The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-08-20
A SHAM REFoRMER.

Al Lnc CdtD vi WHICH uhS
been opened by the Democrats, Governor
Cleveland has evidently got the worst of
it. Leaving his friends to manage his
case as best they may, the sham relormer
has taken to the North Woods, his letter
of acceptance unwritten and his part of
the campaign indefinitely postponed.
With an effort to be jolly under these de-
| pressing circumstances, the Cleveland
organs say that when the Cleveland man
ayers ''eet good and ready" say about
the first of October, they will begin an
/ aggressive campaign that will make a
tremendous uprear and will carry their
candidate into the White House with q
rush. This is new departure in politi-
cal strategy. Usually, the party that
gets early into tho field and stays there is
the party that has the best chance of sue.
cess. The Democrats have changed all
| that. They waited until the Republicans
! had fixed the date of their Convention /;
and then they fixed theirs little later.
| They could not even venture on the ex-
pertinent of holding their Convention in
some other place than that selected by the
Republicans bnt they meekly followed
after and chose Chicago for no other rea-
| son, apparently, than the example of the
Republicans. If there is any magic in q
Chicago Convention, the Democrats are
| bound to have some of it.
Meanwhile, however, the busy Repub-
licans arc overhauling the record of the
Democracy and the Democratic candidate
with striking results. 1t is pretty diff
cult to separate the personal, the private,
and the official characters of q candidate
from each other. When the Democrats
and ex-Republican boilers assaulted Mr..
Blaine on charges against his personal
character, adducing his speculations in
railroad securities as q basis of allegation,
they said that personal character" was
the only issue in this campaign. 1t was
adroitly assumed that there was some
thing immoral in Congressman buying
railroad securities. They would not lis
ten to the indignant denial of any wrong
doing on the part of Mr.. Blaine and they
have Systematically avoided putting into
definite shape any .'eharge" that could
be fairly supported by any of the multi
farious documents with which they have
bombarded The public When it was as
serted, after Democratic politicians had
begun to assail Cleveland's personal
character, that the ex-Sheriff was a man
of impure life, Cleveland's supporters
raised their hands in holy horror, and,
after mysterious threatenings, they re-
torted with an assault on Blaine's pri-
yate and personal morals. Now, they
are protesting against campaign of
SANDER, which they began, both as to
Cleveland and as to Blaine.
Suppose we try to separate Cleyeland's
record as private citizen from his rec
ord as an official. This would be much
less unpleasant business, for, taking
the ground to which we are urgently in
vited by Cleveland's friends, and leaving
out of view his private morals we may
certainly discuss the public record of this
alleged reformer without fear Of offending
the sensibilites of anybody. The New
York Tribune has done good service to
the cause of honest politics by instituting
an examination into the somewhat slen-
der record of the Democratic candidate.
AS Sheriff of Erie county, Assistant
District Attorney, and Governor of the
State of New York, Cleveland has man.
aged to hold Office and make money dur
ing several years. 1t has been shown by
an examination of the records, so far as
they have not been spirited away, that
Sheriff Cleveland was greedy selfish
and avarieious officer. Ills oyercharges
were notorious, and were cut down by
the Supervisors of Erie county without
mercy, notwithstanding Cleyeland's cir
titlcate they were correct" Where the
law allowed him $500 for hanging man,
be sought to collect bill for $3.50 and
his charges against the county, during
his official term, were about $l3, EGG great
er in amount than the charges rendered
by his predecessor. When he paid a
gratnity of twenty-five cents to news
paper carrier, on Now Years, he scrupu-
| lously charged that quarter of dollar to
tho county OF Erie. When he conveyed
! prisoners to and from the courts or to the
| House of Refuge, he muicted the county
numerically steadily increasing the charg
es as il to see chow much the business
would bear" In this way, tho future
reformer padded his bills until they were
increased 1870 per cent. over his previous
charges, and all this without any increase
whatever in outlay. In short, Clcve-
land S record as Sheriff, so far as it is dis
covered, reveals nothing but meanness
verging on dishonesty and unlawful
thrift.
| Nobody can pretend that these facts
are not legitimate part of Grover Cleve-
lands public record. They are just as
germane to current discussion as his votes
| ia SShfioSo oh ~ IuSottoho w
il he had been member of the House
before he was candidate for the Presi-
dency. His course as Governor is of more
recent date and is fresher in the minds OF
the people. 1t has been repeatedly shown
that he vetoed tho political reform bills
designed to break up tho corruption Of
, New York city politics, whenever thoss
bills were opposed by his political friends
He has jumped in with his veto when
ever the profits and emoluments of tina
notorious trickster, Hubert 0. Thompson
: were in danger. Tho few reform mea
sures that were designed to curtail tn
power of Tammany Hall, he approves
with alacrity. The preposterously Elk
: travagant job of the aqueduct bill, whicl
throws into the hands of the Thompson
gang the expenditure of more than TWEEN
ty millions, was signed by Gov. Cleye
land under political pressure and agains
the protest of all the character and INTEL
igence of New York city. Yet, whei
the architects of the State Capitol sough
reimbursement for money that they hat
advanced during recess of the Legisla
ture, tho sham reform Governor, with
great parade of virtue, vetoed the bill
authorizing that repayment. Having
sanctioned the robbery of the public on ;
grand scale, Cleveland played for q littl'
cheap applause by refusing the reimbur
sement of the Capitol architects the sun
of SO, 1876. No wonder that the New
York Times, which now supports Cleve
land, then said "This is about the
cheapest and scurvest trick of even thi,
very low-priced statesman. "--Nepdrl