Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1884 — THE LIBEL ON BLAINE. [ARTICLE]

THE LIBEL ON BLAINE.

Utter Falsity of the Whole Story. (Louisville (Ky.) special.] In 1876 the Paris True Kentuckian, tCvneklj. paper printed at Paris, Ky., published a scandalous story to the effect that while James G. Blaine was teaching school at Georgetown, Kv., he had seduced a pretty New England girl. who., was a teacher in Miss Jackson’s fashionable boarding-school for young ladies at Lexington. This same paper also declared that, when the matter became public, Blaine fled from popular indignation, taking the young lady with him. The Frankfort 1 eomiiu.aseinl-weekly Democratic organ, of which J. Stoddaid Johnston is the editor, followed up the story printed in the Paris Kentuckian with another one of much the same import. Shortly after these scandals had begun to go the rounds, and not long before the National Republican Convention in 1876, the Courier-Journal sent a reporter to investigate the charges, and th? result was a complete vindication of the statesman’s character and the lady’s virtue. The Courier-Journal at that time editorially disapproved the charges. A representative of the New York Herald, who had been sent to Scott and Fayette Counties to ino.uire into lhe true inwardness of the scandal, returned to Louisville to-day. To-night, in conversation with your correspondent, this gentleman declared that the charges were utterly without foundation, and had been invented by a few old maids and village gossips who envied the young woman her dashing lover. [Editorial comment of the Chicago Tribune.] The Democratic managers have evidently concluded that some story must be invented about Blaine to offset the terrible scandal admitted to be true of Cleveland, and they have found in the Chicago Times & willing tool to do the dirty work. The story is one which was started in much the same shape eight years airo by a local paper in Kentucky, -which afterward retracted the slander. As told at that time, the sequel would have reflected credit on Mr. Blaine rather than have injured him if there had been any truth in it. As told now, it is barely an intimation that, some thirty-three years ago, when Blaine was a young man 19 or 20 years old and teaching an academy for boys in Kentucky, he contracted an intimacy with a girl which led to the departure of both parties from the town of Georgetown. The girl’s vouches for the .truth of the statement. The only basis for it alleged in the scurrilous publication is that Mr. Blaine emigrated from Kentucky thirty-three years ago, which everybody knows, and the assertion that the unnamed girl also left the State and never returned, which is probably true of a large number of young women. It happened, however, that the very day this vile yarn was prepared for the Chicago Times Mr. Watterson made a statement in one of the New York clubs to this effect. His journal —the Louisville Courier-Journal, had been offered the “sensation,” but he declined it because he had investigated the whole story when it was .first put into circulation years ago, and had satisfied himself that “there was absolutely not one word of truth in it." Mr. Watterson's word as a gentleman, a Democrat, and a resident of Kentucky, is the most complete answer that could be made to the slander, especially after a personal investigation. This Blaine “scandal’' will fall and leave the Cleveland scandal, which is recent, explicit, and authenti-” cated, to stand on its own merits.

Let the Tattoo Be Honored. We have a tattooed man. Let the name be honored. Also on the skirmish line I have heard the tattoo in (.he drawn battle when the weary army went to re.jt knowing that to-morrow would be sulphury again. The tattoo was beaten next when the camps and hospitals too were glad with victory, and blessed in the heavens by fevered eyes the stars seemed to shed the gentle music back. Finally the tattoo dissolved the noble army which, surviving a thousand halfhearted Generals and despairing moral philosophers,- marched liefore its lon«-insulted President with modest mien and hallowed feelings of gratitude to God that it had persevered to the last and never mutinied by the way. November next the tattoo will be beaten upon another dead rebellion when the tattoed man walks up the White House porch and says “My countrymen, awe!”

Campaign Notes. The Valparaiso (Ind.) Herald, a Democratic paper, has come out for Blaine and Logan. _ Timothy* Heenan, a prominent Democrat of Appleton, Wis., declares his intention to vote for Blaine and Logan. Three St. Louis papers of hitherto Democratic proclivities have come out for Blaine and Logan and in opposition to Cleveland. They are the Evening Chronicle, the Westliche Post, and the American Celt. A great political meeting, in which thousands of colored people participated, was held at Cambridge, Ohio, the principal speakers being Senator B. K, Bruce and the Rev. James Pointdexter, a popular colored orator. The enthusiasm for Blaine and Logan found vent in various ways. MR. Dana’s opposition to Cleveland derives most significance from the fact that it was not determined on until after due deliberation and when ifbeanne afTnarent that Cleveland’s election was impossible. Mr. Dana did not begin to sneer at Hancock in 1880 until he realized the hopelessness of his candidacy. Was it Carl Schurz who said, in a political speech a few years ago: “Only once have I slept in a side-room of the Democratic party, and there I have heard enough not to vote a Democratic ticket again in my life. Yes, my hand shall wither before I do so again.” Is.this the Carl Schurz who not only will vote for Cleveland, but publicly boasts he can even stand Hendricks. Well, well! John G. Whittier, the poet, in a letter to Mr. Cabot Lodge, Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Committee, inclosing a subscription to the campaign fund, says he is not prepared to abandon Republicanism and go over to a party whose principles and measures he has opposed for a quarter of a century. He hopes that Massachusetts will give the usual majority to the Republican ticket this fall. * Capt. an Irish-American sol‘dier of Fond du Lac, Wis., who fought in Gen. Bragg's brigade, has published a letter to his fellow-countrymen in the Fond du Lac Congressional district exhorting them to vote against Bragg in the event of nis receiving the, Democratic Congressional nomination, and against Gov. Clevelandin any event, Capt. Mangan denounces Bragg apd Cleveland as enemies of the workingmen and political Know-Nothings. The Democrats of Georgetown, Ohio, were badly taken in last week. They held a ratification meeting and persuaded Mr. L. Vananda, a life-long Democrat, to make a speech. Judge of their surprise when the gentleman delivered himself of the following: “Fellow-Democrats—-You have persisted that I should address you,' I do so very reluctantly. You have’had doctors, city officials, and the legal fraternity io address you and represent you this evening. As a daily laborer, I represent the laboringclasses, and as such I Will briefly Bay to you that if I live till next November I will most assuredly vote for Blaine and Logan.”