Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-11-21
THE NEW ADMINISTRATION.

changed without revolution, is one of
curiosity as to what Democratic Presl-
dent will DO. They would feel this abont
any Democrat. but more especially do
they feel it with regard to one of so little
experience in national affairs and of
whom indeed so little was really known
before his nomination. They feel as a
farmer would who heard that his old &C
quaintance who was sheriff in the next
county nine years ago was now elected
Chief Magistrate Of the Nation. AS a
matter of fact Mr.. Cleveland has had less
experience with the administration of ma
tional affairs than almost any man who
has filled the Presidential chair. None
that We Can recollect, except soldier pres
idents ever sat there before without hav-
ing.frst sat IN one or the other branch of
congress, He is without ques ton tie
freshest and most direct from the people
of any President this country has had
What sort of administration will such
a man give US? On the only distinct
issue that he was chosen-Reform in
ouf national government, it is to be pre-
sumed that his very newness to national
politics is the best guarantee that he will
not drop into any old rut. He has given
the best evidence in his governing of the
great State of New Y ork, Of his firmness.
we might say, obstinacy; of his intrepid
political courage; of his willingness to re-
sist his party friends as stolidly as he does
enemies when he believes that he is right,
and of capacity for rising above party,
which, Notwithstanding the rumpus it
raises among party managers, is after all
the best tonic that man can often give
the political organization of which he is a
member. Upon only one question have
Mr.. Cleveland and his record been ex-
amined closely in the last campaign and
that is, honest government. Upon that
his record is white as snow from the day
he was county sheriff up through all the
positions he has held. Upon that he was
elected over one of the most brilliant men
of this country who is perfectly familiar
with national affairs and intimate with
the American system of government, but
whom the people were afraid to trust Cd
account of the looseness of his ideas about
the use of public station to acquire
wealth. man who. if he had been con-
tent to be poor man, would have been
Pr esident of the country four years age.
So, upon the issue of honest government
there need be no fear on the part of the
country that all of Mr.. Cleveland's prom
ises will not be fulfilled. Whether he will
add punishment to publication, is another
question. With such man for President
as old Ben Butler. the ground around
Washington City would be dug up to find
proofs of corruption, and the prison gates
would be kept standing open for untrust-
worthy officia.s-indeed, We don't know a
public man in the country, except Butler,
who could do the situation justice. if all
is true that has been printed by the Re-
publican papers who left their party dur
ing the last campaign.
AS to the Southern States, as a section
they have no more to ask from the lew
President than they would have had to de-
mand Of Republican President. TIE time
has gone by when the South stood in danger
of trespass from the National Government.
For long time there has been no such
public opinion in thu nation as would
support such a tresrass. All the South
wants of my Administration is that it
will be non-sectional. This has been its
great cause of complaint against Repub-
lican Administrations while bearing
its share for the support of the govern
ment it has not been regarded, but treated
as less than the equal Of the West, East
and North. President Cleveland will put
an end to that and treat all sections of
the Union alike. And that done, the
south is content. The South does not
want to control the government it is
now intent en- business. It wants the
money of the government spent as equally
ever the country as far as may be, and
not poured out in profusion in one sec
ton. 1t wants no legislation by either
party adverse to its interests like the
raw material" admission now grown so
popular among tie Republicans and Dem
ocrats Of the old manufacturing States
and so damaging tot the undeveloped States
of the South. Whatever the South wants
from the next administration is material
and not ideal. Does the Administration
want to go into a foreign war, as it was
said Mr. Blaine would do? Very good !;
the South will furnish its quota of troops
cheerfully, and also insis. upon furnishing
its quota of the army stores, clothing ship
building, suffers and all that sort Of thing
In other words the South has beenq uibbling
and hair splitting over a lot of questions
that neither kill nor cure anybody, while
the North has been busily hauling all the
chestnuts ont of the fire, merely taking
time to stop now and then to cry out
treason" and ''rebelllon,'' at the South
ern wind dispensers, in order to keep the
Northern mind under the conviction that
the South must not be trusted in the
government We of the South expect
a chance under President Cleveland.
to inform the World chat we have
coal, gold, iron, tip, zinc and ether metals
and minerals; that we have the equal of
any harbors in the world from which they
may be exported; that we are not barbara
ans among whom human life is unsafe;
that our fertile land is attached to the
United States, netted with railroads, and
not an outlying desert inhabited by ire
sponbible Arabs. The three administra-
tions that have succeeded Abraham
Lincoln have been no friends of the South
ern States, and that unfriendiness has
been a great drawback. A section, of
which Its own national government speaks
ill has a hard time with the rest of the
world. The Republican party has been
ba opctpu of ba South in, ff.ic rocppat nd