St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-30
THE PRESIDENT WILL NOT GO.

whether it be evil.
THE PRESIDENT WILL NOT GO.
In an interview with the GLOBES Wash
ington correspondent last evening President
CLEVELAND gave a full explanation of the
reasons which induced him to abandon his
original purpose of attending the funeral of
Vice President HENDRICKS. By referring
to the interview, which appears in another
column, it will be observed that the presi-
dent bases his reasons upon his convictions
of duty, and frankly admits that the con-
siderations which induced the change in his
plans did not impress him until they were
presented to him by others. Under the inn
pulse of desire to pay tribute Of respect
and affection to the dead statesman who
was so recently associated with him
in the administration of the government
the president made public his intention to
attend the funeral. When friends inter-
posed and presented to his consideration the
critical condition of the government and the
danger of anarchy which might occur in
case the only life which stood between the
government and the people was taken, the
president concluded that his duty to the
people required him to subordinate his
individual impulses to the public welfare,
and deeming it unwise TO take unnecessary
risks in any direction which might involve
the country in serious complications, he
abandons his original purpose and will re-
main at his official desk in Washington.
In rf+ no cif 4Lo
dent is correct It behooves him above
all other men to study the public welfare
and to shape all his conduct and actions
solely with reference to the general good.
In his effort to perform this duty according
to his conscientious convictions he is to be
commended. In another aspect of the case,
however, the GLOBE says most frankly
that it thinks the presidents judgment is
in error and that his advisers have not been
wise in their suggestions. AS an original
proposition the presidents conclusions
would not have been open to criticism.
But to have expresseda determination to go
to the funeral and then to have changed his
mind because Of the representations made
to him that his life would be in danger, gives
an appearance of individual timidity
at variance with all previously conceived
opinions and estimates of his character
And what is still of more serious conse-
quence, it sends abroad false impression
of the security of our American Institutions
Itpublshes to the world the fact that there
are conditions in this country which render
it unsafe for the life of the chief magistrate
to travel among his own people, and that
there are contingencies in our government
when the death of one man would produce
anarchy. In modified sense, it is a libel
upon our boosted republican institutions.
The conditions of security in the United
States are such that the life of the
president of the republic is just
as safe as that of the humblest citizen.
There is no more danger to the chief mag
istrate as he rolls across our Western
praires in his palace car than there is to
the tramp who plods his weary way over
the dusty turnpike. So stable is our gov
eminent and so firmly is it founded in the
hearts of the people that the death of the
president, and for that matter the death of
all the heads of the departments at one
time. would no more interrupt the progress
of the government or produce serious fric-
ton in its movements than would the death
of the humblest hod-carrler in the land.
OF course such an event would be a
shock and a sensation. But it would
not produce anarchy. The people
made the government. They can sus-
tain it. The people brought it
into existence through the throes of a great
revolution and a seven years war without
an executive head. Their descendants
could carry it through another as severe an
ordeal without a strain to single part.
The GLOBE would deplore as great
national calamity any event which would
remove the present wise and conservative
executive head of the government. AS a
Democratic journal with full and unfinch-
ing faith in Democratic principles, believing
them to be the only correct principles for a
sound and successful administration of the
national government, the GLOBE would
doubly deplore any event which would trans
fer the control of the national administra-
ton from Democratic to Republican hands.
ct, Wu6u VIC SuuOIullldlS OuI PERSONAL anu
partisan impulses to the higher influences
of broad patriotism and a spirit of devo-
ton to our country and its institutions, we
are honestly of the opinion that it would
have been better for the president to have
carried out,his original plan, and have at
tended the funeral of the lamented HEN
DRICKs, even though he had lost his life by a
railway accident or had died by the hands
of an assassin, than to have cast an unjust
reflection upon the security and stability OF
our American institutions. The calamity
of his death would have been most disas-
trous shock to the government, but not as
great as the misinterpretatipn of our national
conditions liable to be placed upon his re-
fusal to attend the funeral. Thank Con
we are not living in Russia or Spain, where
the government hangs upon the personal
security of one man.
DAKOTA'S ADMISSION.