ‘ patronage;' you have turned out near y 43,000 Democratic officeholders, and in this ignoble business you have filled vacancies thus made by giving ‘ recognition ’ to the ivors t elements iu the party. You have thus degraded it to the lowest level, till ;t no longer deserves or enjoys the public confidence, and its interest, as well as chat of the nation, -demauds its purification by defeat. You havo earned for it the denunciation of the Hebrew prophet: “ ‘ Tho heads thoreof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and ths prophets thereof divine for money, yet will they lean upon the Lord and say. is not the Lord among us? Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field aud Jerusalem shall becomo heaps.’ A WABNTNG PBOM TtlE PEOPLE. “But it noods no prophet to foretell the result. The elections of last November were a warning that tne poople would not tolerate your methods. You have refused to heed the lesson, and th 3 elections of next November will emphasize it. Tho narrow Republican major! ,y in the lower house will bo swept away, and your path for the latter half of vour administration will be a path of thorns. You have rewarded the ma.-nifleent majority of 80,000 given to you by Pennsylvania by riveting upon her tlio chains •of Quayism. You need not wonder that disaffection is spreading rapidly throughout her borders in a manner that may render even her allegiance doubtful. The outlook for 1892 is even darker. Were the Presidential election to take place to-morrow th. re could scarce be doubt of Democratic success. Let- me counsel you, Mr. President, as a friend, to reflect that this has been your work in one short year of misused power.

TIME FOR REPENTANCE, “If this retrospection should bring with It repentance and amendment, you still have before you three years which may be fruitful for good. Bear in mind that ‘faithful are the wounds of a friend, hut the kisses of an eaeiny are deceitful/ Discard the advisers who are luring you to your downfall. Recognize that the truest political expedimey lies iu lhe application of conscience to public affairs, end that you can serve your party best by sttmuia'ing the nobler aspirations of the nation, rather than by pandering to the baser appetites of spoilsmen. Cease to expect to gather figs from thistles, or to touch pitch without defilement. Apply'to your public duties the high standard of morality to which you adhere in your private li:e. Remember that evil can give birth only to evil, and that you. as Chief Magistrate of sixty-five millions of freemen, have on your soul a charge for which you inust reckon to posterity and God. 1 am, Mr. President, your obedient servant, “HENRT CHARLES LEA. “Philadelphia, April 8,18 JO."