The herald., 1893-11-08
YESTERDAYS "oBJscr LESSON"

IDOL hnVA1 . Q0JnOA Lho0VNs
The crushing defeat of the Democratic
party yesterday is intensified by the fact
that it was not even the celebrated "off
year." which is go often fatal to admin
istrations. The party o; Jefferson and
Jackson has met Waterloo, and there
is neither wisdom nor policy in attempt
ing to disguise the fact. President
Cleveland has temporarily wrecked the
Democratic party, and but for its indes
tructible vitality he would have given
it its death blow. He has led it to de-
feat as signal as Sedan. His re.
sponsibility for the disaster is
the more entire and sweeping be-
cause, with self-confdence and
vain glory never heretofore seen in our
politics, he has arrogated to himself the
sole control of the government. As
fully as Louis XIV, he has assumed to
be the state. He has disdained to invite
to his counsels the trusted leaders of the
Democratic party. He gave the men
who supported him enthusiastically and
enabled him to win glorious victory,
an inexpiable insult by the assumption
that the Democratic party contained no
one fit to be Secretary of State-the
head of what ought to be Democratic
cabinet Elected on platform favora-
BILE to silver and pronouncedly for a
statesmanlike revision OF the tariff, he
has bent all mis- influence to destroy
silver and has ignored the tariff
altogether, in the one instance re-
ducing hundreds of thousands to
begging and in the other leav-
ing the business interests of the coun-
try in an uncertain and hazardous state.
Good policy and common sense called
for the assembling of congress in special
session in March to revise the tariff,
thus allowing the business interests of
the country to know where they stood,
and he called it together in August to
force upon it the adoption of an English
policy which was initiated by the East
India Council in closing the Indian
mints to the coinage of silver. Instead
of rewarding party loyalty which had
few parallels in American history, his
policy seems to have had it's inspiration
in desire to belittle and wound the
the men who carried him in triumph
into the White House. No such spec
tacle has been witnessed in American
history as the dragooning of the con-
gress of the United States into the car.
rying out of the demands of Wall street.
We write more in sorrow than in
anger. The American people have
shown in the elections of yesterday that
they have not relished the spectacle OF
on sutocratic abuse OF power which
they have been compelled to witness
during the past three months. Mr..
Cleveland. a short time ago, said that
the people of the United States needed
an object lesson. The president has
been givon most impressive one him.
self-or, rather, many of them. His
own state has repudiatsd his admins
tration. This, of course. is a most un-
speskahle modification to him. The
routed forces OF hin party will now be
compelled to pull themselves together
as best they can. That they will
do 60 let no one doubt. But, where we
might have had an easy victory, we
have been oom PEELED to endure defeat.
Where we might naturally have looked
for the elation OF success we are now
obliged to endure the shame OF discom.
future. The only consolation we can
draw from the melancholy catastrophe
is that no one man or dozen men can
dampen the courage OF party to whom
disaster is only stimulus to effort.