The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1888-12-01
cLevELAnp,s RECORD.
Ills Fame as n Patriot Assured by I
Great Tariff Message,

Ills Fame as Patriot Assured by His
Great Tariff Message.
AS result OF the recent election
Grover Cleveland will retire from
American politics for the time being;
but, If he should never reappear, he
has already made a place for himself
in American history alongside of the
towering figures of Washington, Lin
coin and Grant. Washington will, al
ways be the father of his country; Lin
coins name is indissolubly associated
with the emancipation of the slaves;
Grant was the great General who
achieved the defeat of the rebellion
and, as u leader did more than any
other to promote the peace and har-
mony of the subsequent reunion; Cleve-
lands fame as n patriot was assured
by the historic tariff message, which
will always be regarded as the corner
stone of reform which some day will
emancipate the American people from
the burdens of unjust and unnecessary
taxation.
There is but one leader of the people
and moulder of public sentiment in
contemporaneous history to whom
Cleveland may be compared in his
present position. That man is Glad
stone. Gladstone to-day is the politi-
cal victim of his own honest, high
minded and patriotic convictions; so is
Cleveland. Gladstone's entire public
career has been devoted to the cause
of national progress and the rights Of
the people. He was the leader of the
taritf-reform movement of his country,
in the disestablishment of the Irish
church. in the abolition OF the sales of
army commissions; he has been con-
spicnous in every movement of reform
in Great Britain during the past forty
five years, and was defeated in his
struggle for the establishment of home
rule in Ireland, which is sure to pre-
vail in the end. Cleveland's public
career has been much shorter, but it
has been replete with aspirations and
achievements Of progress and reform.
AS sheriff of his county, as mayor of
his city, as Governor of his State and
President of his country, Cleveland has
been identified with continuous series
of public benefactions, and he has just
been defeated as champion of tariff
reform, which is the manifest destiny
OF this country.
The parallel does not end here. As
Gladstone in the minority is a greater
man than Salisbury. his successful
rival in the government of Great
Britain, so Cleveland, in his retire.
ment, will be greater man in Ameri-
can history than General Harrison,
who is to displace him.
Grover Cleveland has been the
architect of his own political career,
an independent thinker, friend of
the people. He has always been able
to rise above party influence, popular
clamor, personal considerations and
selfish interests. He has provided
history with practical application of
Henry Clay's maxim: Better be
right than be President. He has
guided a great political party, which
was Bourbon in many of its attributes,
in the direction of a great National re-
form-not for transient political sue
cess, but for the ultimate achievement
of grand National work. He has
promoted a degree of popular thought,
study and discussion of a vast econom-
ic question which never before pre-
vailed among the American people,
and has planted the seed of great
principle which is bound to germinate,
and blossom, and fructify. He has
sacrificed temporary power and per-
sonal interest to the glorious cause
in which he enlisted. He might have
been reelected President by keeping
still; he had only to reach out to
grasp the prize. But to him the
destiny of his country was moro vital
than personal preferment OF party
success.
Grover Cleveland is to-day the lead
er of the most important economic
movement ever inaugurated in the
American Republic, involving a prin-
ciple which is essential to the perfect
freedom, equality and fairness of the
American system. He has with him
the best brains of the country and has
received the high compliment OF the
active hostility of the monopolies, the
trusts and machine politicians. He
goes into retirement full of honors and
followed by the admiration and re-
spect, not only of his friends, who
share his political defeat, but OF the
mass of his opponents. He may yet
be an active power in bringing about
the realization of the reform to which
he has aroused the attention OF the
American people; but, in any case, the
reform will come, and he will always
be rewarded by history with the gar
land of heroism and the laurels which
belong of right to original thinkers
and great leaders. s.-Kansas city Star.
NEW YORk'S INFLUENCE.
The General History of the Empire State