The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-19
A FAILURE IN POLITICS.


The late George William Curtis is made
the subject of extravagant praise by the
leading journals of the East, who are not
content with giving Mr.. Curtis full credit
for the excellent service he rendered to
American literature, but claim for him
qualities of political leadership and ex-
ceptional power as political thinker and
reformer which he did not possess.
The truth is that Mr.. Curtis was a man
of sound literary taste and superior lit
erary talents. and he was a graceful and
polished speaker. He was never leader
in politics; never robust political thinker;
never great orator; he was a good lit
erary critic, but he had no more taste or
talent for the field Of politics than Edward
Everett; he was literary scholar and
critic, whose powers as q graceful and. pol-
ished speaker won him considerable fame
in the early years of the Republican party
when ringing "moral appeals" were about
all that was required Of the campaign
speaker.
Aside from his oratory Mr.. Curtis was
failure in politics. He was not leader of
men; he took an effeminate, hypercritical
view of public questions of far-reaching
consequence, and treated them more
like a Puritanic pedagogue or clerical
Mugwump than like robust-minded
statesman. The weakness of Mr.. Curtis
as a political figure is shown by his in
capacity to understand that his with
drawal from the Republican party in 1884,
because he was dissatisfied with the
nomination Of Mr.. Blaine. was neither
wise nor honorable. Just before Hdrpcr's
candidacy in 1884 its editor. Mr.. Curtis. in
public speech. spoke Of the Democratic
party in these terms:
We are confronted with she Democratic party,
very hungry and, as You may we'll believe, very
thirsty; party without q single definite prin-
ciple; q party without any distinct national
policy which IL dares to p-esent to the country;
party which fell from power as q conspiracy
against human rights, and now attempts to
sneak back to power as Q conspiracy for plunder
and spoils.
Mr.. Curtis participated in the proceed
ings Of the Republican national conven-
ton, and in the last words that he uttered
before that assembly he said: 81 entered
this convention a free man and Republi-
can, and I shall 60 cut of it free man
aud q Republican" He gave none of his
most intimate friends in the New York
delegation the slightest reason to suspect
that he intended to ''bolt" the nominal
ton; when the motion to make the nom.
nation unanimous was passed Mr.. Curtis
did not vote against it, aad on his return
trip to New York he expressed no deter
mination to ''bolt" the ticket.
We presume Mr.. Curtis would have con-
tinued painting this last picture of the
Democracy we quoted above until the year
Of his death, if his employers had not
ordered him after the Chicago convention
Of 1854 to lay aside his brush and paint a
new portrait. Let any man look at Curtis
picture of the Democracy he painted before
Cleveland's nomination in 1854 and con-
trast it with the support he gave Cleveland
for reelection in 1888. in spite of his con-
fession of inidelity to civil service reform,
the pet cause of Mr.. Curtis, and he will
ask himself: "Can it be possible that
this is the Mr.. Curtis who SO effu-
sively declared in the national Republican
convention OF 1854 that he carried his
sovereignty under his own hat" Per-
hsps he did, but i. locks very much since
1884 as if his sovereignty had been under
the hat OF Grover Cleveland and the
Messrs. Harper. Since 1854 HGrper's
Weekly, in spite of its declaration about
not being an 'organ:" about "independ-
ent journalisu," about being the chief
among the few papers TO which the foes of
corruption and the friends of honesty
in politics can safely pin their faith.
has proved itself 10 be not only
e. most subservient organ, but impudently
hypocriticaI in speech. The patrons
| hand was always on the organs keys. his
| feet On the pedals and the only Office Of
independent" Editor Curtis was to pump
| thunder into the Cleveland instrument
from the heaving, signing bellows in the
| organ boys corner.
| The nomen. that Mr.. Curtis deity. the
| Harper house, made an offensive and de-
| fensive alliance with Cleveland that mo-
| ment Mr.. Curtis lowered his weapons IN q
| graceful salute Of amity. When his
| patron was the foe Of She Democracy. NJ.
| Curtis Was a relentless hound on the Demo
cratic rarty's track, and would have been
to the dsy OF his death only that the hound
was called OF the quarry and held firmly
| In his masters leash. In ISIS the only
| Mugwump journal that refused t.
| say that il wanted better man
than Cleveland had proved himself 10 be
and could support such s man on the Re
| puhIican ticket was Rarpev's Weekh,. THAI