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General Garfield

General Garfield image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
July
Year
1874
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The serious charges made apainst General Garfield by the the New York Eveninq Post have not yet beon contradicted, though it is one whieh the General cannot afford to pass by in silence. Briefly it is that his private secretary drew pay as an employé of the House of Represontatives, when in fact he performed no service in the capacity for which he receiveá compensation. Toward the close of the seBsion, however, it is said, he employed a boy to act in his capacity as a House employé, to whom he paid $ 40 a month. General Garfield for eome years has occupied a prominent position in the House of Representatives, having beon for the last three years chairman of tho Committee on appropriations. Ho applied himself very seriously at the last session to the tulk of stopping treasury leaks, and it will be infinitely to his discredit should it turu out that the outflow from one that had been left unstopped had irickled to him. Eepresentative Garfield ís just now a candidate for renomination in his district, and this adds to the necessity of an explanatiou on his part, i f one can be made. Much opposition is inanifested to his candidacy by Republicana, nd this opposition will be in no degree lussonod it' be does not hasten to clear binnelf of the charge made against him. SENATOB BlAINE lias written a letter, nominally lor tlie car imd eyes of his constituentn, accept iug a nomination for tho Forty-fourth Congrcss, bnt rcally dosigncd as a bid for tho presidoütial nomiuation of 1870. There are two plan ks in hin platform, the first being opposition to the following rcsolution adoptod by the recent Maine Democratie State Conventiou : Resolved, Tbut ;i protective tarifl! is a most unjust, uiiequul, opprewive, nuil irattefal mode ot raising tlio public revnues. It is one of the most poignant und fruitful aources of tho corruption in administiiition. We, therefore, the Düinocracy ot' Maine, in ooiwention assemblee!, declaro for free tradn, and in favor of an unfottored and nnrestricted conimeroe. This rcsolution Speaker Bi.aijíe is pleased to construo as a doclaration iu favor of wiping out tho custom-houses all along the coasts, and conaequently in favor of direct taxation. Whereat he proceeds to wail over the great burdens to be imposed upon Maino, the amount of gold her citizens would bo compelled to deliver up to the tax collectors, etc. Now, unless Maine now pays less than her share of tho burdens of the General Govornmont - larga enough in all conscience - thero is no reason for such bitter opposition to a change in the taxing systeru. It is because the tariff, and ospeciall3T the piotective feature of the tariff system, is benefioial to Maine, at the expense of the great agricultural States of the West, that Speaker Blaink cannot contémplate a chango with serenity. It is because the protoctive features of a tariff syBtem have enriched New Bngland at tho expenso of the great West, that Speaker Blaine seeks to savo it by raising a falso issue. We say a false issue, for the men who adopted tho above resolution struck only at a protective tariff, and count trade as coniparatively if not absolutely free when taxes shall be imposed only for reven ue, and when levied on such articles or fabrics as will give the Government the most revenue, instead of on such as deprive it of revenue to put monoy in the purses of manufacturera by whatever name called. Individually, we would be glad to see every custom house abolished, abmlute freo trade established, and the horde of custom house officers delegated to honest labor. Direct taxaiion would give us an economical government, and a thoroughly economical jovernment we shall uever have under ,ariff laws which stealthily gathers money 'rom the people. When the poople know hey are paying taxes they will look to the expenditures. Extravagent appropria.iont), peculiition, and corruption are only possible because the tax-gatherer rakos in his moneys like a thief in the night. We expect to see tariff and custom houses continued, at least while the immense national debt hangs over the people, nevertheless we shall always oppose a tariff for protection, and if we mistake not Speaker Blaine hasstruck the wrong key-nato to give hiin headway anywhere out of New England, unless it may be in Pennsylvania. Speaker Blaine's other plank is opposition to the Eeciprocity Treaty negotiated by the Grant Administration, and pending in the Senate at the close of the session. And here, too, he has Maine in his eye, first, and secondly antagonism to Gratít. Blaixe evidently considers Gbast in the field for a third term, and " strikes froni the shoulder" ia this attaik upon the treaty ; and his closing paragraph puff of the President by no toeans weakens the blow. The letter as a whole is pettifogging, weak, sectional, and unworthy a man claiming to be a statesman or aspiring to the first office in the gift of the people. We give place to the following letter froni Hon. S. M. Cutciieon, of Ypsilauti, merely premising that it leaves the coast clear in this county to J. WEBSTER Childs, the favorite of that great moral statesman, Zack Chandler (that is if Waldron doesn't bag the delegation). By the way, Chandler and Childs could amicably divide their drinks as did Silas Wright and Chancellor Walworïh, in the days when those two celebrities were in their prime, and were gaid to drink more brandy and water ;han any other two men in the State of New York. Wrioiit took the brandy and Waiwdtii the water, you know. But to the letter : Ypsilanti, Mich., June IS, 1S71. C. E. Patieson, Editor of the Commercial, Deab Sie : - Inasmuch as you have done me ;he honor, through the columns of yuur paper, o urge my nouiination for Congress this fall by ;he Republican party of this district, I owe it to you and my other frieuds to say that I urn not a candidato for that position. Thanking you ior the very fricndly feoüng wliich dictated your nattering expreuioa of opinión upon the subject, I remain vciy trulv, S. M. CUTCHEON. The Commercial is soarculy reconciled to this action and says, that, " While the citizens of this city and his ardent friends n this district will bo disappointed, they abate not od e 'jot or tittle' of hope in seoing tt no distant day, Mr. Cutciieon a memier of Congress, honoring the district aud State, which they are well sntisfied he s eminently qualified to do." Havixg succeeded in takiug the uolitcal life of Hon. S. M. Cutcheon, the f psilanti Commercial now goes for Schtyler Colfax, Esq., after this style: It will be noticed in our editorial entitlod, ' July 4th 1874," we assurne that Mr. Colfax will )9 an ex-President. It will not be at all aurprisng if he shall be the first President elected by he great reform party of the future, having for ts platform, as leading planks, Woman Suflrage, and the abolition of the dram shops. And this just because ScnuYLEH had written the Commercial editor a letter sayng that he agreed with him as to certaiu 'marked articlea." But what a fitting reform candidate Mr. Credit Mobilier Colfax will make. A "WEEK or so ago we noticed the tact hat the Monroe Commercial favored the renomination of Ilon. Henry Waldboh or Congress ; and now wo have to say ;hat the Adrián Times also comes out for Waldron, of course. Waldron is the candidate of the Ilillsdale Standard. With theso threo counties indorsing Waldron his nomination may be considered assured, and three county legisla;ive delegations counted on for Chandlee for Senator. Cutcheojí, entered for the race by the Ypsianti Commercial, havjolted the track, it is safe to predict that Waldron and Chandler will also take he Washtenaw delegation.

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus