New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-10-24
DEMOCRATIC PROFESSIONS AND PURPoSES

DEMOCRATIC PROTEST. ONS AND PURPOSES
great party must be judged in measure
by it's leaders. The men it chooses Tor the
highest positions of trust become embodied ex-
pressions of it's character, motives, moral tone
and political purpose. The late President ana
the present Governor of the largest State there
fore illustrate Democracy and the letter OF one
and sneech of the other to the Democratic clubs
toll the world what the party is and what it
noans II these were examined, with con-
scientous anxiety to discover how far the party
morris support, what would intelligent men
discover? nm
Mr. Cleveland's wealth Of platitudes fills ten
sentences; his falsity of ideas reduces to
single sentence all that he has to say OF the
nurposes of his party. He looks to the ascend
ancy of Democratic principles " to secure us
from wasting extravaganza, from demagogc
pretence from sectional bitterness, ana from
the widespread corruption of our mirage"
That is all and why has he nothing to say Oh
taxation or tariff reform? Were the clubs he
addressed anxious to escape further response
bility for the kind of tariff revision he per-
sonally urged? Or was this mere accident
Does it signify only that MIR. Cleveland was
anxious about tariff reform while he hoped to
oct reelected on that issue, but has ceased to
care about it? The conscientious reader Will
not find it easy to answer. lie knows undU
President Cleveland seems particularly In ear
nest about this matter, and processes TO MINK
il the one thing on which the Democratic party
ought to stake its very existence. But so he
seemed profoundly jealous about non-partisan
N:,.;I bafo election and
ceeded to get rid of Republicans and to appoint
none but Democratic party workers as fast as
possible.
That illustrates the phrase demagogic pre-
tencen Except Governor Hill there has never
been Democratic leader more profoundly dis
honest in protesting what he thought popular.
The very root and essence Of demagogism was
at the bottom of all Mr. Cleveands perform
ances. When he profeSsed absorbing anxiety
about the silver question it was because he had
not yet learned that his notions were not pop
ular. His professions of zeal for Civil Service
reform never prevented the appointment of a
single political scOundrel of the Higgins
Thomas type. He seemed to care nothing about
the tariff until he thought he could get re-
elected on that issue then he cared for nothing
else, and put forth the first Presidents message
in the Nations history which touched upon
only one topic; and now he apparently cares
not enough about it to refer to the subject in
single word. A PhariSee to the end, the Pres-
dent who approved the most wasteful appro-
priations ever made pirates about the wasting
extravaganza, and the only man who ever Sc
lected sectional rebels for places of trust mere
ly because they were conspicuous and unpar-
dOned rebels wants deliverance from sectional
bitterness. More infamous crimes for the cor
ruption of suffrage never were committed than
those in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New-Jesey
under President Clevelands leadership, and he
it was who supported and rewarded the in
stigatOrs.
Governor Hill is even less self-respecting in
his profession. He knows that the Standard
Oil crowd in Ohio, the Whiskey Ring, the Sugar
Trust and the Importers Ring combined to help
Democracy in the last election, and he says the
party "was engaged in a contest against the
combined selfshneSs of particular interests"
He knows that his party spent more money
than any other ever has spent in campaign,
and says 1--WE were beaten through corruption
the worst ever resorted to-" Like President
Cleveland, he believes that the people can al
ways be duped and gulled if only one lies
stittly enough and shouts stop thief' loudly
enough. The man of all others who prevents
ballot reform in New-York gravely asserts that
Democracy will give us genuine ballot reform.
The Governor asserts that eve stand to-day
where we stood one year ago, in favor of tariff
reform" The pith Of his declaration is in the
added assertion that the party does not advo-
cate and has not advocated free trade. He
knows that the principles which govern a re-
vision, whether protective or free trade, give
it character and properly give it a name, The
revision for which his party did contend was
essentially a free-trade revision. Its object
now is to broaden the ground, and draw in all
who want any revision which they think "hon-
est and proper"
| Can the conscientious reader infer that the
party represented by these men is honest,
truthful or patriotic? Must not the intelligent
voter, who remembers its crimes against
suffrage at the South and also at the North,
its prostitution of public service to partisan
uses, its fanatical zeal for free trade in wool
and other articles, realize that it is still seek
| ing votes by false pretences?