The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-05
A CLEVELAND PORTRAIT.
How the President Appears Three Months
"After Taking"

Gath. In Minneapolis Tribune.
American presidents generally show what is in
them IN the first six months of their sway The
term for which they are elected is so short that
instantly they get all the support and all the op-
position which constitute reign The first four
years OF Andrew Jackson in the presidency had
all the belligerency, tyranny and wholesome
patriotism shown by Queen Elizabeth in her
extraordinary length of sway. The four years
of John Adams in the presidency resembled the
reign of Louis the XVIII, or Charles x, long as
these latter might have been
We have in Cleveland some kind of man;
exactly what we are trying to find out, but we
shall never entirely know, for we have to see
him mainly through the Interpretation he re-
celves from his opponents or partisans. Prob
ably beneath the surface is the average human
being, unequal to the great necessities OF his
place except by the mighty education equality
in our kind of society gives to men.
You can find a working man in America in any
country village, who is just obstinate rs Cleve-
land certain amount of egotism produces the
fullness of character; the meek and lowly man
who does not resent sur upon his motives or
behavior seldom has the personal incentive for
resistance. We have been long in want, in the
United States of presidents Of real moral cour
age. Lincoln himself had not very much Of this,
probably not as much as Andrew jackson. Lin
coins predecessor, Buchanan, was great
coward. Buchanans predecessor, Pierce, was
always either getting over drunk or just going
into one, and he had that lax moral nature which
whisky gives. Fillmore, who preceded Pierce,
had something of the character of Cleveland,
and he was failure because his sympathies
were on the wrong side of everything; he was
stoid, hard, took the wrong side and held it with
constancy; no President ever was as popular as
Fillmore in the Southern States, and no man
was ever more completely repudiated by his
neighbors. Cleveland and Fillmore inhabited
the same town.
Cleveland probably knew Fillmore moderately
we'll. Fillmore was an obstinate Turveydrop, and
nhcfi OF 6,,fo
put white apron on that man. and cleaver
in his hand, you can guess the price Of meat by
the expression on his face No man ever was in
the presidency who believed that he deserved it
as much as Cleveland. His self love is so mag
nifcent that it hardly needs speech to express
it. 1t is so thorough that he thinks silence be-
comes his greatness.
He has been rolled up hill like barrel of beer
until he is something of balloon; the next step
upward will be aeronautic. The men who
sounding his praises on the outside of the Re-
publican party would never tolerate him if they
had come in contact with him before he was
President; they would instinctively have put
him down as common politician with a broad,
thick head, great contractors back, and hips like
Bill Tweed's. But this kind of servitor is i'm
mensely tickled by place and a great situa-
ton. They now behold in him the perfect
mirror of themselves
The play of conceit is amusing, and out of it
may come some benefit We are all heartily
glad to find that the Democratic accession, in
stead Of being great gluttony by the hogs has
become tournament between one of the hogs
and the general sty. l have noticed that the
most inferior animals, when trained to particular
performances. attract more attention than the
great lion-like animals. / once saw an old man
in Paris who had trained rats to drill and climb
up pole; it was more interesting than to see
the lions in the Garden OF Plants, becauseI had
seen lions in all the menageries from my youth
up, but rats l never did see on the performing
stage On a later occasion saw a performing
pig He ran around the ring and jumped over
bars, and there seemed in his countenance to be
such stupidity, while in his actions there was so
much intelligence, that the human mind over
guise of the deer or the horse Does anyone
suppose that this mere swinish obstnacy is to
constitute the intellectual strength and
example fit for the American people to duplicate
in that Office What reflection on the college
professors! They have been looking for some
beautiful dude, with eyeglasses the English ac-
cent his breeches split, his coat tails standing
out. to rule the American nation. Instead of
that, they have King Log with notifications
from King Stork. The dignity in that presiden-
tial countenance is the dignity of the sheriff sit
ting up over night with the man he is to execute;
those watery, viscd eyes, almost without color,
that fiat sconce where the dome of nature never
was raised, that self-rejoicing deep inner con-
tent, like we'll in the earth chuckling to itself,
all these remind US that man is hypocrte and
that above all other things which he deceives, he
deceives himself On the other hand, there is no
question that this President with these coarse
qualities has drawn some inspiration from his
more recent mentors There are episodes in the
world interesting merely for their hopelessness.