Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1884-10-31
GROVER CLEVELAND.
A Great Religious Newspaper on
His Candidacy.
Some of tho Reasons which Forbid tho N,
Y. Indcpcndent" TO Advocate tho
Election of MFR. Cleveland to
the Presidency.

the Presidency.
II Is difficult to think OF n more gro
tesque and, in some respects, revolving
spectacle than that now presented to
the American people by the candidacy
of Mr.. Cleveland. What adds to its
singularity is the fact that those who
figure conspicuously in the scene do not
seem to appreciate either its real char
acter or their own position, or, IL they
do, evince n power of concealment as
rare and marvellous as the scene itself.
Grover Cleveland, who, less than four
years ago, was merely a commonplace
lawyer in Buffalo, about forty-three
years of age, suddenly jumped into the
Mayoralty of that city, and then, by an
other jump, mounted to the Chief Mag
istracy of this State; and when his Gu
bernatorial term is about half completed,
we find him before the people as the
Democratic candidate for President of
the United States. Such combination
of circumstances was never before seen
in the history of a small man. II the age
of miracles has passed, that of polite
al accidents has not. Four years
ago no one saw anything in the antece-
dent record of Mr.. Cleveland fitting
him for the Presidency or giving the
remotcst hint that any party would se-
1ect him as a candidate for this high of
fee. He happened to become the Mayor
of Buffalo; then he happened, under pc
culiar circumstances, to be nominated
and elected as the Governor of this
State; and then, when the Democratic
party wanted candidate for President,
he happened to be the man, who, as
the nominating convention thought,
would be most certain to carry the State
of New York, especially in view of the
objections of many Republicans to the
nomination of Mr.. Blaine. These
streaks of sheer good luck, and not the
ability of the candidate, and not any,
thing in his public record, explain why
the Bayards, the Thurmans and the
Randalls, of the Democratic party, are
invited to play second fiddle to man
in all respects immensely their inferior
The grand rallying cry with which the
| people were to be carried by storm, and
Mr.. Cleveland was to be shouted into
the Presidency, we have in the two
words, purity and reform. These words
were to do the business. Personal puri-
| ty was to take the lead as the guaranty
| of reform. Mr.. Cleveland was to be
| paraded before the people as the very
paragon of the idea, and through him
and especially through his clean and un-
sullied purity, the Democratic party,
so often rejected by the people, was at
last to win the long-coveted prize. The
conscience of the people would be sat
isiied with the purity of the candidate;
the Independent Republicans would
come to his help, and Christian voters
could for once at least vote as they pray
and pray as they vote. The campaign
would be mainly one of personal char
acter, and for the purpose of such con-
test Mr.. Cleveland's stainless record left
nothing to be desired.
Alas! Alas! for human calculations
and hopes! The campaign had not
fairly opened when it became known to
the general public that this pure man,
whose personal character was to be the
charm of his candidacy and the pledge
of his success, was himself soiled with
a gross and digusting immortality, un.
fitting him to be President, or to fill any
other Office in the gift of the people.
The facts were not and are not denied
either by himself or his friends; and
there is no evidence before the people
that the admitted facts are not specimen
facts in the private history of this man
Such facts do not usually go alone
They live in serial groups, and have {
way of repeating themselves The strong
presumption from one group is tina
there are other undiscovered groups o
the same kind.
The Independent, the moment the dis
gliise was thrown off and the real char
acter of Mr.. Cleveland was disclosed
took the position which it maintains to
day, and will maintain to the end of tn,
canvass. That position is that the facts
as known and admitted on all hands
utterly and absolutely unfit Mr.. Cleve
land to be candidate for the Presidency
of this great Nation. Common decency
to say nothing about Christianity, de
manded that his name should at once
have been withdrawn, and some one
put in his place, whose candidacy would
not be an insult to the people, anC
whose election would not be disgrace
to the country. We should deplore
more than we can express, his polit
ical success. We call upon the min.
istry of the land to teach their people
that partisanship can not obliterate the
Seventh Commandments from the law oi
God; that the family, environed by the
sacred moralities which alike define its
function and guard its purity and honor,
is the unit of the state and the sheet
anchor of the social system; and that
the man who, to crafty his base pas
sions, becomes the betrayer and cor
rupter of womanhood, is not to be hon.
ored or trusted in any sphere of life.
We call upon the religious press to give
loud echo to such teaching; and we
ask every voter, who thinks of voting
for Mr.. Cleveland, and who, with the
light now before him, can not do so ig-
norantly, to consider well what he is
proposing to do, and what would be the
moral effect of knowingly electing
such man to the Presidency.
1t would be useless to waste words on
those thick-and-thin Democrats, who,
when they go to the ballot-box, leave
their conscience at home, and always
vote the party ticket, asking no ques.
tions as to the character of the cahdi
date. There are, however, many Demo.
Gratis who mean to keep good con.
science toward God and man; and we
earnestly suggest that, in the Demo,
cratic candidate for President, they are
confronted by facts which sternly de,
mand that they should be governed by
the "higher law" of purity and right
eousness.
Those Independent Republicans, who,
on the basis of moral reason. refused
to support the Republican ticket, and
who, in ignorance of the private record
of Mr.. Cleveland, committed themselves
to his support must in order to pre-
serve the least show of consistency,
decline to vote for him. To
ignore the facts in the grave and
serious charge against him is willfully
to shut ones eyes to the truth. To pre-