The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-09-13
AN HISTORICAL PARALLEL.
MARTIN VAN BUREN AND GROVER
CLEVELAND,

Letter From the Rev. DIR. Edward Everett
Is Hale-The Old Combination to the Fore
Again-Time for Another Popular Upris
O ing Against Sectional Domination.
~ Edward Everett Hale in the N. Y: Tribune.l
1t Sir-We are launched in new politi-
,, cal campaign, with the advantage of a
e successful name as "A rallying cry, To
II us old people the recollection of the old
d name and the old campaign is good
p omen.
d In 1910 the President and the coteTie
around him at Washington were as sure
l. that he would be reelected as that he
| would live to the election days. Days"
for, in those days, the election took
> place on several different days in Ne
Il vember. And there never was a man
more disappointed or surprised than the
9 President was when he found he had
;, not understOod the people, He was a
/ New GO'k politician, and the most
adruit Of his time. or, sta'esmanshin,
! in the large American sense, he never
' showed any idea, from the beginning to
) the end Of his career. But he under
stood perfectly how to manage conven.
tiOns, and even how to manipulate
states. BY this sort of management he
i had ytepped forward adroltly and
quietly, from point to point, until he
found himself in the White House.
Now man can get along very well in
the White House for many years with
; out doing anything. A mere cipher can
get along in the White House, and can
secure his reelection, if he will only lei
the penp'e alone to do what they want
to do. But this particular President
could not resist interfering with the
business machinery of his time. He
made the mistake of the whole South
ern school in thinking that men of
bu-ineIs are in some sort a low crowd.
and not much tn he attended to. The
consequence was that the whole people,
the People with large p were entirely
diagustcd with him and his. and put
him out IN the election of 1S40 HIS
strength had been the old strength of
the Democratic line, from the day when
Jefferson was elected tl the day when
James Buchanan was turned cut. That
is to say, it was the union of solid
South, or South nearly solid, with the
State of New York, which is for this
reason called the Empire State" All
that was nee ded to secure this combina-
ton was that you should have a North
ern man with Southern principles to be
at the head of the ticket, Such man
was Martin Van Buren, or James
Buchanan, or Franklin Pierce; and this
combinat On-a very simple one-rlect- |
ed them all, in each case to the great un-
happiness and injury of the country.
All the above has been written of |
Martin Van Buren. Now, whoever will |
| take the pains to read it again, and put |
in "GIOver Cleveland" as the President |
spoken of, will fud it in just as true Of |
hIm as as 1t was OF Little Matty," as
the adroit New York politician was
called in that canvass. The combina
ton which chose Grover Cleveland to
the Presidency was again the cUmbina-
ton of the Solid South with the State of
New York. These Southern gentlemen,
such AS met for instance, on commence
ment day at Columbia College in South
Carolina, and determine for the year
what the politics of South Carolina and
of the United States shall be, have, after
III tie surprise caused by the unpleas-
antness of 1865, consented kindly to
take the job of governing the country
again. they looked around TO find
Northern man with Southern principles
in New York, and they found him. lie
was every whit as adroit politician as
Martin Van Buren,. He knows, rs well
as Mr.. Van Buren, knew, who are the
directors IN each particular state, and
how they are to be sOlaCed. AS Mr..
Curtis and other civil service reform
leaders say 80 kindly, he knows in what
states it is desirable to favor civil service
reform, and he also knows in what
states 1t would not do to favor it.
NJ l., L. -: |
his hand at interfering with the busi-
ness arrangements of the country, one
really scarcely knows why. He has not
had tine enough to bring on such con.
vul5iUn as that OF 1887 was, nor has he
had the obsequiOus majority which Mr.
Van Burcn had in both houses of Con-
gress, but he has had time enough to
show what he wanted to do.
He makes, therefore, a very exact par.
allel with the politician who was at the
head of the Government from 1887 to
1871. He was chosen by the same COM
binatlOn; as well as he could he has
done the same thing; indeed he is very
much the same sort of man. He is
undoubtedly much more obstinate than
Martin Van Buren, whom nobody ever
accused of obStinacy; but YOU have
1.
you always have when you have Presi-
dent who seems really ignorant of the
history of the country, and Indifferent to
its larger Interests-to what might call
its vital affairs Thus the whole message
of this year is argued on a simple dollar
and cent footing, as if money-getLing
were the only object of a man or of a
nation.
Now, it has always proved rather diff
ticult to rouse the working people Of the ,
country to frequent changes in national
affairs Men Of business, because they
are men of business, do not go to the I
caucuses or conventions great deal.
1t is for this reason that, on the whole,
the Southern planters, who liked politics
and had a great deal OF time hanging on
their hands, for 60 years Out-manmuvred !,
and led the men of affairs of the North
ern States. But when the working peo-
pie of the country have taken matters in
IN their own hands, as they did in 1910, ,
and as they did again in 1861, they have
had matters very much in their own s
way. In the last twenty-five years, for
instance, they have established the !,
American system, as MIR. Clay used to
call it,quite thoroughly. 1t is not simply |
a system Of protection" 1t is system {
OF general education, of open promotion, \
of free homesteads, of rapid transit, of /
easy communication between ocean and {
ocean, of uniform currency, of low post Q
age, of wide education by means OF the
mails, and of many other things. all knit I
together, such as intelligent men of affairs l
propose when they have been called into S
the administration. The abolition of 1
slavery in the war was only one of many
changes in the social order of the United @
States such as resulted from the assump- t
tioD OF government by the Northern men c
of affairs, when it had been in the hands {
of Southern theorists and Northern men '
with Southern principles. ]
Almost by an accident in the height !
of prosperity the men Of affairs let I
Grover Cleveland slip into the admins !
tration three years ago. What followed !
of course WAS an effort to make changes i
which were even radical changes, in the I
system which had been well set on foot G
in five and twenty years. IL the admin Il
istration has not achieved anything of L
importance it was because they were all J
looking backward, and not forward and Il
knew very little Of the real demand of u
The country, At bottom, for instance, y
the solid South does not want universal L
At bottom it does not want Il
prosperous manufactures. At bottom il {
is Indifferent to immigration from Eu-
rope. At bottom its leaders do not be. c
lieve in promotion from the ranks. At u
bottom they would like To carry ON the =