The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-13
Two Views of Grover Cleveland.

The Christian Advocate of this week
contains presumably from the pen OF
Dr. BuCkley-a notable review of the
public career of Grover Cleveland. 1t
appauds the eX-president for his firm
ness in suppressing riot, for his cour-
age in upholdng sound money, for his
efforts in behalf of international arbi-
tration, for his championship of civil
service reform for the high average
character of his appointments to emf
nent positions Of trust and for his "sus-
tanned superiority to the clamor of the
press" 1t commends him for declining
to further the annexation of Hawaii
and to provoke q war with Spain, but
censures the "vehemence and war
threatening implications" of parts of
his Venezuelan message.
II regards as the conspicuous weak
nesses of his administration certain ut
terances from time to time upon the
classes and the Masses" which fed the
flames that eliminated in discomfort
50 widespread that he was unable to
check it; his propensity to pardon
criminals, and to interfere by letter
and personal preference with the course
of justice; his equivocal expressions
upon the income tax; his promotion of
financial uncertainty and loss of conf
dence; and his general inability to
manage the revenues of the country
so as to sustain at the same time the
credit of the government and the spirit
n in IN i11yp bA
subject up the Advocate says: THE
charge of inferior ability is already dis
credited. Rugged honesty, determine
tion, patience, self-restraint and eau
ton are accorded to him. An unusual
development of the consciousness of
his own personality, blended with an
exalted sense of official responsibility,
has sometimes produced an effect, in
the eyes of hostile or Indifferent critics,
bordering upon the grotesque."
In the main this impresses us as a
fair estimate, although we dissent
from its criticism of the Venezuelan
| message. We cannot be shaken in our
belief that it was the grit in that which
made arbitration with England a diplo-
matte possibility; therefore. even from
a peace standpoint. the end justified
the means. quite different in tone is
an extended review of Clevelandism in
this weeks issue of the Irish World.
Here the eX-president is pictured as
simply the embodiment of dumb luck
| "a Cheap country lawyer, a local po-
| litical wire puler who had no expert
| ence in national affairs, had never
| been in congress, had never even served
in the state legislature; ignorant of
| constitutional law, ignorant of politi-
| cal economy; st0lid, unimaginatiVe: a
man of vulgar mind and base associa-
tions, whose pleasures We're gross; with
| no appetite for letters, no taste for
ant, no aspiration for anything with a
| tendency to refine or spiritualize--a
man, in fine, who had nothing to show
save what was corporeal." And the
steps by which he rose to highest place
are outlined as joint products of the
| blindest accident and unblushing
| roguery on the part of those charged
with the political management of his
! different campaigns.
The peculiar thing about Mr. Cleve-
| lands career is that both of these
| views can be strongly defended. He is
the century's political paradox; the
one human enigma that is as likely to
set historians as contemporaries by the
ears. Innate chivalry, inspiring un-
| Willingness to pursue a man when he
is down, will incline the majority of
Americans toward the Christian AdVo-
Gates conception of Mr.. Cleveland
rather than toward that set forth in
the Irish World; still, the temptation
to smash SO clayey an idol is by no
| means weak.