Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1892-04-05
The Force Bin.
Mr.. CqeUeldud's Position Stated bgI
Hon. YIN. q. wilson.

41OIt, ~ NJ. II. WttSO1t.
In regard to ex-President Cleve-
lands attitude toward the force bill,
Hon. VIM. L. Wilson has written a
letter to Mr.. Randolph Harrison, of
Lynchbsrg, Va, in which he says:
.'There are doubtless scores of
prominent Democrats. North and
South. who would vainly try to find
anything in print that they had said
about the force hill simply because
there was no opportunity or occasion
for such written or reported utter
ance. To accuse such men OF luke
warmness would be both unjust and
untrue. Every Democrat Instructive
ly and ardently opposed the hill,
and so expressed himself constantly
during its tendency. and to attribute
indifference TO Mr.. Cleveland is not
only to overlook his entire public
record, but to apply to him rule
that would be applied to no one else.
81 have seen quotations from him,
however, that even by such a rule
overwhelm the charge. The occasion
you refer TO was the famous Thur
man banquet at Columbus, Ohio,
November Is, 1890. in the presence
of nearly a thousand representative
Democrats. sat by Mr.. Cleveland
at the table, and have in my posses
sion the notes from which he spoke,
in his own handwriting. 1 recall
with exceeding vividness the empha-
sis of tone and of manner with which
he alluded to the Lodge bill. True,
it was not in the line of his remarks,
which were in ridicule of the claim
that "a cheap coat makes a cheap
man. etc.. Ca declaration contained
in one of Major McKinIey's tariff
speeches, but his exact language
am able to quote from the full report
of his speech as it appeared in the
papers next day, and subsequently,
in the printed souvenir volume. He
denounced the Lodge bill as a con-
trivance to perpetuate partisan SUI
premacy by outrageous interference
with the suffrage
"This, you will observe, was be-
tween the long and short sessions of
the last Congress, otter the bill had
passed the House and before the great
struggle on it in the Senate. 1t is
almost humiliating to me as a South
erner that any Southern man should
try to make capital in a way against
such 4 Democratic ex-President,
whose whole administration was so
fair and cordial to the South"
Mr.. Cleveland also denounced the
force bill on another occasion. 1t
was at banquet given in Philadel-
phia by the Young Mems Democrat
ic Association on January s. 1891.
Mr.. Cleveland responded to the toast,
''The Principles of the True Democ-
racy: They are enduring because
they are right and invincible because
they are just" In speaking of the
federal elections bill then pending in
the United States Senate Mr.. CIeve-
land said: ''When we see our politi-
cal adversaries bent upon the passage
of federal law, with the scarcely
denied purpose of perpetrating par
tisan supremacy, which invades the
States with election machinery de-
signed to promote federal interfer-
ence with the rights of the people in
the localities concerned, discrediting
their honesty and fairness and justly
arousing their jealousy of centralized
power, we will stubbornly resist such
dangerous and revolutionary
scheme in obedience to our pledge
for support of the State governments
in all their rights