Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-08
rnAr aonEvEnANp scANpAL.,
The Exact Facts in an Infamous Cam
paicn Device.

paicn Device.
Eelo York ECeRjag Post.
The Boston Journal, which has had a
great deal 20 say about what is called
1.-THE Cleveland scandal" asks us to in
vestigate the matter for ourselves, and
says it "knows it can lead only to one re-
suit" relying on our promise not to sup
port notorious libertine and prohigate"
as candidate for the Presidency of the
United States. There has been from the
beginning but little TO investigate, and
that little we have investigated to our
own satisfaction. 1t is admitted by Gov.
Cleveland's friends that u years ago he
formed an irregular connection with a
widow with two children, the eldest IA
years old; that she was person OF Intem-
perate habits, and that the paternity OF a
child born subsequently was doubtful,
but he accepted it, and made provision
for the child; that after suffering
much annoyance from heroine OF the
natural and common penalties of such err
ors-and after satisfying her brother-ln-
law, who appeared on the scene as her
protector, that he had behaved fairly to-
ward her, he laid the whole matter before
Mr.. BURROUGHS. a lawyer OF high stand
ing in Buffalo; that Mr.. BURROUGHS ad-
vised him to leave it to him, and thereat-
ter took charge of il; that be Mr.. Bur-
rOughes) J, cOnceivlng the mother, for the
reason given above, unfit to have the Gus
tody of the child, placed it in an orphan
asylum, the mother conserving thereto,
and making, as we understand 1t, legal
surrender Of the child for that purpose,
and occasionally visiting it at the asy-
lum afterwards; that she subse-
quently stole and carried 1t OIL from
the asylum; that Mr.. BURROUGHS was
notified of the facts by the authorities
of the asylum, whereupon, acting on his
own responsibility and without Mr..
Cleveland's knowledge, he employed a
detective to discover and look after the
child; that in one of the detect YES visits
he found the mother suffering from de-
lirium tremens and threatening to kill
the child, which lay on the floor; that he
carried her off then to the lnebrIate asy-
lum for treatment, and she stayed there
until she was cured, and no longer, and
that the child was restored to its pre-
YiOus guardians. The lawyer who acted
for the woman in one stage of the affair
has formally and in writing repudiated
any charge of seduction or breach OF
promise of any kind. The family &C
knowledge that Mr.. Cleveland treated
her generously.
So much for the charge of seduction and
kidnapping which many newspapers have
been spreading. 1t was produced origin
ally by a cheap and nasty paper in But
falo as salvation from impending death,
and has little other evidence to rest on
except the bare assertion Of Rev. Mr..
Ball, a Baptist minister in Buffalo, who
appears to dabble a good deal in politics.
Mr.. Ball has repeated his story several
times, but he does not supply fresh rea-
sons for believing it.
He also is the chief if not the only au-
thOrity for the story that Mr.. Cleveland is
s'a notorious hbertine and profit
gate" 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
we affirm that accusations of this sort
brought by ministers are to be received
with exceeding caution. They can know
nothing personally of the immOralities of
men who are not members Of their con-
gregation. What they learn about them
is sure to be heaTsay, the tattle of busy
bodies who are delighted to be able to tell
the pastor of the wickednesS which is 60
ing on among people who make no pre-
tence of being religious. and they are apt to
receive it with a credulity which is some
times very unfortunate. Then there are,
as we all know, ministers and ministers
some who are large-minded, cautious and
charitable men of the world in the best
sense of the term, and others whose de-
nunciations pass us by as the idle wind.
So that while we do not mean to accuse
Mr.. Ball of dishonesty, we do say emphat-
ically that he himself needs good many
certificates to his sOber-mindedness and
fair-mindedness and the purity of his mo-
tives before he can be allowed to make
away with any mans private character
in the midst of a political canvass. If
Cleveland is a notorious pronigate and
libertine," why did Mr.. Ball not know it
when he was elected Mayor of his own
city in 1881, 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.. BalPs
weaknesses, whatever they may be, for
Mr.. Cleveland's Vindication on this point.
We take it for granted that in this case,
as in that of other men, the way to ind
what are his best known vices, especially
the private and personal ones, is to ask
his neighbOrs in the place in which he
lives. This is and must be the true seat
of his nOtOriety, if notorious he be. We
must assume that, considering the size of
the vote which he received for the Mayor
atty of Buffalo, and the fact that his
tiers, Cleveland cannot have been a
notorious libertine and prOf1igate,
or a ibertine and prOf1igate at all, in a
small place, without being notorious.
And yet the Ball story has taken every
body, apparently, but Ball, by surprise.
After his nomination some of the heartiest
testimonials to CleYeland's excellence as
a man and a citizen came from such po-
litical opponents as the Buffalo Express
and the Buffalo Commercial. Both of
them are now somewhat shocked to find
that he is the kind of man Mr.. Ball de-
scribes, but apparently never dreamed
of it until Mr.. Ball spoke. Is this not
most extraordinary Could it happen
except in Presidential campaign?
X y
Cleveland's virtues are those which bind
human society together, and on which
States are founded and maintained. There
has been no great benetactOr of the human
race who has not been truthful, faithful
to his trusts, disinterested, selt-denying.
There have been very few who have been
chaste. Blaine's vices are those by which
governments are OverthrOwn, States
brought to naught, and the haunts of
commerce turned into denS of thieves,
The standard by which some min
listers now propose to exclude Cleve-
land from high place would have
prevented Washington, Franklin, JET
fersOn, Hamilton, not to 90 any fur
Their, from taking any prominent part in
the foundation of the American republic.
1t would have excluded from office in
England nearly every great statesman or
refOrmer of the last hundred years, eX-
cept. perhaps, ROmilly, Wilberforce and
Gladstone. 1t would have visited nearly
every prominent politician in one Repub-
lican party since 1860 with popular odium.
1t would, had the Democrats chosen to
apply it, have defeated the Republican
candidate for the Presidency by charges
worse by far than Cleveland's, in that
they added the sin of broken vows to the
sin of incUntinence.
We are not defending incon Thence.
Chastity is a great virtue, but every man
knows in his heart that it is not the
greatest of virtues, that Otfenses against
it have often been consistent with the
possession of all the qualities which en-
noble human nature and dignity human
life and make human progress possible.
1t ought to be preached and practiced by
every man to the utmost of his ability,
but no one ought to preach it with any
other motive than the spread of virtue,
and least of all for the purpose, as in the
present case, of making some of
the basest Of vices-the, vices
which sap everything 4 ut is
valuable in society and pOliticl OPEN re-
spectacle. Preaching of this So Oiat this
time, is cant, and cant in it's most Ioath-