Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-04-19
AN AWKWARD POSITION

AN AWKWARD POSITION.
1t is the custom of the New England
Methodist Conference at every annual
session to have temperance address. Last
week the Rev. Isaac ]. Lansing of Boston,
was selected to deliver this address. He
delivered one well calculated to startle his
audience. He said that while we were
preaching against the mistake of the chill.
dren of Israel in rejecting God and making
Sanl their king. we ourselves had elected
MI. Cleveland, a drunkard, to be our
President. That this President had kept
the naval review last year waiting for two
hours because he was too much intoxicated
to review it.. He also claimed that at a
public banquet in New York, MI, Cleve-
land was drunk, and had been SO on other
public occasions. OF course such state
ment as that, made by a clergyman in a
large company of clergymen, was not per
mitted to pass. The conference declined
to assume any responsibility for the speech
1t was shown to President Cleveland at his
home in Washington on Sunday evening
The President said:
"Ihis is simply an outrage, though it is not
the first time thing OF this kind has been
attempted. cannot avoid feeling Of in.
dignation that any man who makes claim to
decency, and especially one who assumes the
role of Christian minister, should permit
himself to become dissemination of whole
sale lies and calumnes not less stupid than
they are cruel and wicked.
81 easily recall other occasions when
those more or less entitled to he called minis
tiers of the Gospel have been instrumental in
putting into circulation the most scandalOus
falsehoods concerning my conduct and char
acter. The elements or factors Of the most
approved outfit for placing a false and bare
faced accusation before the public appear to
be, first, some one with basenesS and motive
sufficient to invent it; second. a minister.
with more gullibility and love of notoriety
than piety, greedily willing to listen to it and
gobble it; and, third, a newspaper anxiously
willing to publish it, For the sake of the
Christian religion. an thankful that these
scandal-mongering ministers are few, and on
every account l am glad that the American
people love fair play and justice. and that,
in spite of all effort to mislead them. they are
apt to form a correct estimate of the character
and labors Of their public servants
The statement raised a storm in New
York, and prominent men of both parties
Chauncey Depew, Frederick Coudert and
Ellery Anderson, who were at the only
three banquets Mr.. Cleveland has attended
since his last election, made statements for
publication denouncing it. Mr.. Lansing
says he got his statement about the naval
review ''from public man about ten days
ago." He now says that he based his
speech on the statements of persons whose
names he is not at liberty to give, and adds:
1.-THE case being one of conflict of testimo-
ny between witnesses of equal credibility, l
cannot decide. Since I have no personal
knowledge apart from the testimony, 1
withdraw the statement and tender apollo
getic and sincere regrets to the President
On reading this very dubious retraction, a
Boston friend of the President wrote to
him offering to 60 to Mr.. Lansing and de-
mand proper reparation. The President
telegraphed in reply:
WASHINGTON, April 11.-While his So
called retraction is an aggravation Of his
original offense, 1 am willing that his fur
Their punishment should be left to his con-
science and the contempt of his neighbors
and the American people.
GROVER CLEVELAND
MI. lansing awkward experience calls
Massachusetts, clergyman, in 1888. He is
the pastor Of fashionable church at Wor-
cester, and went to Washington to attend
a conference Of clergymen. 1t was at the
time when the nominating convention of
'Ss was assembling and the opponents of
Mr.. Cleveland, inside and outside of his
party, were filling the air with ill natured
gossip. When Pendleton returned to Wor-
cester he charged througha newspaper that
the President was drunkard and a de-
bauchee, that he was unkind to his wife.
And then this happened:
good Worcester woman. the wife of a
sterling Democrat, who had unbOunded adj
miration for the President, wrote to Mrs.
Cleveland, although she had no acquaintance
with her, telling her how grieved she was
and asking her, as one woman might proper
ly ask another, to comfort her by telling her
that it was not true.
Mrs. Cleveland wrote a pretty letter to
her-a Mrs. Misunderstanding that the story
was source of great sorrow to her, and that
it was absolutely untrue, and concluding
II could wish the women of America no
greater blessing than that their husbands
were all as kind and considerate as mine is. -
A reporter got this letter. Armed with it,
he went to see Rev. DIR. Pendleton, who was
asked to read Mrs. Cleveland's little letter.
He did so. Tears came to his eyes. He in
vited the reporter into his study. There he
cried like child. He said it was but hear
say, and that he regretted his talk more than
he could ever regret anything else. He want
ed what he said printed in the strongest Ian
guage. That put an end to that Cleveland
scandal.