Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-08-15
ian church. Buffalo.


the matter has been explained as follows
by the Boston JourHdI, after an interview
with DR.. Ball. who was in Boston last
week
after Mr. Cleveland : nomination to the
Presidency the question of his personal
became a subject of discussion
at the regular meeting of the ministers of
Buffalo, and such statements were made
with reference To his reputed profigacy
that II committee VI four or five ministers
was appointed to make a thorough and
searching investigation of the facts The
ministers specially delegated for the pur-
pose made inquiries, talked with witnesses
and obtained definite proof of the charges
which have since been made public. Dr.
Ball was one member of the committee,
and the statements which he has made
are Il part of the results of the inquiry
made by the Buffalo clergymen. The
case against Mr.. Cleveland, therefore,
does not rest upon the evidence of any
sensational newspaper, nor had it any
political origin. The disclosures are made
by ministers of the Gospel in Mr.. Cleve-
land : home city, whose moral sense was
shocked by finding a man guilty of Of
fences such as Mr.. Cleveland had commit
ted nominated for the Presidency, and
eulogized not only by the secular but by
the religious press as Il model of American
manhood The course which these minis
tiers have pursued was not prompted by
personal or political antagOnSm, but by a
distinct sense of Christian duty toward
the public at large.
OF the Clcrgymen named, Dr. Mitchell
has stated that the question before the
country was whether "a common liber-
tine should be made President of the
United States. DR.. Ball was interviewed
at Old Orchard. Me-. on Monday, by il re-
porter of the Biddeford Evening TjmcS. to
whom he stated that the facts were exact
ly aS stated in the Boston JOUrHdI; that
he was ready to SubStantiate them: that
Mr.. Cleveland would not attempt to deny
them. and in fact had already advised his
friends to say nothing in regard to the
matter; and that there are other matters
which may yet be disclosed, which are as
damaging to Mr.. Cleveland. as those al
ready given to the public, if not more so.
OF course the first thought of fair-mnd-
ed men, upon the appearance of the Buff
falo TdCgrdph'S statement, was that
if ii was true, it was strange that Mr..
Cleveland's personal character in the
respects mentioned. had not been known
and stated long before by his political OPP
pOnents, such as the Buffalo COM
mcrcidl, the leading Republican paper of
Mr.. Cleveland's city. The CoHmcrci0l has
explained that they did well know that he
was open to attack on moral grounds. but
preferred to conduct the campaigns
against him as ii candidate for mayor and
for governor, ON other grounds. rather
than to open their columns to the unsavory
discussions which must follow publication
of his private incontinence.
So much for one side of the case How
fri,
charges: At first largely by silence then
by general assertions that his enemies
We're circulating false and filthy scandals
about him then,as proofs thickened, by ad-
missions that he had had "a misunderstood
ing with woman" like many other men
but he had dealt honorably by her, though
he had to borrow the money with which
he settled with her. Some Democratic
papers have asserted that the charges
of the Buffalo clergymen would be
met by a certificate of Mr.. Clevelands
good moral character, signed by hun
dred of the best citizens of Buffalo but
no such certificate has appeared One
Democratic paper, the Albany y. Y,
Times, has Squarely said that the charges
were most serious, and We're doing meal
culable injury to the Democratic ticket,
and that it was the plain duty of Mr..
Cleveland to meet them, if they could be
met. by suing the Buffalo Tclcgruph for
libel; but no libel suit has been com
menced The Democratic New York sun
has declared that what it now knows
about Mr.. Cleveland's private character,
affords reason enough why he should
never have been made the Democratic
nominee. The Boston Hcruld, one of Mr.
Cleveland strongest New England sup
perters has admitted that Grover Cleve-
land has not lived a chaste life but it still
supports him because his connection with
impure women has not been Haunted in
the face of the public" Other Cleveland
papers have more distinctly taken the
ground that the private morals of public
men are not matters of public concern
as the Springfield Republican, which
finds no way to meet the emergency but
to declare boldly and BADLY, that the
chastity or unchastity of public men of
national repute and nominated for office
before the people of the whole country is
not proper subject for discussion - The
only man Of any note, SO far as
we have observed, that has given
the weight of his individual statement to
a contradiction of the charges, is General
Schurz. In his Brooklyn speech Gen.
Schurz said
Here may remark by the way. that
the scandalous stories recently circulating
about Mr.. Cleveland's private character
have, to my knowledge, been carefully in
CURED into by several parties separately.
by men of high standing i'll Buffalo, by
clerical gentleman on the editorial staff
of the independent, and by Others, and
that the reports of all of them, as they
have come to me, based upon ii conscien-
tious study of the facts in the case agree in
prOnouncing those stories mOnstrous cal
umnies on the man, which will recoil upon
the inventors.
This, it will he perceived, is, rs to its
material point information at second
hand, which would he much more valu-
able if backed, aS the charges have been,
by the names and statements of the parties
alluded to. 1t is perhaps significant that
the current number of the Iuf}gDgudgut