The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-17
DlsApPoINrs HIS BEST FRIENDS.

upon the platform of the corrupt Tammany
Democracy of New York city Is not
pleasant picture to his best friends, the
anti-Tammany independent press, like the
New York Evening Post, the Springfield
Republican. the Boston Herald and
Harper's Weekly, and yet his presence need
excite no surprise. for President Cleve-
land did not hesitate in 1887 to urge the
election of corrupt Colonel Fellows az dis
trict attorney. and in 1888 to plead for the
reelection of corrupt Mayor Grant. There
is no doubt that from the day Cleveland left
the White House he has been busily work.
ing and intriguing for third nomination.
He loses no opportunity to appear before
the public in letters, kilograms, speeches
and interviews. In accepting the nominal
ton of 1884, Cleveland delivered homily
on the dangers of eligibility for a second
term, and adopted one term for president
as an article of his personal political creed,
but this did not restrain him from de-
voting his whole administration to the
object of attaining denomination and re-
election. All of his appointments of any
value and all the patronage of the depart
ments were used to force his rem omina-
ton. He broke all his pledges made in
his letter of acceptance and his inaugural;
he abandoned his order to officeholders
to abstain from influencing primaries and
conventions; he did not attempt to en-
force respect for his official orders by re-
moving offending oficeholders; he per-
mitted officeholders to control the
primaries and political conventions in
Pennsylvania in order to break down the
influence of Sam Randall. and by the end
of his third year became as remorseless an
executive of the spoils system as ever sat
in the White House. A more petty
politician never worked his patronage for
all 1t was worth to secure his renomina-
ton than Cleveland.
Had Arthur used Cleveland's methods
he could have secured the Republican
nomination in 1884, but he scorned to in
trigue for his denomination from the van,
tage ground of the White House as base
use of great trust. Cleveland failed for
lack of wit, not because of delicacy of
political conscience, and his fall was that
of beaten demagogue; he was ''the
crushed tragedian" of faction of free
traders and fools, not a blessed martyr to
principle; he was a mere gamester that
bet on the wrong card, when he Endorsed
the Mills Bill; he was a martyr only to
cupidity and stupidity, -fuddled by bad
judgment and foiled by bad luck. He was
always the kind of blessed martyr and
high-minded pilot that is generally found
trying to keep his rudder straight in the
dirty waters of Democratic ward politics.
With such training, such career, such
q character behind him, the presence of
ex-President Cleveland upon the platform
of the corrupt Tammany Democracy is not
q surprise, much less a shock to the In
telligent American public. He belongs on
that platform by force of habit and the
right of native political ignobility; he is
no more a surprise standing up to be
counted with the corrupt Tammany ring
than a cockroach is an unexpected pres
ence on the dining table of dirty hotel.
He can plead the custom and habit of his
life for his presence, just as feas in dog
While the attraction of Tammany for
Cleveland is undeniable there is little love
for Cleveland in Tammany, for David B.
Hill is the favored lover of this political
harlot in whose good graces every New
York Democratic politician desires to
stand well. If Flower is elected Hill will
control the New York delegation to the
Democratic National Convention of 1892
and Cleveland will not be presented as the
choice of the Empire state. Hill, not
Cleveland, has always been the favorite
with Tammany: Cleveland pays
court to Tammany, but the tri-
umph of Tammany means victory for
Governor Hill, not for Grover Cleveland.
Tammany does not repulse Cleveland; she
gives him her hand, but Hill captured her
heart long ago and still keeps it. Flower
is but one of Tammany's jockeys; but
Hill is the owner and trainer of the Tam
many steed, and if the steed wins Hill will
take the real prize of the race, win the
control of the party in the state; while
Flower will take his pay as jockey in the
governorship. The big prize will go to
Hill.