Daily Republican

Ex Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard has placed himself in a very unenviable position in his interviews last week with the correspondent of the Philadelphia Press. It certainly seems strange that a man of Mr. Bayard's standing would make such a statement as the following:
"The assessment law was passed to relieve the collectors of the persecution and oppression which they suffered from in the Federal courts. Men could refuse to pay their taxes and, being returned as delinquents, could bring prosecutions in the United States Court. There was no relief. Archibald Given, a collector in Wilmington, was fined $2000 when the maximum fine for refusing a man's vote was but $100. They would be brought to trial by the present Republican senator and lawyer in this case before Judge Bradford and a jury packed by Marshal Dunn, so you see they had no chance. A man could avoid the collector, and after he had been returned as a delinquent could go before the United States commissioner and institute a prosecution under the unfair circumstances of trial which I have stated."
That he did make it is not denied even by himself, and yet Mr. Bayard must have known that he was stating something that was not so. He knows that the jury which tried Archie Given was as fair and impartial as any jury that was ever drawn in this or any other State. He also knows that the present law was passed for the sole purpose of enabling Democratic assessors and collectors to disfranchise Republicans, and thus perpetuate the power of the party in this State, but especially in New Castle county. This is why the law was passed, and no one is better aware of the fact than Mr. Bayard.