Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1876 — The Great American Defendant. [ARTICLE]

The Great American Defendant.

From having been long a defendant in. nearly all the United States courts of the country, Samuel J. Tilden has come to be a defendant in the court of last resort to the politician —the high court of public opinion. Fortunately there the case may be tried upon its merits, as if the offense were committed but yesterday. And thereit is being tried; nay, it has been tried, and a verdict of guilty rendered. In order to defraud the Government of the United States out of certain moneys rightfully belonging to it, by virtue of the law of taxation, Mr. Tilden swore falsely—raised his right hand toward Heaven, and, calling God to witness that he was telling the truth, told a falsehood. ’ls it any injustice to Mr. Tilden to call him a “ criminal,” and to say that he deserves punishment instead of being honored by being Governor of the chief State of the Union? We cannot see that Mr. Tilden has a right to complain if he is urged to resign his Gubernatorial office. It is to be expected that he will keep his oath of office, when he is known to have violated an equally solemn oath?' Is it fit that Mr. Tilden should continue to be acting as Governor of New York after it has become notorious to all people of that State that he ought to he indicted ? The question has been asked: Will Tilden withdraw from the Democratic Presidential ticket? It is of no consequence whether he will or will not withdraw. The people will take care of his Presidential aspirations. His perjury is as formidable a bar to his elevation to the Presidency as if ( it were proven in a court of justice. It is no more necessary to prove Tilden’s guilt before a court, to keep him out of office forever, than it was necessary for the Senate to convict Belknap under the House articles of impeachment, to keep him out of office forever. The people do not elect such men to office. The man who sold posttraderships to the highest bidder, and the man who swore to a lie to defraud the Government, bear upon their brows the brand of infamous crimes. Whenever they appear in public, the people are reminded, by their presence, qf their guilt. They are ticket-of-leave men who may ply their traffic in the seclusion of private life; but they may not again enter the places they have disgraced.— lnter - Ocean.