Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-12
POLITICAL HISTORY.
Cleveland, Beecher, and the Mugwumps
Mrs. Beecher in Tears How Beeoher
and G. Walton Green Almost Wept
Likewise.
From ne Cfncinn1.i Fno,,irs,..


From the CfnoiRRati Enquirer.
NEW YORK, May Con the train going
to Albany yesterday l met George Wal
ton Green, who was the secretary of the
Mugwump committee in 1884. Green is
young lawyer with literary tastes,
through which he came into contact with
Godkin, the aarpers, and Horace White,
and so came naturally in the charmed
circle of Mugwumpcy. He is a nephew
of DIR. j. Ii. Douglas, who was Gen.
GRANTS physician. | met MIN on the
train going up to Albany. Naturally, his
opinion was asked of the President at
this stage of his career. His replies were
generally in eXtravagant language.
"Grover Cleveland is the respected and
honored President of 80, coo, 900 people, not
OF any little band OF politicians" said
Green in one of these Outbursts. "He is
as far above the figures of politics az the
stars are above the earth. He is unap-
proachable in the history Of American
statesmen"
"Why is Henry Ward Beecher assail-
ing himp l ventured to ask, and he re-
joined
''Beecher is not assaillng Cleveland.
He is angry with the Democratic party
for not supporting Cleveland as it ought
"'If Cleveland is Republican, l am a
Republican. If Cleveland is Democrat,
am a Democrat. | am the same kind of
man that he is.' That is MIR. Beecher's
position"
lis it not strange that Cleveland has
not a defender among the Democrats IN
the Senate?''
''He doesn't need any. He has $1,000
600 people at his back indorsing his &C
tions. He can go without a defender in
the Senate, and still be the idol OF the
people,"
"Will he be renominated? ?"
"Certainly, and reelected. They can
burn the old scandal powder over again.
That was the hardest thing we had to con.
tend against. The Democratic Executive
Committee refused to deal with that ques.
! ton. They said to our committee, You
must take care Of this thing. 1t is with
your people that it is affecting votes We
had to fight it at every step. | pleaded
and pleaded with Beecher before l got
him 70 make q speech, He wanted 10 be
assured that Cleveland had been guilty Of
no immoral act after he became Governor
of New York. | said TO him that could
not shtisfy9'nini on that point. Ask Mr.
Cleveland himself about it, said to Mr.
Beecher. He never got the assurance as
| ihe asked it, All that Cleveland said on
that score publicly he said t0nmee and
wrote it out and 1T was published. He
/ did not say he had not been gully of any
I immortality since he had been Governor,
When bread him what Ihad written, he
said: That is true, so help me God AT
ter my letter was published Mr.. Beecher
decided t0smake the speech.H saA
seThatVwas a. curious letter Cleveland
I wrote to Mrs. Beecber." p an ho'
I hr,F0 I eI,o
| letter on one of my visits to Albany.
had been over to Beecher's, aud had an
| exciting time there. Mrs. BeecheT had
| been in tears. Beecher was near crying,
and l was near 1t myself. l was urging
Beecher to take the stump, and Mrs
! Beecher was insisting that he ought first
to be satisfied of Cleveland's virtue. You
| cannot understand the letter to Mrs
Beecher without reading all the CORE
! spOndence. Her letter was a sloppy
! gushy, woman letter. She pleaded with
! the Governor not to let 'this old man,
meaning her husband, bear the burden Of
supporting him, if he was really what he
was painted, but to come out and tell the
truth. She urged him to make a clear
breast of it to her husband. The Governor
| told me that he sat down to answer hel
! letter at O'Clock in the morning, an(
that he wrotelas he would do to his mother
| Indeed, he felt as If he was writing
| to a person who stood in that relation L
! him. When he showed me a copy of the
! letter, after consulting Lamont, my com
ment was that it was good letter to {
! good woman, but feared it was not gooC
| politicsO