The Evansville Journal

We exposed the terrible bungling of which the Democratic Council had been guilty in assessing property for the purpose of taxation. The only reply that paper could make to our exhaustive exposition was that it declined to discuss city matters until some more convenient season. That for the present it intended to confine its attention to State and county politics. Well, we didn't take any exception to that, and, with our usual good nature, we proceeded to give several chapters on county politics, refuting the Courier's pretended statements of facts, and demonstrating that under Republican government taxes were lower than when the Democracy were in power. We also published a few facts on the Wabash Canal question, and endeavored to have the Democratic candidates for the State Legislature—Messrs. Isaac Kean and J. G. Shanklin—place themselves on the record against that swindle. Inasmuch, however, as they persistently refused to commit themselves against the swindle, we suggested that the "only assurance the people had that they would not vote for it, was their well known indifference to money and their high-toned integrity." Furthermore, we respectfully intimated that the people would feel better satisfied to have some more tangible evidence than an assurance of this kind, good as some might regard it. Now to all these suggestions the Courier replies in the following choice and characteristic style:

The JOURNAL, when it intimates that Messrs. Keen and Shanklin, if elected to the Legislature, could be induced to do a dishonorable act, lies in its throat. If it has no throat, it lies through John W. Foster, its editor, through F. M. Thayer, its associate editor, through Wm. Baker, Victor Bisch, Gen. Veatch, Soren Sorenson, and its other associates. A pretty set to impeach any man's honor!

We do not know that Messrs. Keen and Shanklin regard voting for the assumption of the old canal debt as a "dishonorable act." They might vote for it on principle. It is barely possible that they think the State, as a matter of justice and equity, ought to take back the canal and agree to pay the little debt of near $17,000,000 for which the bondholders once agreed they would look to the canal only for payment. It is just on this point that the people would like to hear from Messrs. Keen and Shanklin. Gentlemen, are you, or are you not, in favor of the State taking back the Wabash canal and assuming the debt for which it is held in trust?

The Courier manifests some uneasiness lest Mr. Decker, when he assumes the duties of Auditor, will not be able to add up the duplicate, or write it out, in one half as good form as Joe B. Elliott, one of the present Auditor's deputies. That may be true. Neither can Mr. Joe Reitz, the present Democratic candidate for Auditor. Joe Elliott is a number one scribe, and does his work most artistically. Auditors generally don't add up and write up their duplicates, and Joe Reitz wouldn't do it if elected. The Courier is still further exercised with the fear that Messrs. Fair, Barker and Erskine won't know how to make the calculation to determine the ratio of taxation for county purposes.

Well, if they can't determine the rates, God only knows what will become of us should Kekron, Fickas and Bower be elected Commissioners.

The people, however, feel under no apprehension on this score. In the first place, if the Republican Commissioners are elected, taxation will be so reduced that it won't be much of a job to apportion it in the proper manner. In the second place, when it comes to "figuring," Jim Erskine can beat the whole posse of Democratic candidates from Joe Reitz down. In the third and last place, the Courier needn't feel bad, for it will not in any manner be responsible for their blunders, which by no possibility can compare with those made by the Democracy whenever that party gets the opportunity of fingering the people's money.

The Courier has resurrected F. Y. Carlile, formerly one of the proprietors of the JOURNAL, for political purposes. It says F. Y. Carlile was called "Old Honesty," when it was generally believed a greater rascal never lived. The Courier insinuates that the sobriquet is applied to Governor Baker for a similar reason. Inasmuch as Mr. Carlile has been brought out of his grave for "political purposes," it may be very proper on our part to state a fact. The Courier says Mr. Carlile filled the place of "Big Medicine" to the Radical Know-Nothing party until the war broke out, when he became a most terrible rebel. Mr. Carlile dissolved his connection with the JOURNAL in the Fall of 1859. During the campaign of 1860, he was a violent opponent of the Republican party and one of the leading contributors to the Evansville Enquirer, in which he abused Cassius M. Clay and other Republican speakers, in concert with the present editor of the Courier, to the great delight of the latter and his political associates. It is true Mr. Carlile became a violent rebel at the commencement of the war, but so did nearly all of the Democratic leaders, and by so doing he only demonstrated his full fellowship with the Democratic party. It is not for us to say what the people believed as to Mr. Carlile's character. Certainly the fact of his becoming an ardent Democrat in 1864, and his association with that party, was not in the least calculated to remove any bad opinion of him they may have entertained. The truth is, Mr. Carlile stood pretty fairly in the community until he became connected with the Enquirer. From that time people generally lost confidence in him. We think, however, we but speak the feeling of patriots everywhere, when we assert that Mr. Carlile, in going South and joining the rebels, was entitled to far more credit for honesty and consistency than many of his Democratic associates, who dodged the dangers of rebellion by remaining in the North, while at the same time they did all they could, without forfeiting their heads, to defeat the Government and make the rebellion a success.