The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-14
The Republican Wreck in Indiana.

The Republican Wreck I'm Indiana.
The city was ringing yesterday with the
echoes Of the speech made on Tuesday by
Mr.. w. L. BRUSH before the republican
politicians who assembled to consider the
state OF the party. Mr.. BRUSH is a lawyer
of Charlottesville, said to be a man of
ability and a fairly reputable man, as In
diana republican politicians ago. The re-
port of his speech, printed in THE SEN
TINEL yesterday morning, was the sensa-
ton of the day in political circles. We
can vouch editorially for the substantial
accuracy of that report. We did not print
all that Mr.. BRUSH said, but what we did
print was what he actually said, and as he
said it. The truthfulness of our re-
port has not been challenged. 1t
may be denied. but it cannot
be successfully denied, as something
like a hundred well-known republicans
heard the speech and a number of them,
speaking independently of each other,
gave the information to the editor of THE
SENTINEL which was published in these
columns yesterday. The fact that these
GCNCldl EbdlCAllNA1lc1 tOAllillS NUT
pendent sources, were identical in all es-
sential respects, establishes the accuracy
of The SENTINEL's report beyond ques-
ton. We are. informed, upon the best of
authority, that when Mr.. BRUSH was re-
monstrated with. after the meeting, for
his plain speaking, he remarked that
there was no use of trying to beat the
devil around the stump" or seeking to
conceal what everybody knew. We are
also informed on like authority, that when
Mr.. BRUSH, in that assemblage of a hun
dred or more republicans, said that Irdi-
ana was carried for HARRISON in 1883 with
Doodle, there was no one to say him nay.
The incident was an interesting one. 1t
brought out, in striking relief, the shock
ing moral condition of the grand old
party in Indiana. OF course Mr.. BRUSH
only said what every person in Indiana,
who has any information whatever about
matters political, already knew. His can
dor, however, was, under the circum-
stances, commendable. But as he said,
there is no use in trying to "beat the devil
around the stump" 1t is matter of COM
mon notoriety that Indiana was carried
for HARRISON by systematic and shameless
corruption. The facts of the campaign of
1888 are historical. Mr.. HARRIsoN's per-
sonal appeals, at the Denison hotel, to
republicans specially summoned from
different paris of the state to raise money
for the election, are we'll remembered.
The dispatch to Chicago OF his own son,
and his present encouragement, Mr.. Mil
LER, within a week or so of the election, to
secure money from the millionaires of that
city "for use in getting votes into the ballot
boxes," was an emphatic and scandalous
illustration of his anxiety to carry the
state regardless of the methods employed
to that end. The blocks-of-fve letter Of
WILLIAM WADE DUDLEY has taken rank as
a classic in the literature of political cor
ruption. The appointment of SMILEY n.
CHAMBERS to the post of T.. 5. district attor-
ney. and the joint efforts of that interesting
specimen of repu blican officialism and OF
Judge WILLIAM A. WOODS, sanctioned at
every step by the administration of Mr..
HARRISON, to shield DUDLEY and his fellow
rascals from punishment for their crimes,
complete this shameful record of political
knavery.
The utterly demoralized condition of the
republican party of Indiana today, as so
strikingly manifested on Tuesday. is the
logical result Of the boodleism and slick
sixism which have prevailed in its man
agement for years past. The party is
today a complete wreck. No self-respect-
ing man of state reputation could be in
duced to take the Craftsmanship of its or
ganization, which was on Tuesday con-
ferred upon a peanut politician from
Rush county, whose obscurity is probably
a correct measure of his capacity. The
party is rent with the struggles of con-
fIcting factions. 1t is divided into an adj
ministration camp and an anti-adminis-
tration camp, and these rival camps are
each in turn subdivided into a dozen fac
tions. 1t is every man for himself and the
devil take the hindmost," from the
man into the white house down to
the meanest and raggedest blower
and striker in the ranks. HUsToN
has been remanded to the limbo of politi-
cal incapables. MIcHENER, disappointed
in his cabinet aspirations, has deserted
the party ship and established himself as
a pensiOn-shark and all-round lobbyist at
Washington. The existence of the Aus
tralian election law has put success in
Indiana wholly out Of reach OF the party,
until it radically changes its character
and its methods, which must be the work
Of years. The out ook for the party I'm
this state is, indeed, as dismal as it could
possibly be, and the situation was cor
rectly diagnosed on Tuesday. when Mr..
BRUSH toldthe assembled patriots that, un-
less some way could be devised of beating
the Australian election law in 1892, the
party's case was hopeless.
1t is indeed. as we said, an interesting
situation, and one which is pregnant with
lessons of political decency and morality
that should not be lost upon the poll
ticians of any party.
Indiana Legislatures.