The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-02-19
eli MUGWUMP'S VAIL
Cleveland Deserted and Denounced
by Friends and Admirers.
Singing Rebuke Administered by Har-
per's Weekly-An Article That Has
Pierced the Presidents Hide.
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.

Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
The President is keenly appreciative of
the fact that his friends OF the long ago
the mugwumps and anti-snappers-have
gone back on him" Their admiration.
their praise, has turned TO seorn and con-
tumely. The censers in which they were
wont TO burn incense at the feet of their
idol are cold and scentless now, but still
useful. Their utility is as missiles, and
as such they are being welded. Rarper's
Weekly, = journal of civilization and mug
wumpery, was long suffering under the
chill of the Presidents insolent mightiness.
but the illustrated worm has now turned.
In this weeks issue Of the Weekly Is an
open letter signed "Anti-Snapper." which,
according to Washington dispatches, has
pierced the fatty tissues Of the Presidents
heart and wrung tears from his eyes and
picturesque explosives from his tongue. 1t
is said in Washington that the article is
the product of the pen of a man whom
Grover appointed to a highly honorable and
extremely lucrative office. This added sting
of tngratitude is keen indeed. The article
is the talk of political circles at Washing
ton and New York. 1t is reproduced below:
To the Editor Of Harpers Weekly:
In your issue of Feb. 8 you published an
a. ~ III liz II III VI IC DCLAhE
cratic Party" 1t is true that the party
has accomplished next to nothing during
the twenty years In which 1T has been re-
turning to power, and that its promises
and the purposes of those whose alliance
has given it its victories have been wrought
to naught b. reason of the ~ascendency OF
men whose courage and virtue have been
destroyed by long efforts to beat the Re-
publtcanS at their own games, by the cor
ruption of politics and politicians in New
York, and by various other causes. The
spirit of the new Democratic party is too
strong and too modern for the wracked
body. The lettering Senators who are car
rying on a Senile filtration with the Popu-
lists. and the plotting heads that sport with
a supreme Court justiceship as If 1t were
a seat on the Toombs bench, are not the
leaders for the party of Charles S. Fair
William E. Russell, Roger Q. Mills, John
9 9a l A paaaSiio william Lam l. 1vS Wilson Z q JOIN Pao =.
ham, and the young and hopeful tariff re-
formers of the Fest, the Northwest and the
ing. Its crank is in the hands Of fantastic
folly and degraded corruption. 1t cannot be
reformed; 1T must be smashed 1t has not
q patent right to the name Democrat. Even
under the ballot aw of New York that
designation can be taken from 1t. The best
Democrats are for revenue reform. for local
liberty and independence Of the Individual.
And of this Democracy German, Croker,
Pugh, Hill, Morgan, Brice n Murphy
1 do not write this letter to you, however,
simply for the purpose of expressing my
concurrence In what you have already pub
lished. 1 write to say that the task of MAX
ing the leadership OF the Democratic party
worthy Of Its principles and It's allies might
now be nearer accomplishment II Grover
Cleveland had understood his duty and had
taken advantage Of his opportunity. 1t Is
because Mr.. Cleveland declined TO regard
himself as the leader Of a cause, and to lend
what might have been his powerful and ef-
fective assistance to those who were ready
to bear the brunt OF the fighting, that the
Democratic party Is to-day in so deplorable
a condition.
Mr.. Cleveland was nominated at Chicago
by the anti-snapper movement. Before Mr..
Fairchild and his associates effected their
organization there was no possibility of Mr..
C~leveland's nomination. The State OF New
York had chosen a delegation pledged to
Hill. It is true that Hill himself was never
a formidable rival, but his snap convention
seemed to Democrats outside OF New York
to make Mr.. Cleveland's nomination impos-
sible. The Syracuse convention and it's en-
.rollment gave TO the Democrats of the other
states the assurance that New York could
be carried for Cleveland in spite of Hill and
of the angry protests of his friends. William
G. Whitney claims the honor OF nominating
Mr.. Cleveland. He is entitled to no credit
whatever. His work was done for him by
the patriotic Democrats whom he pretended
at first to c~ountenance, but from whom he
ran away when it was thought, to use the
vernacular Of the contest. that Cleveland
and Hill would kill off one another" leav-
ing behind a sneering fling to be printed in
the newspapers after he had escaped to
sea. If 1t had not been for Fairchild Whit
ney could have found no excuse to go to
Chicago. But he went, and the first injustice
done by Cleveland's intimates to Cleveland's
real friends was Whitney's claim to the
credit of making The nomination, and Whit
ney's silence when the newspapers were
publishing the untruth that he had turned
Der of his in Mr.. CleVeland's first Cabinet.
One other man might have prevented Mr..
Cleveland's nomination and secured his own.
The Illinois delegation insisted on nominate
inc Mr. Morrison Tho Hill dalaUatac from,
New York were inclined to support the eff
fort. Even Mr.. Carlisle, on the eve of the
convention, urged Morrison to accept. He
was the one man who could have beaten
Mr.. Cleveland, but he honorably and almost
angrily refused TO permit his name to be
used because the Illinois delegation had been
elected as a Cleveland delegation, in a con-
test between Palmer and Morrison, in which
the latter won.
THEY TOOK BACK SEATS.
During the campaign the New York men
who had made Cleveland's nomination pos
sible remained silent. They took hardly
any part IN the campaign. The machines,
state and local, were in the hands Of their
opponents, who were interested in making
anti-snappers appear to be of littl.. political
Importance. The a~nti-snappers, however,
were willing to obliterate themselves Cor
the time in order that the party might s1c-
coed. 1t must be borne in mind that the
NcoSAS VI NhAo movement dA0 " tHNcI
upon the contest for the control OF the con-
vention because they We're Cleveland men.
The were not hero worShipers. They rec
ognized Mr.. C%leveland's faults as well as
his strength They were Democrats OF the
kind you describe as giving the party that
ever strength it has. They desired to ad-
vance Democratic principles. and to wrest
the leadership from unworthy men. To
these ends they regarded Mr. Cleveland
as the fttest instrument. They knew that
he might be the leader of the cause they
believed in, and which they fondly thought
he represented. They remained silent
through the campaign because they knew
that the machine in New York was treach-
erous, and that their activity would ex-
cite 1t TO further effort to defeat the ticket.
Mr.. Cleveland did nothing TO bring them
into the campaign. He gruElbled because
his friends were not consulted, and because
he was thus deprived of the
aid of the most intelligent men
Of the Democratic party in this
State. But he agreed that silence was best,
and his friends have no cause for COM
plant against him for that. They did not
helieYe the IammanY version of the Viz