Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-12-03
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS PARTY.

CIV, ana IN merely angry pIolesO
against disappointment Of their
own personal and factiOnal ends,
many Democratic leaders and news
papers continue their censure of the
President for his alleged carrying
ont of the Civil Service Il etorm dec
laratiOns Of the platform upon
which he was elected. To these
declarations the President super
added his personal approval. There
was no hint by the President al the
time of his nomination, or during
the progre SIS of the canvass preced.
ing his election, that there was eth
er mental reservation or equlVoke
in his formal acceptance of the
declarations for reform by his
party. Civil Service Reform is, in
deed, eminently a Democratic meas
ure. Charging the Republicans with
insncerity in previous enactments
in behalf of Civil Service Reform,
the Democrats in Congress proceed
ed to formulate a creed of their
own upon that subject.
Ex-senator PendletOn of Ohio,
an esteemed Democratic leader,
once the Democratic candidate for
Vice President and a prominent
candidate for the nomination for
President in 1868, was conspicu-
ously jealous for Civil Service Re
form, and was appropriately select
ed by the President elected as a
Civil Service Reform champion for
the high position of minister to the
Court of Berlin. Moreover, the
mugwump allies of the Democrats,
without whose aid Mr.. Cleveland
could not have been successful, es-
pecially in the pivotal State of New
/ York, were the heralds and trump
eters Of Civil Service Reform. 1t
is not a question as to whether
Civil Service Reform, as most loud.
IL asserted by dOctrinaires and pre-
| tenders to superior political virtue,
is to be commended. The question
between the President and his ac-
cusers in his own party is as to the
degree to which he was bound to
carry out pledges to which both
himself and those who elected him
were committed in the most posi-
tive manner conceivable. How far
the President has maintained the
Civil Service Reform manifestoes OF
himself and his party is a question
perhaps of general interest among
his countIymen. If he has defect.
ed from those declarations in the
direction of excessive liberality to
Democratic partisans in the matter
of patronage, perhaps time and re-
Election will cure the sores of his
Democratic critics. IF, on the 9th
er hand, it shall be demonstrated
that he has been merely true to the
pledges made by the Chicago Con.
yenton which nominated him, he
should not be assailed with the Sc
we're criticism with which Demo
cratic newspapers, notably in Vir-
ginia, condemn him as being faith
less to his party.
While the "jewel of fair-play'
ought to be as priceless in the usages |
Of politics as in the ordinary prac- /
tees Of life, 1t is by no means the |
rule Of politics. The President does |
not escape the common lot of men in
high place. While Senator Black
burn, Senator Voorhees,, Governor
Hill OF New York, and other dis
tinguished Democrats are in high
favor with their party as Jealous
of Civil Service Reform, its
champions are decried and relegat-
ed to private life. Conspicuous
victims are Representatives Cox in
North Carolina, and Willis in Ken
lucky. Henry Watterson, of the
COWiT-JOmndl, an
Henry Grady of the Atlanta Con-
stitUfioR, the most distinguished
journalists in the South of the pres
emit generation, and editors Of the
two great Democratic dailies of that
section, persistently ridicule Civil
Service reform. Mr.. Watterson
lvOws unlimited contempt for what
he calls the "Civil Service Reform
as practiced by the Cleve-
and administration. Undoubtedly
he President has numerous break
srs ahead of him. The disasters to ,
his party involved in the autumn
elections are charged by his party
associates as the fruits of his "poli-
~ Members of Congress now in :
Washington are quoted in the news
papers as saying that the rebuke t.
he administration by Democratic
.oters was both deliberate and de-
,eIvcd.
Meanwhile the President has a
Ong tine in which to develop his ,
policy, and to meet the plottings ,
or his injury in his own party ,
sagaciOus enough to meet :
he crises ahead of him-crises to n
,e brought about mainly by dissat- :
sfactiOn among Democratic lead ;
rs, difficult situations are certainly
o be confronted by his administra.
ion. Democrats, having no better I
ground Of complaint against the q
resident than their dissatisfaction >
With him in the matter of patronage
.1uuOt anDpal successfully IN Re.