Middletown transcript., 1894-02-24
AN ANTI-sNAppER,s VIEW.

To the Editor of Harper's Weekly:
In your issue of February Sd, you
published an article entitled "The
Failure of the Democratic Party.'' It
is true that the party has accomplished
next to nothing during the twenty
years in which it has been returning to
power, and that its promises and the
purposes of those whose alliance has
given it its victories have been brought
to naught by reason Of the ascendency
of men whose courage and virtue have
been destroyed by long efforts to beat
the Republicans at their own games,
by the corruption 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 tottering Senators who are carry
ing on senile Irritation with the
Populists, and the plotting heads that
sport with Supreme Court justiceship
as if it were a seat on the Tombs bench
are not the leaders for the party of
Charles S. Fairchild, George Gray.
William r. Morrison, William E.
Russell, Roger @. Mills, John Quincy
Adams, William L. Wilson, John G.
Carlisle, President Eliot, Wheeler H.
Peckham, and the young and hopeful
tariff reformers of the East, the North
west and the South. The old machine
is rusty and creaking. Its crank is in
the hands of fantastic folly and
degrading corruption. 1t cannot be
reformed; it must be smashed. 1t has
not patent right to the name Demo-
crat. Even under the ballot law Of
New York that designation can be
taken from it. The best Democrats
are for revenue reform, for sound
money, for civil service reform, for
local self government, for the main
tenance of the liberty and independence
of the individual. And of this
Democracy German, Croker, Pugh,
Hill, Morgan, Brice and Murphy know
nothing.
I do not write this letter to you,
however, simply for the purpose Of
expressing my concurrence in what you
have already published. 1 write to say
that the task Of making the leadership
of the Democratic party worthy Of its
principles and it's allies might now be
nearer accomplishment if Grover
Cleveland had understood his duty,
and had taken advantage Of his
opportunity. It is because Mr..
Cleveland declined to regard himself
as the leader of cause, and to lend
what might have been his powerful
and effective assistance to those who
we're ready to bear the brunt of the
fighting, that the Democratic party is
to day in SO deplorable condition.
Mr.. Cleveland nominated at Chicago
by the anti-snapper movement. Before
Mr. /Fairchild and bis associates effec-
ted their organization there was no
possibility of Mr.. Cleveland's nomina-
Zion. The State of New York had
chosen delegation plegded to Hill.
1t is true that Hill himself was never a
formidable rival, but his snap conven-
tion seemed to Democrats outside of
New York to make Mr.. CIeveland's
nomination possible. The Syracuse
convention and its enrolment gave to
the Democrats 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.. Clevland. He is
entitled to no credit whatever. His
work was done for him by the patriotic
Democrats whom he pretended at first
to countenance, but from whom he ran
away when it was thought, the vernac-
ular Of the contest, that Cleveland and
Hill would skill off one another, -
leaving behind sneering fling to be
printed in a newspaper after he had
escaped to sea. If it had not been for
Fairchild, Whitney would have found
no excuse to 60 to Chicago. But he
went, and the first injustice done by
| Cleveland's intimates to Cleveland's 8
real friends was Whitney's claim to the
credit of making the nomination, and
| Whitney's silence when the newspapers
were publishing the untruth that he
had "turned down" the man who had
been fellow member of his in Mr..
Cleveland's first cabinet. One other
man might have prevented Mr.. Cleve.
lands nomination and secured his own.
The Illinois delegation insisted on
nominating Mr.. Morrison. The Hill
delegates from New York were in
clined to support the effort. Even Mr..
Carlisle on the eve of the convention
urged Morrison to accept. He was the
man who could have beaten Mr.. Cleve-
land, but he honorably and almost
angrily refused to permit his name to
be used, because the Illinois delegation
has been elected as Cleveland delega-
tion, in contest between Palmar and
Morrison, in which the latter won.
| During the campaign the New York
men who had made Cleveland's nomi-
nation possible remained silent. They
took hardly any part in the campaign.
The machines, State and local, were if
the hands of their opponents, who were
interested in making anti-snappers
appear to be of little political import
ance. The anti-snappers, however
we're willing to obliterate themselves
for the time in order that the party
might succeed. 1t must be borne il
| kI,ot bo I,c Joco of ;c