St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-11
THAT "CLEyELAND SCANDAL I"
The Exact Facts in an Infamous Cam
paign Device.
IN. Y. Evening Post.

/
ourselves, and says it 'knows it can lead only to
one result" relying on 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 in
vestigated 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 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-
/ fering much annoyance from her-one of the
natural and common penalties of such errors
and after satisfying her brother-in- law, who ap
peared on the scene her protector, that he
had behaved fairly toward her, he laid the whole
matter before Mr.. Burroughes, lawyer of
high standing in Buffalo; that Mr..
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 off 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.. Cevelard'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 delirium 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 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 as salvation frcE i'm
| pending DEATH and has little other evidence to
| rest on except the bare assertion of the Rev Mr..
Ball, a Baptist minister in Buffalo, who appears
to dabble 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 ga notorious
libertine and profigate.'' Well we may well
| say frankly that we think there could hardly be
| poorer authority. We mean no disrespect to
the profession when we affirm that accusations
of this sort brought by ministers to be
ceived 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 heresay. the tattle OF busybodies
| who are delighted to be able to tell the pastors
| of the wickedness which is going among
| people who make no pretense OF being religious,
and they are apt to receive it with credulty
which is sometimes very unfortunate. Theu
| there are, we all know, ministers and minis
tiers some who large-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 emphaticaly that lie himself needs good
| many certificates to his sober mindedness and
| far-mindedness 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. IL Cleveland is a notorious profit
gate and libertne,' 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
nesscs, whatever they may be, for Mr.. Cleve
lands vindcation on this point. We take it for
| granted that in his case. 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
| il notorious he be. We must assume that
sidering the size of the vote which he received
| for the mayorality of Buffalo, and the fact that
| his majority was largest in its best quarters,
Cleveland cannot have been notorious libertne
and proGigate or libertine and profigate at all,
| in small place, without being notorious And
| yet the Ball story has taken everybody, appar-
| anfl Int Rail nv e1rnriep After his uOminn-
| ton some of the heartiest testimonials to Cleve-
| lands excellence man and d citizen came
| from such 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 describes, but apparently never
dreamed of it until Mr.. Ball spoke. Is this not
most extraordinary? Could it happen except in
Presidential campaign?
| Cleveland's virtues are those which bind human
| society together, and in which states are founded
and maintained. There has been no great bene-
| factor of the human race who has not been truth
full, faithful to his trusts, disintercsted, selfde
nying There have been very few who have
| been chaste. Blaine vices are those by which
| governments are oyerthrown, states brought to
naught and the haunts OF commerce turned into
dens OF thieves. The standard by which some
ministers now propose to exclude Cleveland from
high place would have prevented Washington,
| Franklin, jefferson, Hamilton, not to go any fur
| Their, from taking any prominent part IN the
foundation Of the American republic. 1t would
| have excluded from Office in England nearly
cry great statesman or reformer Of the last hun
dred years, except, perhaps, Romilly, Wilber-
| force and Gladstone. 1t would have visited
nearly every prominent politician in the Repub-
| lican party since 1860 with popular odium. 1t
would, had the Democrats chosen to apply 1t,
| have defeated one Republican candidate for the
presidency by charges worse by far than Cleve-
lands, in that they added the sin of broken vows
| to the sin of incontinence.
We are not defending incontinence. Chastity
| is great virtue, but every man knows in his
| heart that 1t is not the greatest Of virtues that
| offences against it have often been consistent
| with the possession OF all the qualities that
noble human nature and dignity human life and
! make human progress possible. 1t ought to be
! preached and practiced by every man TO the ut
most of hs ability, but no one ought to preach it
with any other motive thin the spread OF virtue
and least of all for the purpose, az in the present
! case, OF making come of the basest Of yices-the
vices that sap everything that is valuable in
! ciety and potics-seem respectable. Preaching
of this Sort at this time is cant, and cant in its
most loatheome form, for it fills every household
| in the land with filthy suggestions and insinua,
! lions, turns the press into common sewer, and
| converts scores of editors into hypocrites, who
must blush in secret over their own ridiculous SER
mons and their simulated righteousness. We
will not, for our own part, help the Republican
at this crisis in attempt TO capture the presi-
dency for a trickster, as Joshua captured Jericho
by the aid Of harlot. Great as its faults are 1t
deserves less ignominioas end than this.