The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-07-01

exempted from the curse which lies on
moparchs. Yet look Upon Benjamin
Harrison and his woes, and who for all
the pleasures of the white, house and
the plaudits of postmasters would ex-
change peace in privacy for his pub
licity? Mr.. Harrison was never
suspected of greatness, physical or
mental, and when he carried out
the bargain by virtue of which he
was made president and made james
g. Blaine his secretary Of state, it was
plain what would happen. His friends
boosted that he alone would be presi.
dent, and in minor matters pointed out
the fact that he had apparently run
counter to the wishes of the Maine
man as proof Of his ability to shape his
own administration. Yet to-day there
is no prominent feature of state policy
that is not attributed to Blaine. and
the smaller man is overshadowed by
the greater man behind it. The presi-
dent is accredited with a desire to be
his own successor, and it is the COM
mon gossip of the country that the re-
alization of his ambition is conditioned
wholly upon the consent of his master
and the ratification of the people.
This is humiliation enough, but it is
not the only one which the nominal
chief of the republican party suffers
1t he were not suspected of broad
craftsmanship, Mr.. Harrison was never
lo1 10 .,
cleaner than those of most of the lead
ers of the party. He even pretended to
austerity of life, and his church con.
nection was made prominent during his
canvass and in the cabinet forming
days. Good people who accept church
connections as a guaranty of an honor
able life had right to expect from the
Presbyterian elder decorous if not q
brilliant administration. A promise of
moral one was taken from the selec.
ton Of a Sunday school superintendent
to direct the postal department, i'll
which arose the scandals of the
last previousrepublican administration,
not withstanding the charge openly
made that the sanity Wanamaker
bought his portfolio by raising a great
sum of money with which to corrupt
the suffrage. Yet from the very begin
ming of the rule of the elders and dea-
cons scandals have logged the heels of
the president and kept him awake
nights. First Dudley with his blocks
of five, a scandal SO undeniable that
the president was compelled to admit
its truth by openly repudiating the In
diana president-maker in order to clear
his own skirts of suspected knowledge
of the flagitious scheme. Then began
the raid upon the pension department
by the pension ring and the scandal
which resulted in the displacement of
one commissioner by another so much
worse that the stencil of the
Tanner regime is forgotten in
the stencil which surrounds the
unspeakable Raum. Then came
Reeds congress with its Hobbies,
who left to the administration an
empty treasury and the task of con-
verting deficit into a surplus by lay
ing hands upon trust funds which the
grand old party had always declared
sacred. A silver-ring scandal surged
up even to the feet of the cabinet, but
was claimed by the judicious use of oil.
An Indian war was openly attributed
to the malign influence of the Indian
ring over the interior department.
Scandal has attended the Behring sea
negotiations, and to-day the comp
troller of the treasury and the sancti
monious Wanamalzer are under cloud.
1t is intimated that the retirement Of
the secretary of state to Bar Harbor is
not unconnected with strange doings
in the state department, and the rela.
tons of the president and his secretary
of the interior are not pleasant, owing
to the scandals in the interior depart
ment bureaus
For all these tn ngs the nominal head
of the administration is held RESPONSE
BILE, while the man from Maine, whose
record is tattooed, is the idol of his
party, and, whether firing paper salvos
at crowned heads from Washington O,
listening to the murmur of the wave:
at Bar Harbor, is its recognized chief
It was a bad bargai1l which benjamin
Harrison made with Steve Elkins a
Indianapolis just before the nationa
republican convention met in Chicago
in 1SSS,-Chicago Times,