The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1893-11-03
HARRIsON.s MISTAKE.


His Recent Defeat
Ex.President Benjamin Harrison is
manifcstly a bourbon Of the bourbons.
He never learns. nor does he forget
Tutored in the school of the Dudlcys
ari the Quays. he has imbibed the idea
that h American people are vcnal. and
timid. and easily deprived 81 their
rights lie also believes that they are
not u progressive people. and that the
returns of one election should be a true
index OF the returns OF all subsequent
elections; hat the republican party of
to-day ought 10 manifest rs much
strength as il did while in the heyday
of its power under the leadership of men
OF mental grasp and moral standing.
He Is evidently conscious of the fact
that the republican party has not pro-
crossed. except. perhaps. backward, and
complains bitterly at the advancement
OF the people. which has left that organ
iz2tion far ian the rear.
1t is not surprising hat Mr.. Harrison
should look upon the repeal of the fed
eral election laws as n step in the wrong
direction He should know hat the
machinery of the government has in
the past been employed TO prevent the
free expression of the will Of the
American people. and that that fact ac-
counts for past republican majorities
in sections Of the country that are
normally democratic This is true of
the state of Tennessee. to which he re-
ferred in a recent inverview with a Chi
cago reporter. lie complains that in a
section which gave Blaine n consider
able majority In 1854 he himself received
but a minority of the votes. He over
looks the fact that Blaine was a mag
netic. popular man with the masses
of the people. while he is the re-
versa cold. unsympathctic, self
sufficient egotist, personally repel-
liant TO all with whom he comes
in contact Blaine was n peerless
leader of men. who often won victory
by the sheer brilliancy and audacity of
his tactics, Harrison is n man Of slug
gish nature-a plodder and a schemer,
who looks to Others to lead. and is con-
tent To place himself at their mercy.
Tennessee was not the only state that
repudiated Harrison while il accepted
Blaine Illinois gave Blaine a majority
of nearly twenty-six thousand. while il
gave to Cleveland over Harrison a plu-
rality of almost twenty-seven thousand
This change in public sentiment was
not due to intimidation of voters. for at
the date of the last election Illinois had
a republican state government, and re-
publican supervisors of election were in
charge of all the polling places in Chi
cage and other large cities. The Aus
tralian ballot system prevented the in
limitation Of voters SO long practiced
by republican employers of labor and
republican politicians. and as a conse-
quence h vote cast represented
freely than ever before the deliberate
intention of the electors
Mr.. Harrison must look elsewhere
than to the suppression of the vote"
of negroes and other republicans for a
reason for his defeat last fall. 1t was
due to a general distrust of the people
in his party "a distrust that has been
constantly growing for years, and has
been fostered and confirmed by the per
sistent refusal of the party to redeem
its pledges; by its constant impositions
of hardship upon the masses for the
benefit of the favored monopolists; by
its persistent e~spousal Of dangerous
financial theories and economic doc
trines. These things, added to the per-
sonal unpopularity of its candidate for
the presidency. combined to accomplish
its overthrow. 1t was not the suppress
sion. but the casting of the full vote Of
the country. that brought about the
overthrow Of Mr.. Harrison and his
party. st Paul Globe