The Eaton Democrat

The Venezuelan Swindle.
[New York Sun.]

Senator Morton is even more responsible for the legislation by which the Venezuelan swindle was carried through than Orth or his associates in that job. He was then, as he is now, the leading Republican member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and his influence with the Administration controlled its policy on any subject in which he manifested a personal or political interest. But for the active part he took in pressing the law through, by which war was threatened against that little republic in case the payment of these fraudulent claims should be resisted, it never could have passed the Senate. And when it was driven through, he was greatly instrumental in urging the President and the Secretary of State to the most extreme course, in order to extort the money which had been awarded by the most shameful collusion between the American Minister, the American Commissioner, and the purchased umpire.

And when the dividends were paid under protest, he was again prompt and efficient in seeing that his friends received their share of the spoils. In every sense Mr. Morton is responsible for this swindle so far as the Senate is concerned. More than this. he was the adviser, if he was not actually the author, of the original bill that compelled Venezuela to submit to this extortion, or be subjected to the horror of a hostile demonstration, such as had been made against Paraguay, but under very different circumstances.

This fraud originated with, and was perfected through a ring formed in Indiana, of which the special friends of Mr. Morton were the pillars. His position on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, with access to all the documents filed in the Department of State, required him to know the nature and extent of the barefaced swindle. He went into it with his eyes open, and if he did not profit by the transaction, he enabled others near him to plunder a feeble and friendly State by the menace of brute force.