The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-01-20
After Hill. who?

We congratulate the Democracy
heartily on the side-tracking OF David
B. Hill. He has been an element of
discord and doubt for years. He has
hurt the party quite as much as he
has helped it, and he was a standing
n to its future success.
His disappearance from the field OF
Presidential possibili ties leaves the
Democracy with three available an
didates in the East. The present con-
fession of weakness on the part of
Hill unquestionably places Grover
Cleveland in the strongest position he
has ever held. He is the only candi-
date Of his great State. and he holds
that distinction with the added ecldt
of having defeated a formidable rival
Clcveland's weak point lies in the
malignity of Hills following, if not of
the slippery Governor himself. The
gang who train after David b. would
be quite capable of avenging their
present discontinue by knitting the
only Grover all over New York State
in 1892, as they did in Buffalo, and
probably in New York City IN 1888.
With this danger ahead, the party
may pause before making Mr.. Cleve-
land its nominee, for patriotism de
mands that even the high claims OF
that distinguished statesman should
be held second to the certain redemp-
ton OF the nation from Republican
rule.
But il Cleveland is not TO be the
man, the Atlantic coast may yet
claim the prize. New Jersey and
Pennsylvania both have men TO offer
who are only second to Mr.. Cleveland
in their capacity for the office, while
either, perhaps, is ahead of him in
availability. The streng tn of Leon
Albeit and of Robert E. Pattison
alike lies in the fact OF their splendid
public records and the prestige of sue
ce IS that attaches to them. Albeit is
backed by a State which under any
and all circumstances has been faith
full to the Democracy; Pattison is
formidable because he is the n liv-
ing Democrat who has twice carried
the great Republican State of Penn
~sylvania, and because he is perhaps
the one living man whom the Repub-
lican party would have TO fight
actively therein to keep him from
carrying it again.
As between these two, it seems
to us, our own candidate has
the better position in the race.
He is somewhat older and
somewhat longer in public life
than Governor Pattison. He is be t.
ter known to the country at large,
and he has the advantage of definite
accomplishments in the record OF his
career. Pattison, no less than Albeit,
has been a fighter against wrongs and
abuses, an enemy Of rings and cor
rupt combinations. But struggling
with hopeless Ring Republican ma
jorities, he has never been able to
identify his name with any great re-
suit like the Railway Tax law or the
great ballot reform measure, which
are the shining spots in the story of
Leon Abbett's life. The Rings he
fought still exist, and the triumphs of
his sife-not unlike those of Hill-are
purely personal mes.
However, both Albeit and Patti
son are sterling Democrats, and both
are of the stuff that great practical
statesmen are made of. As President,
or in any other high Office of state
either one would benefit his
try and do honor to his State.
Both men live along lines which
naturally lead to high charges, and
even if Grover Cleveland should get
the Presidency this time, it is not i'm
possible that either or both of the
others may reach the anne dignity in
the course of time.