Lancaster Daily Intelligencer

The Kentucky Defaulter.

Kentucky, and not Philadelphia, this time furnishes a defaulter big enough to make a topic of national conversation, and he is none other than James W. Tate, the treasurer of the state. Like all scoundrels of his class, he enjoyed an unimpaired and unimpeached reputation. He had occupied the office for twenty years, and his tenure was so long and his security from prying eyes so great that he made the usual mistake of supposing that the funds of the state were his own property.

The defaulter this time is a Democrat, which makes the weight of his offending all the greater. The first Democratic requisite for office is honesty. Without this foundation, capability and devotion to the constitution are as nothing. The office to which Tate had arisen in the state made his fall all the greater. When he was last a candidate for office, he was without opposition. His flight in disgrace after a long career of honorable service proves anew that in positions of trust the best men need the most watching.