The Indianapolis journal., 1894-03-12
A MUGWUMP'S DISGUST
Mr.. Charles Henry Lea Finds His
Idol Stuffed with Sawdust.
Northern Civilization at the Mercy of
Country Lawyers-Clevelan Fid-
ding While Factories Close.
Henry Charles Lea, in Harper's Weekly.

Henry Charles Lea, in Harper's Weekly.
AS an original mugwump of Republican
antecedents who has never hesitated to act
with the Democracy when the public good
seemed to demand it, or to denounce the
errors and abuses of both parties, 1 may
possibly be able to take not wholly preju-
diced view of the political situation.
To understand II right we must cast a
backward glance on the election of 1892
The canvass of that year on the part of the
Democracy was the boldest and most sue
cesSful fraud since the somewhat similar
one OF lS44. Mr.. Cleveland was nominated
on platform framed to render his nonina-
ton impossible, and he accepted it in let
ter whichswas a model of adroit evasive-
ness His managers were thus enabled to
solicit popular support on pledges suited to
any given section. If objections were made
to the radical demagogy of the plat
form they could declare that Mr. Cleve-
land was the platform, and that his as
sumed conservatism was a guaranty
against dangerous innovation. Where that
conservatism was Objectionable they could
point to the platform, and promise that its
principles should be enforced in legislation
The bogy of a defunct and buried force bill
was effectively used, farmers were dazzled
wheat while workingmen were told that the
tariff had nothing to do with wages. The
anti-snappers were lured with the hopes of
a vindication of the principles for which
they had, struggled while the Tammany
tger was placated in the mysteries of the
Victoria Hotel dinner. Thus with conslim-
mate but short-sighted skill the managers
succeeded in uniting in Mr.. Clevelands
support the most incongruous and an
tagonlstc elements. SO heterogeneous a
marshaled together at the polls. It's mn
cleus was that standing menace to our
institutions the solid South, with it's votes
IN congress and the Electoral College based
on the freedmen, whose ballots are practic-
ally suppressed. Allied with this We're the
ky; TamInany Hall in New York; the race
track gamblers in New Jersey: the Anarch-
lists and enemies of the public schools in ILL
nOls; and the Socialists, who, under various
disguises, have obtained 50 wide following
beyond the Mississippi river.
A DEARLY-BOUGHT VICTORY.
Mr.. Cleveland marched to triumph at the
head of all the dangerous classes of the
Republic. 1t was a Pyrrhic victory. and the
success of an administration so brought
into power would be a reversal of the
moral law. When the time came to redeem
the assortment Of mutually destructive
pledges made for Mr.. Cleveland by his lieu
tenants there inevitably ensued the disin-
tegration and decentralization which are
rendering Congress object of contemDt
and which are only kept under fitful con-
trol by a prostitution of patronage more
cynical than has heretofore disgraced the
Nation. No great party in our history was
ever before placed in a position so humiI-
iating as was the Democracy when in or
der to carry out the silver policy of its
platform, 1t was obliged to call upon its
cheated and defeated opponents to over
come the majority of it's own members.
nor is it to-day able to control the antics
WI hnt
back, or to prevent its helpless and nerve
less Secretary Of the Treasury from toying
with the illusive prospect of fifty millions
OF rat money TO be based on the swindle
of the so-called seigniorage.
1t is small wonder that the land which
two years since was prosperous is row
paralyzed with fear of the possibilities
which lie before us at the hands of the
motley mob gathered in the halls of Con-
SreSs. Nor in considering the effect of this
upon the popular mind, can we omit the
bitter humiliation arising from the fact that
we are turned over to the tender mercies
OF the South. To one whose memories of
the civil war are still fresh it would seem
impossible that the vanqushed South
should already, by means of the Demo-
cratic party. become dominant in the Union
into which it was coerced. Yet so it is II
may please Mr.. Hewitt to disparage the
statesmanship of the South, but in so doing
ne oIlly passes n sentence of the severest
condemnation on his own party which is
SO abJectly under Southern control and is
content 10 be the instrument through which
the lately rebellous States rule the Re
public. The South is thus enabled 70 look
with patience on the spectacle of the suf-
IerlnS industries of the North-the silent
forges, the closed mills, the hundreds of
thousands of starving men and women con-
Nertsu from industrious operatives to de-
pendents on charity.
COUNTRY LAWYERS IN CONTROL.
To one who deplores this desolation II
adds sense of shame to reflect that the
vast and complex structure of Northern
civilization was placed i'm he IIo,,so
Representatives at the mercy of a little
knot of Southern country lawyers, and that
in the Senate Missouri, Arkansas and Tex
as furnish the men who counsel together
on the destinies of Massachusetts. New
YORK and Pennsylvania Under such condi-
ti9ns II is no wonder that the policy
auopteu seems as though II were meant for
the grand duchy OF Gerolstein. To meet
an approaching deficit OF seventy millions
tarlH Is framed deliberately estimated 10
reduce the revenues seyenty-fve millions
more, and to fill this yawning abyss resort
Is had TO the most unjust and detested of
war taXeS-the tax on incomes. Moreover
as though 10 advertise the predetermined
purpose of this. the tax Is so devised as to
throw the burden mainly on the industrious
communities or the North. Under the 81 600
exemption IL is reasonably fair to predict
that south OF the Potomac the returns will
not defray the cost of collection. and that
the practical working of the law will be to
send money into that region rather than
10 draw Ii thence. When the South can ac-
complISh legislation so purely sectional
Gettysburg and the Five Forks are
avenged.
1t is useless for those who voted for Mr..
Cleveland in the fond belief that he was
better than his party to lock 10 him for
relief. When he accepted office at the
hands or such a fortuitous agglomeration
OF incongruous factions as that which was
fraudulently gathered TO his support he
forfeited all influence over his supporters
save that derived from the prostitution of
patronage, and this is influence which
necessarily exhausts itself Nor can there
be any sane expectation OF help from a