The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-08-14
aHaerspts yntelligeHeer.
The Cleveland Scandal.

can political life. As soon as q man
reaches any position of prominence he
becomes at once target for the thousand
arrows of calumny, and he is happy, in
deed, if the flying darts do not inhict
wounds that will forever after rankle and
that will poison the springs Of happiness
during the whole period Of natural life.
Grover Cleveland, the Democratic can.
didate for the exalted Office of President
of the United States, has not escaped the
common lot of public men, and to day
there is going the rounds of the lower
class of Republican journals shameful
story in regard to his private life and
moral character. The story is that he
seduced, under promise of marriage, one
Maria Halpin, saleswoman in Buffalo
dry goods house; that he deserted this
woman and her offspring, and that
finally, wearied with her. opportunities,
he had her seized under circumstances OF
great brutality and conveyed to private
asylum, and that after her release from
confinement he compromised with her
family By the payment of $500, and thus
the matter was dropped.
As if the Halpin story, with all the
deyilish ingenuity of its concoction, with
so many apparently scorroborating Cir.
cumstances, was not bad enough, the
authors of this vile story add to- it the
assertion that Cleveland had been often
found by the; police of Buffalo in a beast
" drunken condition; that he was guilty
of habitual immoralities with women,
and that he consorted with blackguards
and loose women, drinking and Sighting
in their company.
If. it could he believed for one moment
J that these charges were founded upon the
truth, then it would be felt that Grover
Cleveland was indeed q moral leper,
totally unworthy of the support Of
Christians, or of any people with any
: pretensions to decency, and the demand
for his retirement from the ticket would
come in thunder tones from the Demo-
cracy of the land. We could not afford
to ieopardize the just and righteous cause
of the people by conntenancing the can.
didature of any such man.
But the charge is a lie on it's face. Is
it conceivable that these things could
have happened in the city of Buffalo,
and have been matters of common report,
and that then the citizens of that place,
without distinction of party-Democrats,
Republicans and Independents, church,.
going and non.church- going people
should have united together, as one man
and bestowed the Mayoralty of the city
upon the low blackguard that the actor
in such scenes as Cleveland is described
as figuring in must have necessarily
been? The supposition is uonstrous
absnrdity and an insult to the intelligence;
Of the American people. If these accu.
sations are true, then the morality of
Buffalo must indeed have been mt "a low
ebb, and the citizens of that place, TAX
ing them collectively, worse even than
the mansons whom their highest civic
{ honor was bestowed.
s Just about the time that Grover Glove
land, according to this dirty campaign
lie, was wallowing in filth and iniquity,
Z We find him submitting to the City Coun.
Gil Of Buffalo the following letter in re.
gard to the perils of children and espe.
cially Of young girls on the streets at 4
lste hour Of the night:
BUFFALO, June S, 1882.
Ny attention has been called, by a
( committee from the Society for the Pre-.
yention of Cruelty to Children, to the
number of small boys and girls found
upon the streets in the! night.
i have;reson to believe. that many of
these children are allowed, and some are
obliged, by their parents to thus remain
in the streets for the ostensible purpose
of earning money by selling newspapers
OF; backing boots. In truth, however,
aftera certain. hour in the evening, the.
most, if not albthe money they receive,
they obtain by begging or by false pre-.
lenses. In the meantime they are subject
ed-to the worst influences, leading direct:
" to profgacy, vagrancy and crime.
The Importance Of caring for children
who are suncared for by their natural
guardians, or who are unmindfuI OF pa.
rental restraint, must be apparent to all.
In the future, for good or evil, their In.
finence will be felt in the community
and certainly the attempt to prevent their
swelling the criminal class is worth an
effort. < SSss..s ~
Itseems to me that no pretext should
be permitted to excuse allowing yonng
girls to be on the streets at improper
hours, since the result must necessarily
be their destruction.
The disposition of the boy ichild
though he be) toad in his own support
or that of Others in an honest, decent way,
ought not to be discouraged. But this
does not call for his being in the street
at late hours, to his infinite damage
morallys mentally and physically, and to
the danger 7of society.
respectfully suggest that this subject
be referred to the Committe on Ordinan.
ces and the attorney, and that a commit
tee from the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children be invited to CO.
operate with them in an effort to frame
an ordinance which will remedy the evil
herein considered.
GROVER CLEVELAND, Mayor.
This letter indicates q solicitude in re-
gard to female virtue not at all in keep.
ing with the vicious character that has
been given to Grover Cleveland by the
Republican journals that repeat the SLAM
ders against his good name, and this,
taken into connection with thousands OF
incidents in the career of the man, give
the lie to the damaging reports against
him.
Considering the phenomenal populari-
ty of Cleveland and the handsome sup
port that his own people have given him,
itmight hardly seem necessary for any
Democratic journal to take the trouble
of defending him no defense would seem
necessary; but lest it should be said that
the story is being covered up and that
Democratic papers are afraid to publish
it, we have given our readers the sub.
stance of it. It isa pitiful matter, and
one that shows how much of depravity
goes in with politics and how unscrupu-
lous are those who will 90 any lengths
for party purposes.-COlumbia Register.
VVl.o Non UlnI1