St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-10
THAT "CLEVELAND SCANDAL"
The Exact Facts in an Infamous Cam
Daign Device.
IN. Y. Evening Post. !

n. Y. Evening Post.
The Boston Joarnal, which has had a great
deal to say about what is called ''the Cleveland
scandal, asks us to investigate the matter for
ourselves, and says it 'knows it can lead only 10
one result" relying on our promise not to ''sup-
port notorious libertine and profigate" as
candidate for the presidency of the United
States. There has been from the beginning but
little to Investigate, and that little we have in
Vesugated to our own satisfaction. 1t is admit
TED by Governor Cleveland's friends that twelve
years ago he formed an irregular connection with
WIDOW, with two children, the eldest fourteen
years old; that she was person of Incorporate
habits, and that the paternity of child born
subsequently was doubtful, but he accepted it,
and made provision for the child that after suf-
1erlng much annoyance from heroine of the
natural and common penalties of such errors
and after satisfying her brother-in-law, who ap
peared on the scene as her protector, that he
had behaved fairly toward her, he laid the whole
matter before Mr.. BURROUGHS, lawyer of
high standing in Buffalo; that DIR.
Burroughes advised him to leave it
to him, and thereafter took charge of it that he
(Mr Burroughes) conceiving the mother, for the
reasons given above, unfit to have the custody of
the child, placed it in an orphan asylum, the
mother consenting thereto, and making, as we
understand it, legal surrender of the child for
that purpose, and occasionally visiting it at the
asylum afterward; that she subsequently stole
and carried it eff from the asylum; that Mr.. Bur
roughes was notified of the facts by the authori-
ties of the asylum, whereupon, acting on his own
responsibility and without Mr.. Cleveland's
knowledge, he employed detective to discover
and look after the child; that in one OF the de-
tective's visits he found the mother suffering
from delrium tremens and threatening to kill
the child, which lay on the floor; that he carried
her off then to the inebriate asylum for treat
ment and she stayed there until she was cured
and no longer, and that the child was restored to
its previous guardians. The lawyer who acted
for the woman in one stage of the affair has for
mally and in writing repudiated the charge of
seduction or breach of promise of any kind. The
family acknowledge that Mr.. Cleveland treated
her generously.
So much for the charges of seduction and kid
mapping which many newspapers have been
spreading. 1t Mas produced originally by cheap
and nasty paper i'll Buffalo salvation from i'm
pending death, and has little other evidence to
rest on except the bare assertion of the Rev. Mr..
Ball, Baptist minister in Buffalo, who appears
to dabbe good deal of politics. Mr.. Ball has
repeated his story several times, but he does not
supply fresh reasons believing it.
He also is the chief if not the only authority
for the story that Mr.. Cleveland Is "a notorious
libertine and profigate.'' Well we may as well
say frankly that we think there could hardly be
a poorer authority. We mean no disrespect TO
the profession when affirm that accusations
of this sort brought by ministers to be re-
ceived with exceeding caution. They can know
nothing personally of the immoralities Of
men who are not members of their con-
IL, Al
sure to be heresay. the tattle of busybodies
who are delighted to be able to tell the pastors
of the wickedness which is going on among
people who make no pretense of being religious,
and they are apt to receive it with u credulity
which is sometimes very unfortunate. Theu
there are, as we all know, ministers and minis
ters some who are arge-minded, cautious and
charitable men of the world in fhe best sense of
the term, and others whose denunciations pass
us by as the idle wind So that while we do not
mean to accuse Mr. Ball of dishonesty, we do
say emphatically that he himself needs q good
many certificates to his sober mndedness and
fair mndedness and the purity of his motives
before he can be allowed to make away with any
mans private character in the midst of politi-
cal canvass. If Cleveland is notorious profit
gate and libertine,'' why did not Mr.. Bail not
know it when he was elected mayor of his own
city in 1871, and when he was elected governor
of the state in 1882! And if he did know it,
why did he keep silent?
But we are not dependent on Mr.. Balls weak
nesses, whatever they may be, for Mr.. Cleve
land 8 yindication this point. We take it for
granted that i'll his case as in that Of other men,
the way to find what are his best known vices,
especially the private and personal ones, is to
ask his neighbors in the place i'll which he lives.
This is and must be the true seat of his notoriety
if notorious he be. We must assume that con-
sidering the size of the vote which he received
for the mayorality of Buffalo, and the fact that
his majority largest i'll its best quarters,
Cleveland cannot have been notorious liDertine
and pro1igate, or libertinc and prohigate at all,
in a small place, without being notorious. And
yet, the Ball story has taken everybody, appar-
emily, but Ball, by surprise. After his nomina-
ton some of the heartiest testimonials to Cleve
lands excellence as a man and a citizen came
from such opponents as the Buffalo Ecprss and
the Buffalo Commercial. Both of them now
somewhat shocked to find that he is the kind of
man Mr.. Bail describes, but apparently never
dreamed of it until Mr.. Ball spoke. Is this not
most extraordinary: Could it happen except in
u Presidential campaign!