Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1886 — Has bit off more than be can Chaw. [ARTICLE]

Has bit off more than be can Chaw.

lx>K*n -port Jourual. General Black, Commissioner ~of Pensions, evidently bit oil a > great deal more than he will be able to “chaw” in his first report to Congress. In an unworthy excess of partisan zeal he loaded that report with a Democratic stump speech filled with charges against previous administration of the pension office, making it np* l>ear as a shameful example of inefficiency and a hot-bed of partisan corruption. Senator Harrison promptly challenged the truth of these charges, and demanded their investigation. By General Black’s own admissions it is now apparent that the found the office in a condition of admirable efficiency, its machinery working so perfectly that he has not dared to disturb it by making changes. Of the 1,600 men he found on duty, 1,400 still remain because he save he tiijds himself experience, n>t'usfry r and fiuthfulsuccess in the adminof his office. When pressed for proof of his charges of partisanism, corruption and misfealty to luty under Col. Dudley and others, he has begged for time, and substantially admits that the charges were based upon “general report”, that is to say, the lies and slanders of a democratic campaign. General Black was a gallant soldier, and it is believed that he will try to do his duty faithfully; but all go<>d citizens must regret the rabfff partisanism that has dragged him iiitotliis disgrace. He livrs in a glass house. His name is upon the pension rolls for the largest pension paid to any soldier of the late war, on the sworn testimony of himself and others that he was totally disabled by wounds received in that war; land yet lie is filling a most laborious office, at a big salary, anil is cheerfully ableao write reports slandering hundreds of meu who are his full equids as soldiers and' citizens.