St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-17

Senator Hansbrough, of North Da-
kota, has been brought to his senses
with even a ruder shock than that
suffered by Pettigrew, in the Southern
Dakota These two men are tarred
with the same stick. Pettigrew has
some real ability, where Hansbrough
has none But both Of them have OBJ
keep it by catering to the worst ele-
ment of the populace. Each Of them
adopted the free silver idea, not, we
believe, on principle, because both Of
votes Of their states in recent elections
encouraged them to believe that advo-
cacy Of free coinage would secure their
political future. Each of them has
suffered the fate that he deserved.
They have not however, been punished
as the Republican newspapers would
have us believe, on account Of their
financial heresies. In each state there
was powerful personal COM
bination to down the senate
kota this was the whole secret of the
matter. In South Dakota it played a
leading part. The silver record of Pet
tigrew and Hansbrough was a conven-
lent club to use against them. It was
not the reason of their downfall, but
the most convenient explanation of it.
The most interesting. and at the
same time the most discoureging feat
ure Of the performances in both these
states is tns brazen readiness of SEN
1tcf to abjure his convictions and play
any part assigned to him, provided
only he could have some show Of re-
manning in public life, and the willing
ness Of the party to accept his sub
mission on such terms. Where an is
sue like free coinage Is at the front
and where men have committed them
selves by votes and speeches in the
United States senate to one side or the
other, a transfer of affection on their
part argues worse than insincerity.
The issues involved are so momentous,
the right and wrong Of it are so patent,
the opinion which man holds, Wheth-
er he stands on one side or the other.
must involve to such an extent his
moral nature, that one cannot conceive
how public man with the slightest
honesty of purpose could abandon or
reverse his convictions for political
purposes only.
That is what both these men were
ready to do. Senator Pettigrew is go
ing to st. Louis, tied hand and foot
by his convention, and obligated to SUD-
port financial political policy exactly
contrary to that which he has advocat-
ed with all the earnestness at his COM
mand. Senator Hansbrough offered to
take the same position. He was
Willing to traverse his whole rec
ord, to stultify himself, and, that
he might not be thrust into the back
ground in North Dakota, to go also to
st. Louis committed to a financial pol
icy which he has rejected and fought
In the senate as Infamous. The only
difference in his case is that the pres
ent antagonism to him in North Da-
kota was so strong that he could not
secure even the poor boon of travel
ing down to st. Louis bound to his
captor's chariot wheel
What illustrates the present moral
status Of Republicanism in these
transactions is that the open and
avowed readiness Of men of sucb
prominence as these to eat their own
words. to cry good lord or good devil
as occasion might demand, to repre-
sent good money or bad money, sound
finance or fiatism, to do anything and
everything that might be necessary to
support their political pretensions, has
not awakened any particular criticism.
or been, in any degree whatever, the
cause of their defeat. They are all
right enough. Both these men are sac
rificed because they were not orig
inally Mckinley men, and because the
occasion was seized shrewdly by their
local opponents in their own states to
give the political wheel whirl that
would send new men to the front. AS