Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-12-23
PERSONAL POLITICS.
How Mr.. Cleveland Treats His Op
pOnents and Vice Versa.


The nomination by the President OF
Attorney for Indiana has been used by
the Republican press to raise the ques-
ton of courtesy against Mr. Cleveland. |
It is said that Mr.. Bsiley, who is a
lawyer in good standing in indianapolis,
during the campaign made use OF Mr..
Harrison's public record respecting his
This was personally offensive to Mr.
Harrison, and therefore it is claimed
that Mr.. Bailey should not have been
appointed to a Federal office.
1t is known that we discourage indirec.
ton and allegation and untruthfulness
and personalities in political campaign
But let us see by what right Republicans
raise the issue now made upon the
President.
In 1884 he was assailed without man
ners of mercy. The assaults were not
whispered; they were howled. They
were not distributed by letter; they were
printed in the public press. They soon
reused the spirit of retaliation. An
eLitor in Augusta, Maine. Blaines home,
copied the epitaph from the tompstone OF
his first born, showing by the date of its
birth, compared with the date of its par
ents' marriage, that it was born out of
wedlock. An editor in Indianapolis used
this material. Then followed the usual
evasive and mistaken policy of
Mr.. Blaine as to all developments
of his personal record, and at last ap-
peared the double marriage theory, his
suit for libel against the Indianapolis
editor, with Mr.. Harrison as attorney
for the distinguished plaintiff, and the
| final dismissal of that suit upon Mr..
Blaine declaring in letter that he would
not get justice in Indiana. The provo
cation in the attack upon Cleveland and
the retaliation upon Blaine made up a
brutal chapter in American politics.
The matter was all an intolerable offense
against the decencies of politics, and was
so considered by righ.-minded menIof all
politics.
Mr.. Cleveland became President, and
early among the suitors for Federal
Office came the two Democrats most con-
spicuous in the counter attack upon Mr.
Blaine. The President, with gallantry
which should have touched all men, and
with motive looking to the cleansing OF
politics, that was to MAKE it safer for
clean men to take part in public affairs,
refused to appoint either of them, put
ting his refusal plainly upon the ground
that he would not reward men for that
kind of work; saying, in terms, that the
scandal had been to the sorrow and
humiliation of Mrs. Blaine and her chill
dren, and he would bind up their
wounded self.respect and stricken feel.
ings, as far as in him lay.
This closed the incident, to the infinite
credit of the President as an actor in it.
The lesson he taught was effective
upon his own party. In the campaign
of 1888 it respected scrupulously the
decencies of discussion and the rights oi
personal character and the privacies ol
domestic life, if for no higher reason
because it's members knew that the op.
posite course promised no recognition
nor reward if the President were re-.
elected. Its attitude of propriety was
not public posturing merely, to be null.
lifted by the opposite in private. Its en-.
ergies were thrown entirely into consid.
ering the great public issues which il
was believed would determine the result
Let us now turn to the other side and
see what impression the Presidents gal
liant conduct made upon Mr.. Harrison'f
party and supporters.
Connecticut charging the President with
conscious, personal, corrupt use of the
funds in the Treasury to secure his re.
election, and with other criminal and
impeachable conduct in his great Office
, These charges were in some form re.
peated by Mr. Blaine throughout his
stumping itinelRcy as Mr.. Harrison's
champion. Tte party press approved
and used them as texts. The man who
originated them was Mr.. Harrison's
guest during the campaign, and is to be
his chief adviser in the coming Cabinet.
No Republican paper has said that Mr..
Harrison owes to Mr.. Cleveland, as a
courtesy, the refusal to appoint to office
the man who called him public thief.
The invasion of the privacies of the
Presidents domestic life, which should
be as sacred as those of any citizen, was
not so openly made. 1t was entrusted
to men like Chauncey M. Depew, who
entertained dinner parties over the wal.
nuts and wine with unmanly smut and
indecent falsehoods. 1t was radiated
from Republican National headquarters,
to be whispered and gossiped in every
part of the Union. Women were
piled with it. A system of let
ter-writing was devised to convey il
broadcast. 1t was propagated from
mouth to mouth. 1t was the ungrateful,
ungracious, lying return made to Mr..
Cleveland for his manly and Christian
courtesy to Mr.. Blaine. Has any depre-
cation OF it appeared in the Republican
press? No. Mr.. Depew is an accepted
counsellor of the New President, pet OF
the party, supported for high appoint
ment by the Republicans of Buffalo, and
the pink of the party's idea of gentle
manly perfection.
| Since the election Ingalls,. who stands
convicted of defaming the President
while accepting of his hospitality, and of
defaming him in whispers while eating
at his table, has gone into print in
studied ISLANDERS enriched by the malice
of viper, and his venom has been
quoted and gloated over by the press
which seems to hail with relief the end
of that era of partizan decency which
was one of the major works wrought for
the country by Mr.. Cleveland. It is q
subject to which we have purposely
avoided allusion heretofore, while we
have been appalled, by the public dis
courtesy and the private deviltry which
have been used against the President by
the benefciaries Of his clean and upright
faith in Righteousness. He elevated
politics. His enemies have debased it.
They have sown the wind, let them reap
the tempest Alta.