Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-01-11
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Some of the Points TO Be Considered BY
Office Seekers and Office GiVers.
Slscidi 10 the ReJiRer.

~
Office Seekers and Office GiVers.
Special 70 the Register.
WASHINGTON, January l0.-Were it not
for the refreshing gossip over the Cabinet
of the incoming President this city would
be too dull to live in during the present ses'
sion of Congress. But with the assistance
of tie quadrennial topic it is possible for
Senators and Congressman and lobbyists to
drag out a weary existance during this
period of expectancy in Naiionul politics.
When the Cabinet is actually announced
there will be many disappointed men in
Washington and elsewhere. The Democ-
racy has come out strong on candidates for
Cabinet position. There is hardly a State
in the Union that has not fled its claim
early, and that viii not be supremely
Disguised if its Just demands are
not listened to. The Democrats in
sure Republican States like Vermont and
Massachusetts and Maine are confident that
they ought to be considered first. Have
they not borne the brunt Of the battle
against overwhelming odds and kept up the
DdIll OEEdulLdllOu WlIuOul YAK oLHhtCob
hope OF local patronage and with only the
glimmering light of a possible Democratic
President in the White House to cheer them
on their way through the dismal swamp Of
perpetual defeat? Is it wonderful, now that
the unexpected has co ne to pass, now that
rest has been proclaim I'd for the weary and
a triumph for the battle-scarred legions Of
the party, that these men of iron nerve and
Of steadfast ~intrepiditY who have distin-
guished themselves in an assault, not on
the weak but on the strong points
in the enemy's lines should ask that their
courage and consistency be remembered by
President Cleveland2 1t would be simply
marvellous if they were to fail to come to
time when the ~reveille is beaten, not for the
march but for the merry.makiug, and the
Democracy Of these same Republican States
have not treated with violence all the logic
of the situation. They are demanding
recognition and recognition they propose to
have.
But on the other hand The bed rock
Democrats Of States which have always
given majocities for the party Of Jefferson,
are ready to obey the cali Of their country
and put on the livery of Uncle Sam. They
have had some local Offices in the past, but
that can hardly be counted against them in
the division of the spoils when
it is remembered that they
have given to Mr.. Cleveland the bulk
of the electoral votes, which made him Pres.
ident-clect. They may legiumately claim
also, tlat their efforts in behalf of Democ-
racy lave been better directed, more skillful
and n ore successful, IS a consequence, than
those Of Democrats who have never succeed
cd in winning 10 their way Of thinking a
majority in their own States. The fringes
Of patronage may fairly go to the Demo
Gratis Of Vermont say the patriots OF the
State Of Daniel Boone, but to the body of
the fabric, States like Kentucky are indispu-
tably entitled"
A third set of States present a claim
founded on an entirely different basis. New
York. Indiana, New Jersey and Connect
cut were the doubtful States in 1884, as in
1880 and 1876. Victory in those States
meant victory in the Union, and defeat in
those States meant four long years of wait.
ing for the expected entrance into the prom
Used lard. The battle was fought and won
by the almost superhuman efforts Of the
local Democratic managers in those States.
In Indiana Senator Mcdonald and his CO.
laborers recognized that on their
shoulders rested the responsibility of
the whole struggle, In Connecticut Senator
Barnum had to lay himself out and
work like a major to secure the electoral
vote Of that State. In New Jersey, if Sena-
tor Mcpherson and Ex-Congressman Willis
Ross had not worked in perfect harmony
and engineered a most successful ioray into
the ranks Of independent Republicans, the
battle would have been lost. Bat it was in
New York, the pivotal State of the Union,
where the best work was done in the direc-
ton of securing harmony within the party.
If Tammauy had played false as the County
Democracy did, Mr.. Cleveland would still
have been Governor of the State. If Nc
Laughlin and his Brooklyn cohorts had not
been held in line there, then enough votes
would have been lost to change the
result. Daniel Manning and Eddie"
Apgar were the organizers OF the
New York campaign, but as New York
Democrats are only human beings with po,
litical ambitions it is but reasonable to sup
pose that they did not allow Manning and
Apgar to bring together all the forces that
had to be harmonized to make victory a
possibility, without many pledges which will
have to be held irviolate by the incoming
administration.
So there are these three classes OF States,
Republican, Democratic aud doubtful, with
conflicting claims for preference. Each
class looks upon a Cabinet position as the
certain road to the gratii cation of its amb;-
ton in the way of patronage; and each in
dividual State is anxious. 10 make it.
self solid through one of these
cabinet positions. The only difficulty about
the distribution of the cabinet is found in
the fact that only seven men are wanted in
stead of t~hirty-sight. The President-elect
will have to snub four-Gfths Of the States
anyhow, and his life will therefore be a bur
den to him until the ordeal ofnaming a
cabinet is overwith.
To these difficulties which are entirely
within the party, must be added an external
one of scarcely less serious dimensions. II
was the Civil Service Reform Republicans
who gave Mr.. Cleveland the States OF New
York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In
equity they are entitled to claim
some recognition at his hands.
Far be it from me to assume
that the supremely p~atronizing aad intense
ly literary Thomas Wentworth Higginsou or
Curtis, the pink Of all propriety, or that con-
~spicuosly uselfsh patriot Mr. Carl Schurz,
of fragrant memory, or the lat~itudinariAn
Beecher can be infueSeed by any regard for
the party spoiles of office, or the flesh pots,
leeks and onions of political patronage. If
a cabinet position were offered in q manner
which seemed to assume that it vas q pay
ment for service rendered, any Of these gen.
tlemen would spurn it with righteous indig-
nation. This is ~of.cpurse especially true
of Mr.. Schurz. But at the same time it il
held by the newspaper organs ofthe Indepen'
dent Republican element, that it is none the
less q duty on the part of the new President
to show TO the world his recognition Of the
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