Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-06-16
Harrison and Reid.

Harrison and Reid.
1t is a clean and creditable ticket
that the Republican convention has,
after the pandemonium of nearly
week, put into the field. The nominees
stand, in the language of the triumphant
Chauncey M. Depew. for "the policy,
foreign and domestic, the industrial
measures, and the administrative acts
of Benjamin Harrison" Upon these
issues the Republicans have now elected
to stand squarely, and to win or lose in
the campaign-the Mckinley tariff, the
Force bill and the record OF the Harrison
administration. These are the logical
issues and Harrison is their logical
champion. If the Democratic party,
with its logical candidate, Grover
Cleveland, and the issues for which he
stands, shall win, the victory will be as
;reditable as it will be significant; if,
on the other hand, the decision of the
American voters shall be the other way,
we have the satisfaction of knowing
that in Harrison the country will have
at least decent and reasonably safe
President, impregnable against the forces
of free silver and with the temptations
to jingoism and political fence building
that marred his first term to q large
extent eliminated.
The battle at Minneapolis, all can
now see in retrospect, was from the
start conflict between an admirably
disciplined and strongly entrenched
regular army under the mastery
generalship Of Depew, loyalty seconded
by Chris. Magee, Mckinley aud others,
opposed by disorganized bands of bush
whackers captained by such guerrllas as
Quay, Plat, Clarkson, Foraker, Malone,
Reed and renegades of their calibre and
the puny aid, later in the fight, of little
corporal Higgins of Delaware. These
onshwhackers made the most noise, but
the Harrison men had and held the
votes. When the real issue was Joined,
the Quays, the Clarksons, the Platts
and the Mahones were simply nowhere
and they dragged down with them the
man who could have retired from pub
lie life a short month ago with the
proud record of having twice had the
Presidential nomination of great party
within his grasp and having twice de-
clined the honor. But Blaine temporized
at the wrong moment with ill-timed and,
under the circumstances, dishonoring
ambition, and he steps off the American
stage to-day back number; the dis
credited wooden horse with whose aid
the tricky and INSCRIPTIONS mutincers
of Republicanism had hoped to scale
the citadel of Harrisonian Troy.
The Republican party is best clear OF
such men, Of its Quays, Clarksons
Platts and Mahones, as well as of the
little Delaware boss who, though in.
debted to Harrison for the placing Of
Federal patronage where it would
strengthen his grip, got demoralized al
the eleventh hour by the smoke and
pyrotechnics of Quay and his confed
crates, turned tail and went into con
spiracy to throw the vote of his State tc
scme rival of his benefactor. Blu
George V. Massey was in the way
Massey, the real choice of the Delaware
Republicans for the senatorship which
Charley Maull's secession diverted Il
Higgins; Massey, who, though an orig
inal red-hot Blaine man, having beer
chosen as a Harrison delegate was tot
honorable to play fast and loose will
his implied obligations; and with Masse,
there, the delegation simply would no
be swung by the accidental senator.
The question is now what will Blaine
Quay, Clarkson, Plat, Malone, Forake
and the rest of the endorsed big gun
OF machine politics do? Blaine viii
probably saw wood and say nothing
his career as public man is about over
ne has nothing more to hope for and n
favors 10 ask from either the Republicai
party or the Harrison administration
lie has practically drifted away fror
the party, or the party from him, o.
the burning questions of the day; he ha
no love for the Force bill; he is a FIRE
trader who would have knocked til
bottom, top and both sides out of tn
Mckinley bill; he has witnessed hi
mercenary and menacing schemes an
dreams fizzle out, one by one; he has n
fiscal record; his diplomatic career ha
shed no great lustre on either himself {
his party. He is not likely to turn
and work for the man with whom Il
parted under such advertisement {
open hostility; he is more likely, if h
takes any part at all, to drop a rock hel
and there in Harrson's pathway to
second term. But the Quays and the
allies can hardly afford to do this The
are not ready to retire to obscurity an
there is no place for them outside of Il
Republican party They will probabl
growl and sulk for little while an
then proceed to make such terms us the
ian for rear seats in the administratio
wagon as their only chance to work u
'front.' again when time and opportunit
shall serve. But the bitter fight whiC
hey made has left sores which may n
ueal entirely even by November.
The report of the Ohio state board
equalization of taxes indicates that Il
home market" is not panning out the
much more successfully than in Ne
England. Manufactures have increas,
and protectionist logic would requi