Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-04
THE DEMocRATIC SITUATION.

Iiik hOJiti III
It Is generally conceded that President
Cleveland will have a great deal to say
in connection with the naming Of the
democratic candidate for president, il he
desires to exercise HIS influence. This
gives peculiar interest to every report
associating the presidents name with
some possible candidate. Recently 1t
has been stated more or less confidently
that Mr.. Clcveland's preference is Sec
rotary Carlisle, and certain circum-
stances have been cited as indicating
this to be the case. There Is no doubt
Mr.. Cleveland's esteem, FOR the secre-
tary is Il most faithful adherent, and
while 1t is not improbable that he is
preferred by the president, there is
really nothing that gives absolute assur-
ancc Of such being the fact. SO far as
the circumstances of official and per-
sonal relations are concerned. there are
quite as many in evidence of Mr.. Cleve-
lands Partially for Secretary Olney as
for Mr.. Carlisle. The president un-
doubtedly places a very high estimate
upon the ability of the former and IL Is
commonly understood that he has made
more concessions to the judgment of the
secretary of state, as to matters within
the functions of the latter, than he has
to any other member of the cabinet.
These are the only members of the
presidents official household whom 1t
is at all likely he has any interest in as
possible presidential candidates, while
there is reason to think that he may
be found to favor some one not in Off
cial life. or not associated with his adj
m~inistration. This assumes, of course,
that he does not intend to be himself a
candidate for Il fourth nomination, an
unsettled point In the situation which is
causing many democrats no little anxi-
ETY. and p~crpleXity. 1t has been
promised repeatedly that Mr.. Cleveland
would relieve the democratic mind
on this score, but nobody is
any wiser today OIL the subject,
unless it be some Of his most con-
fdential friends, thar when the ques-
ton of the presidents intention first
became one of concern 10 the party.
Meanwhile no one has attained any real
prominence as a possible candidate or Is
being seriously discussed by the party
at large, and the national convention is
only three months distant. Was the
democratic party ever before in such a
situation? Has it ever happened before
in the history of the party that within
ninety days of its national convention
there was not one prominent candidate
for the presidential nomination!
According to reports, Ex-Governor Pat
tison of Pennsylvania is receiving assur-
ances of support outside of his state
and there appears to be little reason to
doubt that he will be able to get the
unanimous support of the Pennsylvania
delegation to Chicago. His friends are
said to be counting on the favor Of Mr..
Cleveland. The latest information in re-
gard to Mr.. Whitney is that under no
circumstances would he accept the nomi-
nation, and hence New York will prob
ably have no one TO present. There con-
tinues to be occasional mention of the
names of Morrison, Matthews, Camp
bell and Boies, but they awaken no i'll
terest, for the obvious reason that none
of them is strong in availability even in
his w state.
A serious question with the democracy
is whether the national convention will
contain a majority for or against the
free coinage of silver. 1t appears that
the administration has been investi-
eating with reference TO this and from
the information obtained it is said to be
the opinion in administration circles
that the honest money element of the
party will control the convention. There
will be doubt concerning this, however,
until the convention meets, n in any
event a bitter fight is certain, with the
possibility that the minority will secede
and there will be two democratic candi-
dates, as in 1860. The situation makes
the outlook for the party altogether
hopeless and we can conceive of no
probable change that would improve it.