Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-06-14
THE CAMPAIGN

| FEIlCHISM IN The CAMPAIGN.
Senator ingalls,, in the North American Review.
The alleged election of Grover Cleve
land to the Presidency in 1884 was the
most astounding phenomenon in Amer.
lean politics, and it is doubtful whether
its parallel can be found in the history OF
any nation. Obscure men, ignorant men
degraded men, have been elevated to
power, but it has never before occurred
that man possessing every acknowl-
edged disqualification has been selected
because of them, and elevated from the
lowest to the highest estate without ever
having expressed a recorded opinion
upon any public question. 1t is not
known that he ever made political
speech, tried an important cause, was a
member of any legislative body, wrote a
remembered paragraph, or expressed an
intelligent idea, and after three years his
political views, if he has any, are mat
ter of surmise even to his partiSanS. 1t
remains uncertain to this hour whether
his predictions in the war for the Union
were with the North or the South, and,
except that he furnished substitute
when conscripted, whom he subsequent
ly permitted to die in the poor-house, it
is certain that he sustained no personal
relation, either in sentiment or deed, to
the most momentous controversy of mod
ern times. He has no perceptible con-
nection with the category of accidents to
which his elevation is due. He has neith-
er personal following, popularity, admir-
alton nor respect, because he had exhib-
tied none of the traits nor attainments
that inspire regard. He was not eloquent,
nor learned, nor cultivated, nor agreea-
BILE, nor entertaining, nor attractive in
mind, manner or person. His enjoy
ments were those which are found in the
unrestrained indulgence of the appetites
and passions, and his chosen associates
were the companions of his orgies.
From this inert and vacant mass the
transcendentalists and Pharisees of our
politics have made unto themselves a
craven image, to which they bow down
and worship with ignominious idolatry
and dself-abasement. They declare that he
possesses the courage of Jackson, though
the first threat of public evaporation, like
that aroused by the battle-fag order,
drives him to retraction and to the impu-
tation of unpopular acts to the indiscre-
ton of subordinates. His tedious plat
itudeS are described as wisdom, and his
dull self-complacency as imperturbable
poise and resolution. His wearisome pro-
testations of purity and of antagonism to
the corrupt and malignant influences of
his party associates are announced as evil
dences of official integrity, which justify
his assumptions of superior honesty and
warrant him in perpetually impugning
the motives of mankind. He regards as
enemies all who are unable to concur
with his swollen estimate of his Superla-
tive prominence, and manifests resent
ment toward all opponents, whether in
his own party or elsewhere. Having
cheated the Reforme-s" and bulIied
the renegades in the North, he truckles to
his masters in the South, acknowledges
his hypocrisy, admits his treachery, and,
not disconnected by exposure, demands
another term in the face of his plain
dNOhd1 blletJ l1C WOulo 1iOO cloh 1OI a IC-
nomination. Devoid alike of imagina-
ton and conscience, he appeals neither
to the sentiment nor to the moral sense
of the people. Attention will not be di-
verted, therefore, from the real issue of
the campaign by considerations personal
to Cleveland. Hewill be nominated, not
as leader, but as fetich-a thing en-
dowed by superstition and ignorance
with fictitious attributes. There will be
no hero-worship. 1t is impossible to ex-
cite popular enthusiasm for an Executive
who confessedly reached the climax of
his great powers in refusing to approve
an appropriation for public building in
a country town, and vetoing with ghoul
ish glee two-dollar pension bill for a
mutilated and disabled Union veteran.
as it may appear, the admin
of Cleveland has resulted in in
estimable advantage to the people of the
United States. 1t has furnished addi-
tional evidence, if such were necessary,
of their capacity for self-governllenS.