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tfrom tfc* 0«n*m«f»tAl,THE LEGIS*ATITE E ABU AIN OF 184BLetter from the Hon. VVm. Johmtfon.Messrs. Editors :—I did not have th6 plea- J sure of hearing the speech of Mr. Chase nigh* before last, ana can only judge of what he said by what is published tn the paper*, and by ] what other* tell me. I wish now to reply both | to his allusion to my letter of the 23d of July, and to the statement of Judge Matthews, made } two or three weeks ago.Both these gentlemen do me injustice in this ; that they quote me as saying that I do not object to a bargain between Townsend and Mem- , of the «me pvt, and the Democratic members of the Legislature of the other part, by which ( Mr. Chase became Senator, and the Democrats took the othlt;r offices. I am a careless, awkward writer, l^ut no fair minded critic can put , such a construction on my letter, nor even raise a quibble, but by taking a single line out of its eonte?tupe, and making it the subject of comment. But this is not the bargain to which I object” taken with the context, means “this is not a lull statement of the bargain to which I object.” In the words iminediatlv before this garbled line, I condemn such bar-Sins on the authority of Mr. Lewis, and of r. Chase himself, who always preached the highest toned morality in regard to politics.Ever since the charge of “bargain and sale,”:n de bv George Cramer, against Adams and Clay, by whicn it was alleged, that Mr. Clay ana his frienas had elected Mr. Adams President on condition that Mr. Adams Would appoint Mr. Clay Secretary of State, puch bargains have stunk in the nostrils of the American people. Neither *17. Z\nj nor his friends, preteqd«?i tnat the transaction, if the chargs were true, wa* other than abominably corrupt They took issue in the fae*, *nd the Investigation of the Committee showed the charge t* be Utterly false; and subsequently, in his “Thirty years in the Senate,M Mr. Benton, unwilling to leave such a blot on his country’s history, nailed the falsehood to the counter forever. When the future moralist comes to inquire, at what period pf ou* history etch bargains became rtehfoectable, he will be referred to the period of Mr. Chase's election.All that can be inferred from my letter in mitigation of this bargain iiL that I considered the aecision of a question 01 law, for a consideration, worse than the other feature of the job; or if^ as I am now told, there were two jobs, instead ol one, as I had supposed, that this latter job was the less Meusive to morals of the two.
Newspaper Details
Dollar Weekly Times
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Thu, Aug 30, 1855
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Daniel J.
USA 08 Jul 2024
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