Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1872 — Campaign Slanders. [ARTICLE]

Campaign Slanders.

The systematic personal" abuse and slander of President Grant by the prominent Greeley organs and advocates has reached the very sublimity of impudence Because these miserable inventions of his enemies are not publicly refuted by the President himself they affect to believe, that their truth is admitted, aud boldly parade them before the public as reasons why he should not be re-elected. There are a few of these Greeley organs which rare combined together in the dirty work of inventing and circulating these false and scandalous stories, and they have rt - dqced the business to a regular systfejn In the first place,' oue of them manufactures a defamatory statement of some conduct or transaction of General Grant which the writer prefaces with an “it is said,” or “it is alleged,” in order to screen himself from responsibility. Then the Confederates citch up the false story and repeat it in their columns as an actual, positive statement of fact, without the qualifying reservation, and thus it-is scattered broadcast through the country tc be cqpied by the press and repeated by partisan speakers. It is also a part" of the system never to contradict a story once started, however clear and direct a refutation may he made;, hut simply to drop it and manufacture another to- take its place.

in this way a miserable falsehood was and circulated through the country that President Grant’s cottage at Long Branch was given to him as a bribe to secure the appointment of Mr. Murphy as collector of the customs at New York. But the fact existed, and was susceptible of proof, that the property was bought by the President aud paid for with his own money. YYh.cn Jthis.Sias made to appear. the slanderers never took hack thelnJaTse charge, but quietly let, it drop ahd started in its place the equally scandalous and disgraceful allegation that the. President accepted a free gift- of a large tract of land in Illinois as a consideration for appointing J. It. Jones as Minister to Belgium. This libellous invfcntjon lias had the same wide circulation that the Long Branch story had, and the miserable authors and venders of this political garbage have hypocritically professed their pain aud anguish at being obliged to make public such an imputation upon the Chief Magistrate of the nation, If their sentiments werenot'those of joy rather than pain and anguish, why did they hot investigate the facts upon wljicli their calumny was founded before they uttered the shameful invention? Governor Jewell, .of Connecticut, has taken the painsjpi follow the slanderers along tlicir slimy track, and he has detected and exposed the vile calumny,.and shown to the world that in the Illinois case, as in the Long Branch purchase, tlie President bought the property in question, arid paid for it with hi 3 money, paying a large advance in price above that at which Mr. Jones acquired his own interest in the. same property. This matter is frilly treated by Mr. Jewell in his speech at the Cooper Institute in New York city last night. »» It is against the policy of these professional stabberß of reputation to retract their falsehoods, and in tile matter of this Illinois land slander, they will merely let it drop now that their wickedness is exposed, and start something else to take its place. Of the same character was the trumpery story told by General Kilpatrick, that the President appointed Judge Hoar as Attorney-General in compensation for “a librarywoitli $2a,000,” given him by the Judge. The Judge, though not now in office, voluntarily contradicted this falsehood by a published letter fiver his own signature, slenying that lie ever gave the President any library whatever, or had any part iu such a gift. And so of the petty slanders as" to intemperance, brought forward by a contemptible timeserver by the name of Denison, and pari aded at large in the Greeley organs. These statements havC’ heen completely refuted by General Wilson, Colonel Webster, of the army, and other responsible men. And yet not ...one of these false and abusive allegations as to the President’s business transactions or personal habits, though. all of them shown to be maliciously false, has been or will be retracted by their authors and circulators. No ; they were invented as a contribution to political capital ; their disavowal would diminish that capital, and so they will be - persisted iu or dropped in silence. •

What the people think of this personal abuse and slander of the President is shown by the late elections in Vermont and Maine, which speak the honest New England voice of censure and condemnation against the wanton Übelers of a gallant and faithful public servant. We do not wonder that the results exhibited in those two States should prompt the Greeley advocates to exclaim that their cause j lB l” sl unless they can enlist some new element of opposition to'General Grant. 1 The current falsehoods and misrepresenj tatlons- have not produced the intended effect, anil they now contemplate resorting Ito new ones. But even the tryth from j such a questionable source would now | Scarcely be believed. —ltostou Qfole. V ■ ■ 1 A wealthy citizen of Hartford, Ct., au- ! thorite* the Courant to make the-Totlowing proposition: “1 wlirbcffo.OOO that General | Grant will be ogr next President it ho lives. ! I will also bet *3,000 that he will carry ‘ the Btate of New York, both beta to be taken together; or I will subifSfite. Connecticut for NewY ork—monevto bo deposited In bank '