The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-23

THE NOMINATION OF CLEVELAND.

n
Cleveland is not personally ponu,ar. bo
Is not man of particle of moral en-
thusiasm or sensibility; he is tho stolid
wooden Indian chief standing ND stifflv
as the sign of the Democratic tobacco
shop. He did nothing worth
remembering; did nothing worth doing
during his term of presidential Office: he
failed to perform oil that he promised that
was worth performing. His messages
were weighted with no thought that
rose above commonplace; his liter
ary style was of that bastard
Johnsonian quality which recalls the por-
tentous utterance of the Turkish fruit
vendor: I'm the name of the Prophet.
Figs" Cleveland began his first term by
opposing a second term and cheering
for civil service reform, and he
ended by intriguing for renom-
inatlon as no man has done since
Johnson and by making civil service re-
form jest and a mock throughout
the country. He treated pension bills
in the spirit of petty village
shyster, and lost the soldier vote:
wisest men in the Democratic
party with insuferable arrogance and
fudeness; and it is certain that Cleveland
was not popular with his party when he
was renominated in 1885, neither with its
democratic body and wings nor its
bedraggled Mugwump tail feathers. He
broke all his pledges made in his letter of
acceptance and his inaugural; he aban-
doned his order to officeholders to abstain
from influencing primaries and conyen-
tions.
The entire Mugwump press that sup
ported Cleveland for reelection in 1888
confessed that he had not kept faith with
civil service reform and for months
abused him severely for his letter urging
the support of District Attorney Fellows
in the New York city election of 1887. The
New York Erening Post admitted that
Cleveland had refused to enforce respect
for his official orders by removing
offending office-holders. The Mug
wumps in 1888 confessed that they
supported Cleveland for reelection. not
because he had been true to his civil
service reform pledges, but because he had
espoused free trade. He permitted office
holders to control the primaries and
political conventions without hindrance.
and by the end of his third year was as
remorseiess an executive of the spoiIs svs-
tenn as ever sat in the White House. His
conduct in the matter of the fisheries
treaty; in the retaliation bill: in the
order to return the Confederate battle
hat of II.
His espousal of sectional free trade and
his support of the Mills bill was a radical
departure from his views as expressed in
the first year of his administration, and
complete reputation OF the Democratic
tariff platform upon which he was NOM
mated in 1854. This Democratic platform
Of 1884 directly and distinctly affirmed the
Jeffersonian, Jacksonian and Hamilton
ian principle of protection to American
labor.
"From the foundation of this government"
said the platform of 1851, stakes collected AT the
custom-house have been the chief source of
federal revenue. Such they must con-
time TO be. The necessary reduction of
taxation can and must be effected without
dep-iving American labor of the ability to com
pete successfully with foreign labor and with
out imposing lower rates OF duty than will be
ample to cover any increased cost of production
which may exist n consequence of the higher
rate CT wages prevailing in this country"
This is protectionist doctrine and is pre-
cisely the same formula for protection
as was adopted two weeks ago by the Re-
publican convention of 1892. This
Democratic platform OF 1854 Cleve-
land repudiated in 1887 for the
sectional free trade Mills bill
of free wool and taxed sugar; free wool
and taxed WOODEN goods. He denounced
the principle of protection affirmed in the
platform upon which he was elected.
When as president Cleveland recon-
mended the suppression of silver coinage
only thirty-three Democrats voted with
him. and $50 voted against him. In the pres
ent congress 129 Democrats voted for free
silver coinage. and it may puzzle the pub
lie TO understand how Cleveland should
be nominated when o majority of the
party want president who will not veto
O free coinage bill if passed by the Senate
and the House.
David b. Hill and Tsmmany's opposi-
ton in New York stand for his weakness.
His nomination stands for a quenchless
fsctional feud between Tammany and
anti-Tammany, and for this reason his
nomination increases Harrison's success
In New York in November.