The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-07-19
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Although we are opposed TO MIR.
Cleveland's reelection, we have no dis
position to do him injustice or to with
hold from him any credit to which'he is
fairly entitled, 1t would be mistake,
we think, for instance, to say that the
President is not an industrious person.
Or that he lacks the courage of his self
consciousness, Or that he shirks re-
sponsibility in CO ses of most tremen-
dous moment, some of which involve
the payment out of the treasury of as
much as Sl2 month. His industry is
attested by his 200 vetoes; almost twice
as many as the aggregate Of all his pre-
decessors. 1t is estimated by his manly
and heroic defence of the treasury
against the insidious widow and rapa-
cious orphan he has saved in round
numbers at least $4,000 a year to the
Government-nearly half his salary.
Nor should it be forgotten that this is
an annual saving. upon which the in
terest also is saved according to the con-
tinuity of the widow and the longevity
of the orphan. And compounded.
Now it requires industry to take up
and examine separately several thous-
and pension cases so extensively as to
be able to find in 200 of them the weak
point which has escaped detection in
the two Houses of Congress. There
have been Presidents who, when a
batch of pills of this character was laid
before them, would excuse themselves
from making an exhaustive investiga-
ton in each case on the ground that it
had already been made by the commit
tees, and the bills had passed the scru-
ftnu Of 10th IInn of (nnnrpGC NOT
so with President Cleveland. He knows
that no dependence can be placed upon
the intelligence or honesty of either
branch, and that when the insatiate
widow and the scheming orphan once
get started in for plumber they stop at
nothing short of Sl2 monitor there
abouts-unless the Executive stands in
front of the treasury in his shirt sleeves
with the flaming sword of the veto pow
er. This he has done with such indus
try and devotion, especially during the
warm weather, that some of his most
powerful veto messages have been dis
colored with perpspiration.
Many of the cases which come before
the President are OF the most involved
and intricate character, and unless he
has the instincts and training of de-
tective, with the skill of a practiced
physician, and much more industry
than the average plumber, 1t will go
hard with the treasury. Take such a
case as that of the widow of Dennis Ma
Halfy of the lO2 Rhode Island Cavalry,
wherein ii is alleged that Mahaffy died
of rheumatism contracted in the SER
vice, in consequence of which the wild
ow has the assurance to ask the Coy
eminent for 81 month or Whereabouts
This is the sort of case that an once
awakens the Executive suspicion. In
the first place there is the improbability
that Rhode Island had l02 regiments Of
cavalry in the service. Being in the
cavalry, how could Mahaffy have con-
tracted the rheumatism? And why did
he linger so long with IL? Then the
chances are that he was a drinking man.
Is this really his widow Is it not
probable that she married Mahaffy for
his money? Why did she survive him?
And did not Mahaffy himself enlist from
mercenary motives? These and SINH
lar questions at once arise in the Execu-
tive mind. Being the only honest and
faithful Executive the country has en-
joyed since James Buchanan, he does
not shrink from his duty. He pursues
the necessary inquiries in all directions
by means Of army registers, encyclo-
pedias, gazatteers, census returns, ac-
tuarial calculations, Daboll's Arihmitic
and the whole Materia Medica. He
finally makes up his mind that there
never was such a man as Dennis Ma
hafTy, and sends back veto message
that just huns through every line re-
buke to both branches of Congress for
legislating away the peoples money on
pensions when they ought TO be revis-
ing the tariff so as TO reduce the sur
plus.
He would feel differently about il, of
course if he could believe that Senators
and members of Congress were only
half way honest. But so long as he
knows them to be dishonest, negligent
and unfaithful, there is nothing for him
10 do but assume the legislative func-
ton himself. It must make him tired
sometimes, but he has the Proud con-
sciousness of being the only President
who ever did it. And at the close OF
his term it may be said Of him that for
four years he sat up nights guarding
the treasury surplus against the stealthy
approach Of the widow and the auda'
cious assault Of the orphan.7,lT Tribune