The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-09-04
Governor Cleyeland's Letter.

The letter of Hon. Grover Cleveland
accepting the Democratic nomination
for the residency of the United States
is given to the public this morning. 1t
is short, but not disappointing in its
bregity. 1t is not stump speech, but
but a succinct, clear and able statement
of cardinal principles. Its .conciseness
is one of the chief recommendations a
letter from Presidential candidate
should have. 1t is for the whole peO-
pie, and not exclusively for the doc
trinaires and professional politicians.
Brief though it is. it will enlist deeper
interest and promote more thought on
the real issues of National campaign
than either the letter in which Mr..
Blaine apparently sought to distract
attcnt on from the main questions, or
the interminable document in which
General Butler celebrated himself.
Mr. Cleveland has struck the very
keynote of the campaign. He reflects
the sentiment of vast ma Ority of the
people in favor of a change which
shall rOut from power a party VIII ch,
while growing fat in the high places of
the land, has become lax in the appre-
citation of thu principles which underlIe
the Government, and which have come
to be the shield of an aristOcratic and
impudent office-holding class. The
letter is soundly Democratic, and thor
oughly consistent with the situation of
lis author as the nominee of the party
OF the people, in that it insists on the
popular idea of government.
Mr. Cleveland regards the platform
adopted ut Chicago in July as proper
statement of the Democrat. position,
and he only discusses a few of the lead
inr Democratic ideas of Government.
In this he is pithy and happy. He
wastes no words. He comes to the
point d rect. There is more in his
declaration that it is not Government
by the people in which the of1ice-hold-
ers seek to control the people instead of
representing them than there is in a
volume of the general political literature
of the day. He points out the dangers
OF corrupting suffrage, and leaves the
reader to reject on the prostitution of
elections by the Republican party for
the benefit of Republican office-hOlders.
He regards constitutional Disqualified
ton OF President for reelection as one
of the means which ought to be adopted
TO secure purity in elections and gov
eminent While there may be Demo
Gratis who will differ with him as to the
Importance of limiting President to
one term, nobody will quarrel with him
about tn point. and there Is nobody
who Will not accept his opinion as sim
cere.
In behalf of the workingmen Mr..
Cleveland addresses few words which
are full of meaning, and which stamp
him as the friend of those who labor.
He writes ike man who had studied
the quest on honestly, and had come to
a conclus on without the assistance of
demagogism.. ''Uur workingmen," he
saws, s'are not asking unreasonable in
diligence; but as intelligent, manly citi-
zens they seek the same considerat on
which those demand who have other IL
terests at stake.
The letter presents few WELT med
sentences against laws vexatious 10 the
people. and in favor of improving and
protecting our natural Waterways
The central idea of that portion of the
letter devoted to the civil service is
''honest work for the money the people
pay" He is in favor OF making "ascer-
tanned fitness a test for Government
employment. AID believes that ques-
tiOnable party work should not be a
recommended on for place.
This may be taken as a Just reflection
on the abuse of the civil service by the
Republicans. Public employment for
nearly twenty-five years has not been
..open to all who can demonstrate their
fitness for it. The Republicans have
used the offices TO keen themselves in,
and have had them so long that il is
time to put them out and put in another
set of men to examine the books.-Cin-
ctnHait Enquirer.