Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1875 — THE PACKARD-UNION LIBEL CASE. [ARTICLE]

THE PACKARD-UNION LIBEL CASE.

It is reported that an engineer corps are surveying the route of the Chicago A South Atlantic railroad from Monticello to this place* They are etpected to arrive at Bradford this evening. Vice President Wilson is making a semi-political tour of the Southern States and laying the wires for nomination to the Presidency next year. Thus far the Kukhix have not molested nor the White League attempted to intimidate him. Among the numerous Republican aspirants to the Chief Magistracy there is not an honester, more impartial, or worthier man than Hon. Henry Wilson. We hear that there is a fair prospect of the Plymouth, Kankakee & Pacific railroad, the track of which waa graded across the north end of Jasper county three or four years ago, being revived shortly and speedily completed.— Rensselaer Union. What spirit of envy is it that prompts the Union to create hopes in the minds of the people along the line of the P. K. & P. only to have them dashed in pieces? ***** Will the Union give a reason for the faith that is within it?— Plymouth Democrat. Yes, two of them. It is common report among the people along the line (in this county), and a gentleman of Kankakee connty, Illinois, who recently came into possession of several thousand dollars of its first mortgage bonds, told us so.

Commenting upon the result of the municipal election in Indianapolis last week, which was a complete Republican triumph, the Sentinel, which advocated the Democratic ticket, says: We are defeated but not disheartened. This deplorable result has been brought about bv a disgusting outbreak of public opinion, and a most chsgueting preponderance of Republican votes. The Sentinel has dope what it could-to stem the tide and avert the calamitous result, but without avail. But for the failure of Monday night’s trains from Louisville we should have a very different result to present. Such being the case, all honest people will rejoice over that defeat. It is just such campaigns of fraud that renders the party which resorts to them detestable to men who love what is fair and honorable. By the imbecility and corruption of their leaders, together with the reckless extravagance of the men whom they elected to office year before last, the Indianapolis Democracy have fallen from their ascendency, and the judgment against them is a just one, providing we hear truthful reports of their conduct. We understand that Hon. Mr. Talbot in his temperance addresses to be apprehensive that the Almighty would erelong become impatient with the people on account of their misuse of grain by making whiskey of it, and for punishment produce famine. Mr. Chance “the Buckeye Broad-ax” in his lectures argues that the Almighty is already angry for such causes, and has purposely brought on ns all the pests that spoil our crops of grain, potatoes, fruits, etc., on account of portions of them having been converted into alcoholic drinks.— Valparaiso Vidette.

And some good people will still persist in saying that there is no fanaticism or superstition in the United States outside of the unlettered classes, the people of the South, and the Roman Catholic church! If such dead beats were .compelled to earn their living by manual labor, much of that kind of nonsense would sweat out of them. The vice of intemperance is bad enough in its ordinary forms, without partially rectified drunkards making exhibitions of their whiskey scarred intellects to respectable audiences. Such expressions have a strong savor of alcoholic blasphemy about them, and are well calculated to disgust reasoning people, not with temperance as a cardinal virtue, but with the addle pated extravagance of some of its prominent preachers. The idea of an All-wise and Justice-loving God punishing with pestilence and fam l ' ine millions of innocent people, men, women and helpless children, because of the wickedness of a lew distillers whom he permits to accumulate wealth and live in splendor, is a species of blasphemy that can have no other origin than a mind perverted and besotted by alcohol or fanaticism, or both. Such ravings are first cousins to the delirium tremens, and indicate acute disease.

You. recollect, don’t you, how often and persistently during the campaign last summer the newspapers which defended the policy of the Administration at Washington paraded the statement that the public debt was being rapidly diminished? Right* along duripg the progress of the campaign telegrams from official sources announced a monthly reduction of the’ national indebtedness of one, three and even as high as seven millions of dollars. Editors wrote columns about the unparalleled success and stupendous ability of the meh controlling the financial affairs of the government. Orators dwelt long and eloquently upon the subject. In vain was history searched for any thing that could begin to bear comparison with it. One of the candidates for a state office in Indiana devoted all of one-third of his speech to show that the then managers of public funds were the only truly great and tent financiers whose services the nation bad ever been blessed with —that the financial experience of ages had been studied and absorbed by the wonderful giants at Washington, and what they did not know about the science was not worth learning; indeed the in-j ference to the hearer was irresisti- I ble that if those prodigies should die all knowledge pertaining to that; branch of the government would be blotted from the earth, and the nation be immediately forced into involuntary bankruptcy and repudition to the great distress and suffering of the poor washer-women I and friend less orphans whose little all was invested in government bonds. ' Weil, it now seems that all those official telegrams, those tiresome editorials, and all those flights of oratory were untruthful. Instead of the debt having been diminished during that time the Inter-Ocean of recent date publishes that since June 20th, 1874, .it has increased ♦11,778,809. And yet we are a happy ami prosperous people, blessed with peace, plenty and economical public officers.

The proposed Chicago reunion of all the soldiers and sailors in the United States, of both Confederate and Federal sides of the late war, has revived the old charges against General Beauregard of his advocacy of the black flag during the rebellion. Some objections'having been made to fraternizing with such men,v by those engaged in the arrangements,' Beauregard was interrogated by letter as to the facts through Gov. Porter of Tennessee. To the manifest surprise of everybody, theex-Rebel chieftain and reconstructed Republican replied that it’was not only true but justifiable by subsequent events and in the light of the broad day of peace. He claims that impartial history will vindicate him. Impartial history will place such inhuman butchers in the niche of infamy they belong.— South Bend Union."' Very good. General Beauregard was a bloody-minded rebel who deserved hanging instead of pardon. General Longstreet was another, Jefferson Davis another, aud Colonel Aloseby another. But the representative men of the nation thought the death penalty could not be inflicted upon them without degrading the standard ot our national civilization to that of these infamous men; they also thought that the evils which might arise from removal of political disabilities and restoration to citizenship would be less dangerous to the peace of the country than to have in our midst a , numerous class o£ people who were practically expatriated. These reasons were both the result of a higher humanity and a more perfect civilization than history shows examples of. But if a perfect s work is to be wrought, there is more to be done in this direction. The Southern States were left in a desolated condition. Farms, towns and markets were destroyed, and the country was laid waste in every direction. All this should, be repaired by the hand of industry. In the South are to be found fertile soil, immense forests, large rivers, splendid water-pbwers, beautiful scenery, famous mineral springs, and the finest climate on tnis continent. For natural advantages it is the most favored part of the United States. But these advantages are not half improved, and the very portion of the country which should appear the best is the most forbidding io visitors. The cause of this deplorable condition of things is found in die" civil war. First the social system of its inhabitants

was revolutionized, and then bad, headstrong, short-sighted men and newspapers seized upon the bitter antipathies which the war had engendered between the people of the North and the South and made them more intense in order to advance their private ends. Such men as Genjeral Beauregai’d and such newspapers as the Inter- Ocean are doing more with their letters and publications to retard the prosperity of our country, and contribute more to inflame the spirit of sectional hatred between the people, than if they were firing cannon. This is altogether wrong. The war is over, the issues of it all settled, and the soldiers were mustered out of service years ago. Let the dead past look after its dead and their record, and let the living present cultivate the arts and courtesies and friendships, of peace. Thus, and only, thus, can we become a thoroughly prosperous and a truly happy, great and magnanimous people. ‘‘Let us have peace.” A Michigan .City paper talks about Rensselaer being an “anti quated town.” It is very bad grace for Michigan City to put on airs, and elevate her corrugated nose at her less favored sisters. Had onehalf the money that the State and national governments have spent to make Michigan City what she is been invested in Rensselaer this town would to-day be a city of ten thousand inhabitants; and had not the State and national governments expended millions of treasure upon that town it would to-day contain no more than a few huts of halfstarved, semi-barbarous fishermen. Let the railroads remove their shops from there, the State remove her public institutions, and the general government cut off her appropriations for the harbor, and one year would not elapse before the drifting sands would render her almost as desolate as the ancient cities of Palmyra, Thebes, or Tyre. For nearly twenty years the State and national governments have been compelling the industry of Indiana and of the whole country to assist in making Michigan City what she is, and yet there is not enterprise and public spirit enough among her whole five thousand inhabitants to support more, or larger, or better newspapers than “the antiquated towjn of Rensselaer” with only six or seven hundred inhabitants does.

The Union of last week had something to say about the “savans” of the Republican office, whatever that may mean .-^Renssclaer Republican.. It our fugacious cotemporaries will consult Webster’s Dictionary they will find that savans is the plural (if you know what that is) of savant, and means literary men —not necessarily an offensive term to apply to those engaged in the newspaper business. And by still further prosecuting their philological researches they will discover that neither Mr.-Webster nor any other author recognized as standard authority in English orthography ever callsthe young ot a mare a “foul,” whatever may be the practice at the Republican office. Mr. George McCoy of Marion, Grant county, was revisiting his Jasper county “stamping grounds” last week. He says that the wheat fields in the timber regions are making splendid promise for a crop this year. 'Mr. O. 11. Keller, a former Rensselaer lad, is doing a rushing business at Marion in the manufacture of chairs. His work has a splendid reputation, and orders keep him crowded all the time. Mr. Jesse Greenfield of Clarksburg, Tennessee, scuds us files of papers from that place of recent date, which say that the cold snap in April did much damage to the young peaches and tobacco plants. Ice froze a quarter ot an inch thich at Nashville, and skimmed over the puddles of water at Corinth, Mj&s, Mr. Greenfield has our thanks for his courtesy. Monticello bids for whiskey saloons—her .town board recently fixed the price- of a corporation license ak §SO, while the law permits them to make it $ 100. So much for a dry-lipped board.

In the matter of Jasper Packard vs. Horace 'E. James and Joshua Healey, proprietors of The Rens-selaer-Union, an action for damages of 110,000 because of the publication of an alleged libel in said paper, which case was - called for trial in the Jasper qircuit court day before yesterday, the plaintiff filed an affidavit of which the following is a true copy: State of Indiana,") In Jasper CirJasper County, J B3 cuit Court, May Term, 1875. Jasper Packard vs.) . Horace E. James [Affidavit for Joshua Healey J changeofvenue Jasper Packard makes oath and says he believes he cannot have a fair and impartial trial in the county of Jasper in the above entitled case because of an undue influence which the defendants have over the citizens of said county of Jasper. He therefore prays a change of venue. (Signed,) Jasper Packard. State of Indiana, Laporte County, ss: Subscribed and sworn to before me this Bth day of May, A. D. 1875. r T „-> Andrew L. Osborn, Jr., L ‘ ■-* Notary Public. Defendants waived their right to' demand that the issues be made up and demurrers argued at the time, and upon request of plaintiff's attorney the case was transferred to the Newton county docket and set for hearing at the next October term. , It will be observed that Mr. Packard’s affidavit contains a gross insult to the integrity, honor,- and intelligence of the people of Jasper county who have on three several occasions honored him with handsome majorities of their votes, and the last time over the earnest protest of the defendants in this suit. But we have neither space nor desire to comment on this circumstance. . As interested parties it is difficult for us to believe that the plaintiff’s action in taking a change of venue was prompted for the sole purpose of obtaining a fair and impartial trial. To us it appears more like an effort to badger, to annoy, and to satisfy a malicious and revengeful spirit. In the first place, Mir. Packard published in his newspaper (the Laporte Chronicle) the following violent article concerning the defendants, to-wit:

THE RENSSELAER UNION. On the principle that one cannot touch pitch without being defiled, we presume the better policy for us would be never to have written the name which stands at the head of this article, and were we alone affected by the followingcharacteristic morsel clipped from that paper and sent to us by a friend, we should pass it bi’ as the idle hiss of a viper whose fangs have been drawn, and who is only capable of writhing and hissing.- For several years, ever since the tinje when the conspiracy of the proprietors of that paper to steal the postoffice, miscarried, thanks to the people of Rensselaer and the representative in congress, they have almost weekly whisked their forked tongues at us, until the venom poisoned all the air between Rensselaer and Washington, Since the first of January last, we have not been a subscriber to the filthy rag by means of which they exjiibited to the public their slimy propensities; but the attack on us continued, and with, a cowardice shared by only a few of the other papers of the district, they stabbed us thus in the back, without 'courage or manhood enough to let us see the weapon they used. Since starting the Chronicle, we have hoped we should hear no more from them, that some last remaining sense of decency, since not one word in all these years have we returned to them, would impel them to the silence of shame. But not so. Among what else we know not, these words appeared last week in that apostate sheet: The overwhelming defeat oi Mr. Merrifield, of Mishawaka, was a merited rebuke to Mr. Packard and his myrmidons. The extract was sent us by a friend, at least we receive this as a friendly act; and we should not notice it only that it alludes to others besides ourself. We say to the writer of that sentence, that a large share of those who supported Mr. Merrifield were no friends of the editor of this paper, that a large share of those who supported Maj. Calkins were, and are now, among our warmest friends, that Mr. Merrifield is a man whom to support for such a position is an honor to his supporters, that the “myrmidons” of Packard who supported him, are men whose shoe latchets, the writer of the above is not worthy to stoop down and unloose, and who will cordially support for election the man who was not their first choice in convention. Having no postoffice madness or blindness -they are able to see the merits of the man whom the party chose, and will spare no pains to see him elected. The “myrmidons” of Packard are not the men who thrust themselves into a convention in order to break it up, and failing in that, bolt the ticket, and cry “fraud,” as the scoundrel who is running away with the stolen purse, cries “stop thief.” The Union has left the party that nurtured it so long, which is the only kindness ever returned by that paper. Of it may be said in all truthfulness: “It left its party for the party’s good.” When defendants, in a free-lance spirit of “give and take’’ so preva-

lent among editors retaliated in kind, plaintiff squealed, to make use of an expressive slang word, and instituted a libel suit against them. As soon as this course was determined upon, before"the legal papers could reach the clerk of this county or notice of their filing was served upon defendants, the plaintiff or persons acting in his interest telegraphed to the leading newspapers in this State and in Chicago his version of the matter, and colored those telegrams so as to manufacture, if possible, public opinion for the plaintiff and to the prejudice of the defendants. That it is intended by plaintiff for this suit to partake largely of a political contest there can be scarcely a doubt. Because the defendants are in possession of facts which damage the political reputation of plaintiff, because they have weakened his influence in this Congressional district and .throughout the State, because they have good and substantial reasons both of public nature and a private character to oppose any and all of his political aspirations in future, because he knows they dare to be free in thought and speech, he, the plaintiff, means, if possible, to break down their business, and in its ruins destroy their influence. Hie feeling is identical with that which inspired certain persons last summer to say that “The Union must be crushed out.” Indeed one of his friends announced in the columns of a neighboring print that when Mr. Packard “was done with them [defendants] there would be a vacancy in Rensselaer for another Independent paper.” In the meantime, however, while this crushing process is going on, the defendants will not remain idle and fold their arms in despair, but as heretofore The Union will continue to pursue and publish its investigations of the record and acts of all dishonest public men, whatever may be their political bias, whether Republican, Democrat, or Independent, and advocate without fear or favor honestly and earnestly what is believed to be for the welfare of the people.