The morning times., 1897-03-04
THE CLEVELAND RECORD

State Of New York made it imperative
upon the leaders to find a candidate for
| governor who was not involved in the
trouble, and old John Kelley said: Let 8
take. that man out in Buffalo who is
mayorl'
| Thus sprang at bound from personal
| and provincial obscurity the individual
who was destined by fate to become the
wrecker and all but the death of the
| political party that discovered and ele-
waited him, and an incubus upon the coun-
try that has honored and adulated him
beyond sense or sanity The Democratic
| party survives today only because a year
! ago 1t elected Grover Cleveland from its
| ranks, and with him his small but active
| and dangerous coterie of foreign govern
| mental and financial agents and other
| monopolists and enemies of the people.
BY the wise and patriotic action of the
latest Democratic National Convention he
| and they passed over to the Republican
party, which is welcome to them.
The erratic and illogical course of po-
| iiticai events made Grover Cleveland, gov
ernor OF the State of New York, and,
elected to that office by 100000 ma
| jority, the logical Democratic candidate
for President in ss4 immediately upon
his ,, .rtxr fc hn.r
operate. In the light OF history it may
be doubted If the Empire State was hon
estly carried by the Democrats in that
Campaign. If it was, it was by so small
margin, in fact, by practically only
1000 votes, that it amounted TO a State
vote OF want OF confidence and ought
to have been conclusive against any fur
ther claim to party honors. If it had
been SO taken by the national organiza-
ton, past and present modification and
defeat might have been spared.
or bis first administration we hardly need
to speak. except in Connection with one
act. which exempfied his political
mcnt, whichever way one Hikes to put it,
Like flash OF lightning out of clear sky,
he pro jectedhis famous free trade message
This was the proXimate cause OF the fol
lowing party disaster; but t made him the
necessary candidate in / lSSS and it created
the issue upon which victory was achieved
in 1899. If he then had been true to the
principles OF that message, andEad founded
the poiicvor his second administration upon
the tariff, basis, instead OF what he did
doin his wrong headed way, all would have
been welA
In 1S92,he was again taken from retire
and forced upon an unwilling national
convention, becoming the candidate through
the exercise aud operation or the same
means aud Influences that since have be-
come colossal scandal. But the party
swallowedhlmapd went into the campaign
upon distinct single, and vital issue
of tariff reform as revolution against
the high protective tariff policy which
-iAt- AAtilA pNttl-44ASlI titADLi iIQ IQlGGu
upon the eountry, and which already had
resulted in the notorious fattening of
trusts and other mouopolies, in the depres-
sion of legtiuatetrade, and the Indignation
of the masses. 1t was upon this sole
issue that Grover Cleveland again was
placed in the Presidential chair.
of his position would have been plain
and sacred to any other conceivable man;
to him it was nothing OF the kind No
sooner was he settled in his new oppor-
tunity, than Immediately he ignored the
party that had made him and again and
again honored him. With single wave
OF his hand he swept away gratitude,
fealty and duty; magniloquently assumed
that 1t was he and not the Democratic
party that the American people had en-
dowed with power, and instituted sys-
TEN OF government by Executive viii, in
defiance OF the Constitution, and in de-
rision Of the legislative agency of the
nation. 1t must be said of the latter,
by way OF parenthesis, that its servile sub
mission to the imperial Will has been, In
cases, as disgraceful TO it as the exercise
of the same has been Teprehensible in the
usurper at the White House.
Instead OF calling an extra session OF
the Congress to revise the tariff. which
was the only thing for President Cleve-
land to do at the outset of his second
term; because that was the one issue and
necessity of the hour; as soon as it was
possible for him to do so, he called one
to accomplish thing that the country not
only did not want, but which ma iority
of its citizens opposed and condemned.
namely, to repeal the purchasing clause
OF the Sherman Act, the one legislative
barrier remaining against the destructive
effect Of the previous and fraudulent
demonstration of silver.
In that extra session, how, by dint of
influence and the lashing whip of patron
age, withheld and made contingent upon
obedience to his personal will, Grover
Cleveland managed to turn practical and
ample free silver majority in the Con-
gress into one willing to sacrifice the
prosperity of the country to the hope or
expectation of Executive favor, is too
notorious to demand review at this time
Democratic Senators and Members who