The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-08-30
THE INDEPENDENT FLOP.

THE INDEPENDENT FLOP.
The unconcealed JOY evnced by the
| Republican managers over the fact that
the New York Iadependent, after having
for few weeks supported Cleveland, now
opposes him, and the eagernesS with which
they trumpet that comparatively trifling
| fact abroad, looks very much like drown
! ing men catching at straWs. Apparently
hundreds of thousands of copies Of the m
! dcpeHdem in which the editor announces
its change Of base have been sent over the
country, every newspaper having been es-
pecially favored with a copy, (the FREE
| three as if the fact was one Of tremen-
| dous consequence. But what does it
amount to? The IadeDcadem gets a few
| thousand dollars for a large extra edition,
money il no doubt stood greatly in need of,
and in return the editor gives as the rea-
sons for the papers change of base that it
! has been "discovered' that las to a mosty Vi
tai question of personal morals, the private
character Of this SOcalled reform candi-
date CCleveland) has been one of such rot
tenness as justly to destroy all claim in
his behalf to the confidence and respect of
! the American people" And then, in proof
of this rottenness, il proceeds to repeat as
the "discovery" the foul slush Of the two
| Buffalo preachers, but in somewhat cleaner
language, reducing its substance to the fact
that some twelve years ago there lived in
Buffalo loose widow known AZ Mrs. Hal.
pin, who became the mother of an illegit-
innate child, and that with others, young
Cleveland had been accused of intimacy
with the woman. But beyond that Cleve
land, after her "misfOrtune," befriended
the woman and child, the most persistent
efforts of his reverend" traduCers and Ii
bellers have failed to fix upon him the pa
ternity of the particular illegitimate child
in question. Meantime the story is twelve
years old, and in spite of it Cleveland has
been frequently in the interim elected
by unprecedented majorities to high office
by the votes of the citizens of Buffalo with
out regard to party, showing such an indif-
ference to the scandal on the part of those
who necessarily knew most about it, as to
afford complete proof in itself of its real
insigniticance.
But even if it were proved that Cleve
land did, some twelve years ago, commit
an offense against morals, is such an of
Tense, followed by a life of purity, to re.
main forever unfOrgiven? And is such a
stain upon the private record of a public
man, whose public career has been one of
singular uprightness and purity, an honest
reason why the lHdepeRdent should turn
against him and in his stead support a man
who, no more stainless in his private life
than Cleveland in his public career stands
for more political indecency than any other
man who has ever before appeared as a
candidate for high Office in the history of
American politics?
To sum it up, the course Of the Iade
! p6HdeHt III tills matter mas Deen Sucn as
only to bring new reproach on the so-called
religious press" of the country for its
loose morality and VIGOROUSLY trading
characters for it is well understood that
Mr. Twining, the real editor of the Iade
dependeat, and who is man of character,
had nothing to do with the change, but
that it is an affair of the publishers, and
controlled entirely by the mighty question
of dollars and cents