Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-04-13
| ETTERS OF A
LOCKER ON.
HON. WI. L. WILSON
Critically Analysed as a Man and a
Statesman.

CHARLES Town, w. VA,
Apr. 9, 1895:
To the Editor of the Herald.
To judge from the energetic protests
Some of the Democratic papers are
making against what they are pleased
to consider personal attacks on Hon.
VIM. /. Wilson, we might suppose
that the Republican press of West Vir-
ginia is run by set of imbeciles who
lack both the ability and the honesty
to discriminate between the man and
the politician, between the moral and
intellectual worth of a distinguished
party leader and the cause he advo-
Gates. 1t is true that in Mr. Wilson'S
case it is rather hard to draw the line
of demarcation accurately. If on the
one hand the public acts and measures
to which he has irrevocably committed
himself, the avowed political princi-
pies by which he attained temporary
popularity, in word, his entire pub
lie record, seem sufficient to define his
position as bold and reckless exper-
imentalist; on the other hand, he is
confessedly-if the familiar phrase be
allowed-such "a hearty good fellow
and SO entirely and unreservedly in
the hands of his friends, that one can
hardly say how far he is personally.
directly accountable for the miserable
miscarriages of the party i'll whose
ranks he holds SO prominent a place.
All that he has, is, or can be, is at the
service of his constituents. He is
scrupulously conscientious. What he
is expected to do, he does so far as in
him lies. These are admirable traits
in politician. the more admirable the
more rare. There may be in it some
thing that accords not fully with our
ideas of independent craftsmanship; a
something suggestive of clique and
partisan leadership; nevertheless, we
cannot deny that such devotion, in
whatever cause displayed, is most
beautiful thing to contemplate
Now it is precisely this qualified
leadership, or rather agentship, that
has presented the great Tariff-wrecker
to the gaze of his wondering oppo-
nents in dubious and distorting
light. For all his distinguished abil-
tiles; for all his sterling moral quail
ties; for all his admirable social ac-
complishments; for all his self-sacrifi-
cling devotion to his friends-he stands
forth today before the eyes of his
coldly criticising countrymen like
an actor on the stage personating that
threadbare character,
So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull,
whose negative virtues and accommo-
dating disposition make him fit in
strument for the purposes of unscru-
pulous and designing men. Who can
have patience to draw nice distinctions
between the weakness that consents
to aid and the bold daring that DELHI
erately plans and precipitates ruin
GUS public calamity
Doubtless there is no sensible man
in the Republican party who does not
in his heart try to draw a fair and
equitable line between Mr. Wilson'S
private character and his public career.
OF course this is often done in rough
off-hand way Yet in the main Justice
is done him IS we'll as his party Had
Mr.. Wilson--or rather Mr.. Wilson's
conmittee--or rather the Democratic
party-for he was really only its
mouthpiece-had the prudence and
foresight to have made haste slowly;
had they been satisfied with the intro
duction of less radical and less sweep
ing changes; had they considered that
even needed reforms may, if i'll timed,
prove untnitigated evils, and delayed
awhile the hasty, hap hazard legislation
which has destroyed the confidence
and unsettled the entire business Of
the country;-in word, had they done
just what they did not do, who can
say how long the country would have
borne with them, or how readily
American energy might have adapted
itself to the new situation2 Who can
say that another Democratic admins
tration might not have been possible;
or that the Second Congressional Dis
trict of West Virginia might not, by
lucky concurrence of favoring events,
have given President to the United
States!
1t is an exhilarating thought. What
pity it cannot now be realized. How
sad it is for good men to fall on evil
times, or evil times to fall on good
men. Nicholas Machiavelli in his
Prince, written nearly four centu-
ries ago, says, THAT prince may be
happy whose manner of proceeding
concerts with the times, and he I'm
happy who cannot accommodate to
them. When obstinacy consists with
the motion of fortune such prince
may have success; but when these
disagree the poor prince must needs |
come to the ground" Here we have
it in a nutshell. If-then. If. III
the time had been opportune. If the
measures had been wise. If the PEG.
pie had been easily hoodwinked |
Above all, had the Democratic party
been united. But the time was mop.
perfume. The Democratic party was
not united; on the contrary it was a
mere mob, an indigested mass, con
geries of half-formed factions, of which |
Mr.. Cleveland was stray central sun
around whose blazing orb the heliacal !
rising of lesser lights betrayed their
lesser orbits. The whriling worthless of
Descartes were as nothing to this orbi-