Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1892-05-27
Shaking Dice for the Presidency.

There is q marine animal, so offensive
in shape and habits that for many years
after it was first described men hesitated
to believe that such thing could be. 1t
consists Of central stomach, surrounded
BY long arms that reach out in every di
rection. It haunts dark and Shiny caves
under the water, and seizes upon every
passing thing that is digestable for prey.
When it desires to conceal iself from an
enemy or q victim, it throws out from its
body an inky liquid which fouls and dark
ems the water, so that the eye cannot fol-
low its moyements.
When Secretary Blaine wrote to Chair
man Clarkson in February, declaring that
his name would not be presented to the
Minneapolis convention, the presidential
situation was perfectly clear. There was
no vehement protest from thevpeople, no
declaration that the nomination should be
forced upon him. The party recognized
his right to consider the state of his own
health, his age, and the proprieties Of his
official relation to President Harrison. His
decision was accepted with the less regret
from tie general recognition that his chief
strength as candidate, BY which he would
be stronger than he was in 1854, must be
founded on his share in the work by which
the present admins tration had COM
mended itself to the country, which
was q strength that would be equally felt
in the campaign if the head of that Ad-
ministration should lead the ticket. And
SO accepting Mr.. Blaine's refusal as sin
cere and definite, the general sense of the
party turned to President Harrison as
the logical candidate.
Then little knot of dissatisfied politi-
clans began darkeDing the waters. From
invisible depths came anonymous rumors
of the Presidents unpopularity, while con-
vention after convention ofdelegates, fresh
from the bosom of the people, were pass
ing resolutions praising him and his admin
istration, to the limit Of English language,
as wise, faithful, patriotic and Republican.
Nobody could find Republican in his
neighborhood who would not support Har-
rison as heartily IN 1892 as he had done in
1888, yet anybody could read in the papers
daily that somebody at Washington said
he was unpopular. The political waters
seemed clear enough all around except in
this one spot, where food of ink was be-
ing squirted into it every day. The oppo-
sition newspapers found nothing to strike
ct in the policy Of the Administration. At
home and abroad it won applause for its
handling Of great questions and its conduct
in trying emergencies. Only the little
group Of unsatisfed patronage hucksters at
Washington found in these things the
signs of unpopularity, and so often as the
President turned the cold shoulder to any
of their extravagant demands, they pro-
claimed the whole party in a congestive
chill.
Having, as they thought, sufficiently
obscured their purposes and movements
under these reiterated declarations, they
c0ntrived . number of rival candidates.,
created, like the Presidents unpopularity,
out Of their own desires. Cullom, Lincoln,
Alger, Reed, Sherman, and Mckinley were
set alternately before the public as the
choice Of these faithful guardians Of the
party which, without their direction might
lar Harrison. Strangely enough the
plain and simple people persisted IN prefer
ring the unpopular man, and declined to
throw up their hats for any of these. And
30 these high-souled Republicans who
serve their party by proclaiming in ad-
vance that the man who represents all that
Republicanism has meant in N National gov
eminent since 1884 cannot be reelected
desperately determined that he shall not
be reelected, are driven to their last re-
source. They declare that Mr.. Blaine's
declaration that his name would not be
before the Minneapolis convention was
either insincere or indefinite: that they will
nominate him, and that he will accept, or
if he does not accept, the President will be
humiliated, anyhow. If he does accept,
and is elected, he would not be any more
obsequous to them than President Harri-
son, but he would not live beyond few
months anyhow, they argue, and they are
selecting q satisfactory and compliant can
didate to run for Vice President, with the
expectation that death will bring swif
promotion. And so we leave them, a
they finally appear, shaking dice for th'
succession, on the coffin of the csndidat
they pretend to favor.
They have overlooked one point however
which is the material one-the fact tina
the corpse which they have so laid out an
straitened is still alive, in mental an
physical vigor, and able to take decisiv
hand in the game.-Pittsburg Times