The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-11
rnr PASSING OF oLEvELAsD.


ator Vest has been Cleyeland's warmest
friend, and now Vest follows Mills IN
abandoning Cleveland as hopeless candi-
date. The hostility Of Tammsny and the
anti-free silver coinage views OF Cleveland
have been fatal 70 his cause.
Cleveland has been unique rather than
an illustrious figure in American politics.
He was originally nominated in 1884 az q
trap to catch the Mugwump sunbeam, but
be has long ago survived his usefulness.
As president he was at FIRST the executive
Of the pieus cant Of reform in politics.
Before he was inaugurated he wrote the
Curtis letter, big With promises to hold up
stiffiy the flag Of civil service reform.
In his inaugural address he not only
promised to execute the letter of the civil
service act, but TO govern his adfninistra-
ton by its spirit. In his letter Of accept
ance he declared lis conviction that in
the interests of good government the
president should not be eligible to q sec
ond term. He posed studiously rs re-
former, and for the first eighteen months
Of his administration wore the mask OF
reform upon his face. Then the mask
fell and he became as shameless an in
friguer for second term az ever sat in
the White House. He allowed his own
creatures 10 trampic under foot his own
proclamation forbidding the interference
OF office-holders in elections; he Witnessed
unmoved 'tbc pernicious activity" of
f.Ix afsIa srsfn
letter in the New York city municipal
election and cast the weight OF his admin
istration with the worst element of his
party and against the best in a fight for
municipal reform.
His famous battle flag order was bid
for the support of the solid South for re-
nomination; his selection of the protective
tariff on wool, a Northern product, for
dcnunciation rather than the purely
revenue tax on sugar, Southern product,
was another illustration Of Cleveland's
capacity as a caDting reformer from first
TO last. Pretending to be a civil service re-
former, he began the last year of his term
with the spoils system brought full to the
front OF his own canvass for denomination
and reelection; pretending to disapprove
of second term, bis every act for the last
eighteen months Of his term was directed
TO the end Of succeeding himself; pretend
ing to be a patriot, he insulted the Union
veterans to curry favor with the ex-Con-
fedcrates; pretending to be an honest
friend of revenue reform and revision OF
the tariff, he spared the sugar of the South
TO bankrupt the wool interest of the North
His whole executive career. measured by
its initial pious promises and 1.-THE perni-
clous activity Of its performance. was a
campaign of cant and cheap ward caucus
cunning. His conduct in the matter of
the fisheries treaty. in the retaliation bill,
in the Chinese exclusion act, in the Mica
ragua canal treaty, winch lie pocketed.
was that OF a clzmsy trickstcr. A more
petty politician never "worked" his pat
ronage at the last for ali it was worth to
secure denomination and reelection than
Cleveland. When he failed, he failed for
lack of wit, not because OF delicacy of con-
science. and his fall was that of beaten
dcmagogue, not that of blessed martyr
10 principle.
His espousal OF the Mills bill was a de-
parture from his views as expressed in the
first year OF his administration. but he
was converted and baptized into his new
faith by ths South. when Mills succeeded
Manning as his pilot. He thought the
cards dealt him by the South were a win
Ming hand and he staked his all upon II.
he was no more a martyr TO principle when
he was defeated for reelection in isse than
any other greedy political gambler who
'bcts his pile" on what he believes to he
sure cards and loses H. he was no. a mar
tyr to principle, but martyr to cupidity
toiled by i'll luck.
His administration pleased nobody very
long. The stalwart Democrats were sulky
when he refused at the outset to surrender
TO the party the entire lump Of the patron
age; the Mugwump Democrat brayed
mournlully when Cleveland began to shut
his eyes periodically TO sins of omission
and commission in the administration of
the civil service. When old man Cleve-
land rode the party jackass he was cursed
BY the Mugwumps for making their
delicate little boy, George William
Curtis, walk; and when GEORGE
William Curtis was permitted to
ride the jackass smilingly, then the DEM
ocratie regular army was indignant that
the president of the party should walk
while the Mugwump boy rode, and when
old man Cleveland aud the Mugwump
hoy, Curtis, both rode the party jackass
complacently, the rough and unterrihed
Democracy rallied at Cleveland for his
folly in making the poor, weary party
jaeSass carry double load
During the activity OF congress Cleve-
land always blew faint, quaverinr note
ON his reform horn, hardly more pro-
nounoed than that of piping tree toad,
but even rs temperance and religion grow
lively when business grows duh and poll
ties siaenant, SO the voice of the Cleveland
civil service reform turtle grew louder in
the land when the adjournment OF con-
gress gave it the perfect silence of an In
dian summer day 20 be heard.
Probably no man ever left the White
House with fewer friends among the able
and forcefal leaders Of his party. The
man Cleveland was large, apathetjc, obese.
thiek-skinncd. non-imasjna,ivc, laborious.
phiesmaiie, abnormaliy egois,ic. ana from
the start he treated the presidency as a
private poeSet-piecc rather than . pubhc
trust iais conduct might DO. If man
had the intellect ola bismarck, lut an in
tellectual slug cannot fool with the
methods Of giant Those who described