New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-30
PRINCIPLES AND MEN.

Now the Democrats are feauy 10 SOY 'n"0
principles are everything and men SINK INTO
insignifcance. The comparison of Cleveland
with Harrison does not please them, and it Will
please them less every day. Harrison won the
highest official commentator as soldier 1or
the Union; Cleveland sent a substitute, caring
too little for the loyal cause to sacrihce COM
fort or risk exposure. Harrison as lawyer Dc
came one of the foremost in his State; CleVe-
land found so little success in his practice that
he was glad to get elected Sheriff. Harrison
mot the oblest Democrats of his State in pub
lie dobate and thew never wanted to confront
him again, and his services as an eloquent
orator were sought in every campaign; CleVe-
land crammed an encyclopaedia IN order 10
make commonplace remarks at railway sta
tions. has never been able to make respect
able speech, and staggered through wretched
platitudcs when called upon to address the
students of Virginia college. Harrison was
elected to the Senate as the champion OF his
party Cleveland was picked up as cipher OF
whom the people knew nothing and division
among his opponents made him Governor
Harrison has spent his manhood in useful labor
and in the enjoyment Of Christian home I;
Cleveland spent much of his time in saloon
with cronies, and Of his domestic affairs II Is
enough to say that he had no home.
But it is true, as the Democrats say, that
far-reaching public questions at issue make
the personal character of candidates compare
lively unimportant Mr.. Clevelands policy
would equally ruin the country if he were OF
all men the ablest and the w1sest in other
respects. The policy which Mr.. Harrison ad-
vocates. and with greet clearness and force,
would equally benefit sixty millions of people,
and the hundreds of millions that are
to come after them. though he Were a less
able or a less worthy man. Ap.dS from tho
influence Of President in causing NATIONAL
policies to be loptei or defeated, effectively
enforced or undermined by official unfaithful-
ness. his power over the welfare Of this self
governing Nation is but small. There have
been some remarkably good Presidents, who
were of scarcely any real service to the coln-
try. This Nation has to work out Its own
salvation, by making for itself wise laws, and
il cannot shuttle off the responsibility by
putting a good man or an able man into tho
Executive Office. Worthy and able as General
Harrison is, the country would gain compare
lively little by his election, if there should be
elected with him the sort of Congress which
the Democratic party would choose.
The questions of public policy are vital and
affect the whole future history of the country.
In four chief particulars, the policy of Presl-
dent Cleveland and mis- party has already done
harm that cannot be calculated. 1t has made
the Nation less respected abroad, not only by
trucking to the influence of Great Britain, but
IL Il e 1n n, IN
disloyal politicians to represent it in many parts
of the world. IL has destroyed the influence
of Civil Service Tei:Drmers, and made the very
name of reform odous to the ear, because 1t
has been made to stand, and by professional
reformers has been accepted as standing, for
the most disreputable and cOwardly hypocrisy
for the systematic prostitution of the public
service to partisan and personal ends. 1t has
broken down and effectually crippled the little
Democratic fragment which had so long resisted
free-trade theories, and has made the anti
quated and ignorant prejudiceS Of the Dem
ocratic party the very law of its life. Mean
while, it has stimulated warfare, with ever
increasing boldness and destructiveness,
against the system under which the industries
of the Nation have been developed for twenty
I'VE years, anu ny Which IhcJ dio SiVilSiS"'
Worse than all this the Democratic party
has taught nearly half the people Of this coun-
try to uphold for the sake of party the robbery
of citizens and of States, the carrying Of cleo
tions by force and fraud, the preparation of
crimes which, if committed in any other cause,
every decent citizen would hold infamous 1t
has defed the Constitution and laws in South
ern States. and hooted down upright citizens
who protest. II has imported government by
the thug and the thief to Northern cities,
robbed Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis,
Chicago and stolen from the people of Indiana
the power to re-elect the honest and worthy
Senator for whom the majority of them actually
voted The answer to that crime is his nomi-
nation for the Presidency, and in his election
the Democratic crime against free government
can be arrested and punished.
THE BANDANNA Most CO.
The American flag has driven out the Dem