Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1888-11-22
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From orr regular Correspondent J

two ago, and had a long conference with
Mr.. Cleveland, during which it /;
Thought they went over the variOu:
reasons assigned for the Democratic de
feat. Mr.. Cleveland takes the matter
philosophically and loses no opportuni'
ty 10 state his belief in the honest sup.
port given him by Governor Hill and
his friends in New York.
Said a prominent official yesterday
aDuripg the next four years the cause
of the disaster of last Tuesday will be
stated as q thousand and one different
things. / believe that 1t was caused by
the position taken on the tariff fquestion
during the last two months of the cam
paign by thes tump speakers of the par
ty under orders from the National Com
mittee. During the long discussion o
the Mills bill in the House, its friends
constantly denounced the protective
tariff as legalized robbery, and yet those
same men were compelled to go on the
stump and state that the Mills bill was
a protective measure, because somebody
had become panic-stricken at the cry of
free trade. This action undoubtedly
disgusted thousands of voters who are
believers in free and unrestricted trade
with the world at large, and at the
same time it did not attract any of the
high protection voters, am finall ofa
the opinion that had the Democrticy
speakers and newspapers accepted the
challenge of the Republicans and pro-
claimed themselves in favor of free
trade as soon as it could be brought
about without detriment to the re-
4 Af hn hot
Mr.. Cleveland would have been
triumphantly reelected. Many thou
sand men throughout the country who
are pronounced free traders voted the
Republican ticket. Why? Simply be-
cause they believe that the higher the
tariff is made, the sooner the people
will demand that it be removed alto
gether.n There is food for thought in
this view of the question.
Mr.. Lamont, Mr.. Cleveland's secre-
tory, will GO into the insurance bust
ness in New York city after the 4th of
March. He is one of the most popular
men that ever filled q similar position,
and will carry with him the good wishes
of everyone who had business at the
White House during this administra-
ton. ..
Mr.. Dalton, Postmaster of the House
of Representatives, and an Indiana
Democrat for many years, says of the
newly elected President: "In six
months there Will be more complain
ing of Mr.. Harrison by Republicans
than by Democrats. He will give a
good, clean, and able administration.
Everything about it will be hightoned
and honorable. Democrats and the
people generally will have nothing to
complain of. 1t will be conservative
administration, much more liberal than
the extremists would desire, and no
CLIQUE of men can run Mr.. Harrison.
He will be the President. This will
cause some heart burnings in his party.
He is a, a,civil service reformer, and is as
firm as Cleveland. In this he will an
tagonize those of his party who will lie
mand clean sweep. Some of his party
will wish a vigorous and oppressive
policy in the South. They will oe disap-
pointed. He will adopt the most liber-
al southern policy any Republican has
ever thought of. He will treat the south
ern people well. know the man. He
is ia Republican, but he is not lacking in
wisdom. His appointments in the
South will all go to Republicans. He
will not appoint Democrat to any of
flee. He Is too mnch of partisan for
that. But he will appoint no carpet
baggers; none of the rapscallians that
have been placed over the southern
States before. Some Ofthe border States
are now very close. He will try to
draw them into his party ranks, think
he will be with his party on the educa-
tional question, on the pension ques-
ton, on the tariff, and all those issues" "
The picture that Mr.. Dalton has drawn
is brighter one than most Democrats
can see just at present, but we shall see
later.
Already, before it is officially settled
that the Republicans will control the
House of Representatives, they are
fighting among themselves about the
House offices.
The country at large is to be compli-
mented on the campaign just passed. it
was entirely free from the disgusting
personalities. of 'S4, and the result has
consequently left No bad blood. The
Democrats were beaten, hut their lead
ers have no apologies to make; on the
contrary. they insist that tariff reform
shall continue as the motto of the party
and they express confidence that long
before 1892 majority of the voters OF
the country will endorse the position
taken by the Democratic party in 1888.
There is rumor floating around here
to the effect that Harrison will call
an extra session of the Fifty-first Con-
gress early in March, for the "stensible
purpose of passing the tariff bill, but i'll
reality to admit all of the Republican
territories, in order to get the benefit of
the additional Senators and Represen-
tatives.