Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1875 — THERISTROUBLEIN CAMP [ARTICLE]

THER ISTROUBLEIN CAMP

Hdn. Richard Thompson, Gen. Benjamin Harrison and Hon. Dan. j *fel D." Pratt, jjroniipent and saga- j 'cions republican politicians, have ! Written public letters in which they decline to permit the use of their names in convention in connection with the nomination for governor on the republican ticket. While the best material of the party arc thus exposing to it a cold shoulder, and declining its honors, they do it very gracefully and assign reasons which, though plausible, Would hardly be thought of were the prospects of an election at all clear. The action of these gentlemen, together with the well-known fact that great diversity of sentiment exists in all circles, from*' the lowest to the highest, upon questions which must be discussed in the approaching campaign, have caused great dismay wire-pullers; and it is now being urged in influential quarters that toe meeting of the Stats convention, appointed for the 22d day of February next, be postponed until the middle of June. They hope by that time to be able to quiet much of the alarm that has grown out of the whiskey revelations now ’being made public; to be able to diagnose public sentiment; to have a platform perfected that will be sufficiently obscure, equivocal and Well garnished with attractive phrases, to captivate the multitude; and to have all the work of the convention so neatly cut and thoroughly dried as to be able to announce with a ,great flourish of trumpets and of penny whistles bow unanimous; harmonious and enthusiastic wwre its deliberations.

As yet, however, no “distinguished leader” has ventured to "sound a key-uote” for the approaching “important campaign so ■fraught with Interest to the people and the welfare of the nation;” and it is not likely any will be bold enough to do so until after the crooked whiskey trials are concluded, and it is ascertained how deep and extensive are the ramifications of this rottenness. The Inter-Ocean gave its.. readers a Christmas treat in the shape of an article, purporting to be based upon an interview With General Babcock, which strongly hinted that Mr. Secretary Bristow was more deeply implicated in the whiskey frauds than either of the persons who have already been indicted; and the article directly and explicitly charged that Mr. Bristow was privy and consenting to irregularities by which certain railroad corporations, or the officers appointed to collect that branch of revenue, have swindled the government out of “millions and millions of dollars.” The Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Gazette, New York Tinies. and some other republican newspapers are attempting to break the force of the Inter-Oceans charges by stigmatizing its exhaustive, two-column, leaded article as “sensational,” “infamous,” “unscrupulous,” “violent,” etc. But that port of pooh-poohing will not satisfy the people. The article has been copied entire into nearly, every prominent newspaper of the land, and given a wide publication. As these charges emanate from one of the most ultra and non-conserva-tive papers of the republican party —a journal whose settled policy has been to uphold every act of the party and endorse everything'done by those members of the party who occupy official positions, or at least to maintain a masterly silence when it did not fully endorse—more importance will be attached to them by the mass of people than if they had been preferred by democratic papers, or the class of independent journals which the Inter-Ocean and nearly every partyorgan has constantly villified during the last five or six years. Nothing short of a complete and unequivocal vindication of Mr. Bristow, in a court of competent jurisdiction, by positive testimony of unimpeachable character, after a thorough investigation, will satisfy the public and convince them of -

factory for the Inter-Ocean to say j that its charges are unfounded and resulted from a misapprehension of facts, for they were too circumstantially told for people to believe that statement; neither will it do for Mr. Bristow to rest with a full reJ traction of its statements by the | Inter-Ocean, because if that paper is base enough to destroy an innocent man’s character and villainous enough to attempt to ruin the reputation of an upright public officer because he is engaged in bringing guilty men to punishment, it could be hired for money, or some other consideration, to suppress whatever ugly truths it might know, and to impeach itself.. But the Inter-Ocean will not do this. In a vigorous editorial that appeared Wednesday, it thrusts back savagely at -the Tribune, and says : In no manner, immediately or remotely, directly or contingently, have any of the responsible editors or managers of this journal an interest to the amount of a farthinir in whisky or whisky rings, ®r in the fate which awaits or may await any person charged or to be charged with frauds upon the Federal revenue in the wh isky traffic. If the Archangel were upon earth and engaged in the control of a newspaper, he could not be more free from corrupt complicity with whisky thieves br |he whisky rings than we know ourselves to be. The italicised words of the above quotation were not so prominently marked in the paper in which they first appeared, but they are not less significant on that account. They substantially reiterate the charges it had already made and intimate that more may follow and other persons be implicated.

At Indianapolis, also, things are not altogether lovely. There is something wrong about the postoffice, which has been managed for several years by Col. Holloway, who is Senator Morton’s brother-in-law; and the United States grand jury have been set on the trail to ferret out what is causing the effluvium from that source. Then there is a branch of the whiskey ring in the State, a portion of which was laid bare by the St. Louis prosecutions; and this needs to be further developed. Already prominent Indiana republican politicians have been implicated more or less fully as belonging to, and sharing profits with, this cancerous criminal combination; and intimations strong and hints of various degrees of breadth are being indulged in respecting the virtue of others, which causes great distrust among the people. Taking all these facts into consideration—the whiskey ring influence in Indiana; the post office irregularities at Indianapolis; the ch arges of the Inter- Ocean against prominent members of its own party ; the trepidation of Thompson, Harrison and Pratt, manifested by their declination of proffered honors ; the dismay, hesitation and vacillation of the convention-manip-ulators ; the wide-spread dissatisfaction towards President Grant’s administration known to exist in its ranks; and the great diversity of opinion upon questions of governmental policy—make a gloomy prospect for the republican success in Indiana in 1876.

A late number of the Indiana Farmer says that J. F. Williamson & Son, of Deer 1 Lick Fann, near Thorntown, recently sold to Cyrus J. Brown, of Jasper county, the yearling short-horn bull Graceful Duke 12,893, sire Duke of Edgwood--13,923, dam Lady Grace by Grand Duke of Moreton 5,732, which has Itaken several prizes this year, w-. . -- - = ‘lt is reported in the Delphi Journal that Samuel, ySnngest son of Gen. R. H. Milroy, died last week at Olympia, Washington Territory, where the family now resides. He was about 12 years old. Bruce, another son, is at Delphi this winter. Our Brook, Newton county, cor« respondent writes that roads are nearly impassable; butter is worth 25 cents a pound; eggs 25 cents a dozen ; an old fashioned fist fight occurred on the streets op Christmas day; the Grangers, are wide awake at Brook. acknowledge the receipt of a map of the Northwest, which includes the spates of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, lowa and Minnesota; together with a copy

of the “Illustrated Union Hand Book for 1876,” both issued by the Cincinnati Weekly Times, and given to each subscriber to that first-class newspaper. The Hand Book contains a reliable calendar for 1876 and about 90 pages of double column reading matter. The latter is interesting to the general reader, illustrated witli numerous engravings, and arranged under appropriate such as statistical, agricultural, scientific, youth’s, governments of the world, household recipes, miscellaneous recipes, social and domestic, poems, election returns, and a synopsis of the principal events occurring in all parts of the world from January Ist to November 30th, 1875. Tfie subscription price of the Weekly Times one year is 82 for single subscribArrangements are perfected by which we are enabled to offer it in connection with The Union as follows: The Times §2, Map of the Northwest $2, Hand Book §l, Rensselaer Union 82 —total $7 — for $3.90. The. Times in politics is consistently republican.

A private letter received from Boulder county, Colorado, and dated 17th inst., says: “We write with the doors of the bouse open; chickens are singing as though it were springtime, and the mountain forests are as green aS in June; grass looks dead and dry, but ranchers do not feed ,tjheir stock, Jind cattle look fat and sleek. At noulder City, a town of perhaps one thousand inhabitants which is situated at the foot of the mountain and furnishes supplies for the people of,many a mile of territory, prices are: Potatoes 1| cents a pound (everything of that nature is sold by the pound), corn 2 cents, oats 2 cents, green apples 16 cents, flour 3| to 4| cents, beef at retail 8 to 12 cents; dry goods are some higher here than in the States; live cattle sell cheaper than anything else; chickens are worth $4 to $5 per dozen, turkeys $1.50 each; butter and eggs are very dear. People have excellent health in this region.”