The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-29
RIVER AT s A. M.
CAMPAIGN ACRIMoNY.

Some years ago a Republican nomi-
nee for congress in a Minnesota dis
trict. at meeting held to launch his
campaign with due eclat, said, in open
Ing his few remarks that he hoped
that "the acrimony Of the campaign
VIII be pleasant" So far the "acri-
mony" Of this presidential campaign
has been pleasant in it's almost entire
absence. The criticism passed on either
Of the presidential candidates is as to
his mental and political fitness for
the place, always a proper matter for
consideration, while the good charac-
ter and fair reputation of each has,
so far at least, baffied calumny. What
may come when the gradual increase
of partisan heat reaches the point
where morals fuse 1t is Of course, rash
to predict; but the blameless lives of
the candidates will render innocueus
all shafts thus forged, and the cam
paign will proceed, as it should, on
the line of a discussion of the very
important questions involved in it.
But this happy condition is excep-
tional If it has characterized the cam
paigns for the past eight years it is a
condition that attended no other pre-
cedtng one except possibly that of
Monroe's EZRA Of good feeling" AS one
recalls the nastiness of the campaign
Of 1884 and compares it with the clean
Illness since and the acrimony of the
nnnfnCfC /
dulge the hope that the volcano of vi
tuperation exhausted itself in a final
and tremendous outburst in 1884, and
that nothing will remain hereafter but
It's crater of black memories to perpet
uate the fact that contests for the
American presidency were accompa-
MED by such eruptions of filth. But
revolving as were the indecencies of
that campaign, those of the contests
Immediately following the Inaugural
ton Of the Union surpassed them.
Nothing is left of the foulness with
which Washington was despatched
In the popular mind today, although
there are no vices and few crimes of
Which he was not accused, both while
commander-in-chief, candidate and
president. There is in the first inaugu-
raj address of Jefferson a curious ref
erence to the assaults made on him
during the conflict between himself
and Adams. He says: During the
contest Of opinion through which we
have passed, the animation of dis
cussions and of exertions has sometimes
worn an aspect that might impose on
strangers unused to think freely and
to speak and write what they think;
but this being now decided by the
voice Of the nation all will. of
course, unite in efforts for the
common good"
No reader today, having only this
comment to guide him, would form
any conception of the abuse heaped
on Jefferson during that campaign.
and. later. by the Federal prints which
made themselves the willing vehicles
of Callender's atrocious falsehoods.
One has to turn to the narratives of
those days to find what it was the
president thus deprecatingly referred
to. The Federalists threw scruples to
the wind. Jefferson had been in France
and his sympathies were with the
revolutionists, while their atrocities
shocked him. He was dubbed a ia
Goblin, wishing to inaugurate in Amer
lea the barbarities of the revolution
In France. His insistence on religions
liberty was twisted into an atheistic be-
lief. 1t was the era of the pamphleteer.
and their productions fell on the coun
try in profusion. 1.-The Voice of Warn
ing to Christians on the Ensuing Elec-
ton of a President of the United
States" was the title of one of them,
In which his infidelity was grayely
portrayed. Serious Considerations on
the Election of a President" was an
other. He was accused Of having ac-
cun2ulated his property by fraud and
robbery One specification was that
as executor of an estate, he had kept
the property of the estate. worth ten