The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1884-08-13

sdulterous intrigue with what appears to
have been one OF the female lobbyists in
Washington. The stories about Daniel
Webster's earouses and amours were so .nu-
merous as to have found general acceptance
since as well as in his own day. It Is
matter of record that Mrs. Andrew Jackson
was virtually murdered by campaign calum-
mics upon her own reputation, the object be-
ing the merely partisan enc OF defeating her
husband for the Presidency. Yet Mrs. Jack
son was as fit to preside over the White
House as any of the list of noble and bril-
liant ladies who have so admirably dis
charged the duties of that position. Her
murder, like that of Horace Greeley's. by
campaign vit1peration for mere political ef-
feet, is one of the foulest blOts on the pages
of our political history. 1t has been pub
lished in previous campaigns that quite soon
after, when young Mr.. Blaine moved from
Kentucky to Maine, he gCGs fOltOtCed by an
irGte Kentucky gentleman aud his daughter, and
being found by them at Bangor marriage
vows, which had been exchanged in Kentucky
were speedily consummated by a legal
matrimonial ceremony the proprlety of
which soon became apparent TO all parties
concerned. 1t is an old story about ST.
John that he became father while a bache-
lor and then married another lady OF the
purest character, whose true Christian spirit
has proved her husbands Inspiration. It is
now charged against Mr.. Cleveland that he
is a seducer, debauchee, monster of hid
den HcentiOusness and unspeakabIe de-
pIavity, and ministers of the gospel, who
never before concerned themselves in regard
to those alleged crimes. exhibit wonderful
spirit of inquiry into Mr. Cieveland's private
life and appeal for his political defeat on
the score of his personal uncleanliness in
every moral point of view.
We find that since and during these al
legged immoIalities, which, if perpetrated,
must have been subjects of general knowl-
edge in Buffalo, Mr.. Cleveland was elected
Sheriff of Erie County, Mayor of Buffalo,
Governor Of New York, and then nominated
for the Presidency, all the while considered
q respectable citizen and supported by an
overwhelming public sentiment in the city
of his own residence from boyhood. Why
was not this expose made before the struggle
in the Chicago Convention over his nomi-
nation? Have not such charges gone by
default of rot having been presented until
this stage of the present Presidential cam
paign?
We reach the conclusion that correct as
the ministerial code of political righteousness
may be, it can not be successfully applied 10
the great majority OF men who have been
and will be nominated to public Office in
this or any Other. country. Applying it to
the candidates OF the opposing parties in
wolves its application to the candidates of
our own party, and when national conven-
tons have been held and Presidential tickets
put into the field the time for searching the
private lives and habits of the nominees aud
deciding the election on the strength and
virulence OF campaign ISLANDERS has passed
by. We have no desire TO defend Mr.. Cleve-
land. That is not our province. He ought to
be defeated as the candidate of party
which the people of this country can not
afford to entrust with the Government He
NAV also be personally incompetent and I'M
deserving of the position. But he must be
IaF cd oil dc of
his-private character made public tor the
first time to any appreciable extent, since
his nomination to the Presidency. Ii such
stories are to become the deciding issues Of a
campaign no candidate is safe for day from
overwhelming defeat and disgrace. All the
candidates would have to retire, and their
successors would share similar fate until
a Presidential election would become an i'm
possibility.
We believe all such stories about public
men should be discountenanced when
brought out for the evident purpose of de-
feating them for office. 1t is dirty work at
the best. They are responsible as public
men and as candidates for their official
records and for the possession of respectable
private characters. If this character is re-
spectacle up to the hour of their nomina-
ton it is not the public interest to establish
a system of espionage and detraction having
for its object the defeat of candidates through
discoveries made or promulgated after they
become candidates. This is matter which
applies in greater or less degree to all
citizens and all candidates, present and
prospective. for all grades OF public
office, and the system adopted
must be one OF universal application.
The decision OF this question is OF more
moment to citizens and parties than the
election or defeat of Mr.. Cleveland. The
private characters of candidates are not to be
impeached and destroyed after their nomina-
ton Their official records are open-their
private lives should be beyond the destroy
ing touch of scandal hunters and scandal
mongers, whose work, when the campaign
which melted their efforts is over, will be
remembered only as a revolving stencil in
the public nostrils, humiliating to the de-
feated and the victorious parties, and fast
ening upon American political life the
stigma Of disgrace which has so largely made
il an undesirable pursuit for the best brain
and conscience of the country.
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