The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-07-20
GROVER CLEVELAND.
George William Curtis Tells Why
Cleveland Should be Elected
President

George William Curtis Tells Why
Cleveland Should be Elected
President
From Harper's Weekly
The nomination of Governor Cleveland
defines sharply the actual issue of the
presidential election of this year. He is
man whose absolute official integrity
has never been questioned, who has no
laborious and doubtful explanations to
undertake and who is universally known
as the governor Of New York elected by
an unprecedented majority which was
not partisan and represented both the
votes and the consent of an enormous
body of republicans and who az the chief
executive of the state has steadily with
stood the Establishments and the threats
OF the worst elements of his party and
has justly earned the reputation of
courageous, Independent and efficient
friend and promoter of administrative
reform. His name has become that of
the especial representative among our
public mer of the integrity, purity and
objects of the most intelligent and
patriotic citizens The bitter and furi-
GUS hostility of Tammany Hall and of
General Butler to Governor Cleveland is
his passport to the confidence of good
men and the general conviction that
Tammany will do all that it can to de-
feat him will be an additional incentive
to the voters who cannot support Mr..
Blaine and who are unwilling not to vote
at all, to secure the election of candi-
date whom the political rings and the
party traders instinctively hate and uni
teddy oppose.
So firm and "clean" and independent
in his high Office has Governor Cleveland
shown himself to be that he is denounced
az not being a democrat by his demo-
cratic opponents. This denunciation
Springs from the fact that he has not
hesitated to prefer the public welfare to
the mere interest of his party. Last au-
tlmn, when the democratic district at
torney of Queens county was charged
with misconduct, the governor heard
tie accusation and the defense and de-
cided that it was his duty to remove the
officer. He was asked by his party
friends to defer the removal until after
tie election, as otherwise the party would
lose the district by the opposition of the
attorneys friends. The governor under
stood his duty and removed the officer
some days before the election, and the
party did lose the district This kind of
courage and devotion to public duty in
tie teeth of the most virulent opposition
OF traders of his own party Is unusual in
any public man, and it shows precisely
the executive quality which is demanded
at a time when every form of speculation
and fraud presses upon the public treas
ury under the specious plea of party adj
vantage.
The argument that in an election it is
not man but party that is supported
and that the democratic party is less to
be trusted than the republican is futile
at time when the republican party has
nominated a candidate whom great
body of the most conscientious republicans
cannot support and the democratic party
has nominateda candidate whom a great
body of the most venal democrats prac-
tically bolt. Distrust of the democratic
party springs from the conduct of the
very democrats who madly oppose Gov
ernor Cleveland because they know that
they cannot use him. The mere party
argument is vain also because no honor
able man will be whipped in to vote for
candidate whom he believes to be per-
sonally disqualified for the presidency on
the ground that party ought to be sus
tanned. No honest republican would
sustain his party for such reason and
tie honest republicans who propose to
vote for Mr.. Blaine will do so because
they do not believe, as the protesting re-
publiCans do believe, that he made his
official action subserve a personal advan-
tage. Nothing is more hopeless than an
attempt to pursuade such republicans to
sustain their party by voting for an I'M
worthy candidate. Should they help to
ASNe1u SuCu d CduuludtS ny IOlllelIIIIS
upon him the highest official honor in
the world, they could not reasonably ex-
pect the nomination of worthier candi-
d1te at the next election, and they could
not consistently oppose the election of
any candidate whom their party might
select. The time to defeat unfit nomina-
tions is when they are made, not next
time. The nomination of Governor
Cleveland is due not so much to the pref
erence of his party as to the general de-
mand of the country for a candidacy
which stands for precisely the qualities
ard services which are associated with
his name.