The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-03-03
The Ending Of the Tragedy.

The Ending OF Jne Tragedy
Tomorrow the curtain descends on
the last lingering act of nation al trag-
edy. A certain class Of newspaper ed
itors, the writers of the political litera-
ture of the magazines, the statesmen
whose cry has ever been heard pro-
longing the notes sounded from the
executive mansion, may see an aureole
of political sainthood encirclng the
head of the ex-chief magistrate retir-
ing to the clustered precincts of New
Jersey coll ege town; but the great mass
of the people, industry in all its depart
ments, trade and commerce, the Amer
lean Eagle itself, feel that in the exo-
dus of the old administration from
Washington an incubus will be lifted
from the heart of the nation. The cur
tain will rise on new and inspiring
drama; industry will revive; idle men
will begin to find employment, and
America will once more begin to as
sert her supremacy in the affairs of the
American continents.
At the time when the head of the re-
firing Administration was chosen, this
American nation was at the zenith of a
wonderful prosperity. The decline
commenced on the night of the day of
the national election of 1892. Industry
began at once to take in its expanded
sails and trade and commerce to seek
safe harborage. "Announced by all
the trumpets of the skies, the storm
descended" and for four years the ma
ton has been laboring under it's imme-
diate or after-consequences. Industry
has been paralyzed, ruin has overtaken
thousands, laboring men and their
families have suffered privation and
hardship, the national debt has been
increased some two hundred millions
of dollars, and there has been annually
large deficit in the national revenues.
The Presidents foreign policy, also, has
been antagonistic to the feelings and
interests of the American people. At
the outset, his course towards Hawaii
and the new government esta blished
by revolution offended the national
sentiment, just as his later policy
towards the Cuban patriots, and Amer
lean citizens and interests in Cuba, has
outraged American public opinion.
The one single instance in which his
foreign policy has been successful is
the one single instance in which he
acted in harmony with, instead of run
ming counter to, the popular will, as
voiced by the press and the recognized
opponents of traditional American
opinion. That was in defending the
sister republic of Venezuela against the
aggressions of Great Britain, and in de-
handing that the latter power submit
her claims to Venezuelan territory to
the scrutiny and the judgment of an
impartial tribunal of arbitration. Rare
ly has it happened that 30 many and
such high opportunities have come to
an American President to distinguish
himself in the administration of the
nations foreign affairs, and never has
president made 80 little of his oppor-
tunities. In both his domestic and his
foreign policies the President may have
satisfied the men whose craftsmanship
is purely academic; in no department
of his administration, vitality affecting
the national welfare, the national
spirit and honor, with the exception
noted, has Mr.. Cleveland earned the
approval of the great body of the Amer
lean people; and in the single instance
in which his action received the popu-
lar endorsement he MORALLY offended
the men of the academy and their asso-
ciate patriots and statesmen.
bExcepting only in the matter of the
loss Of human life and in human suffer-
ing inethe Civil War, no period in the
eYisissncs, IF the Nation has been more
calamlOns than the four years just
clSsfhgs, ,st not denied that Mr..
observation-disclosures been sincere in the
pefyicstFssssth s s'BBassSafpiliated and pursued
with AM ironilwill,awith conspicuous
dtstegaao' % a1'thess pablic welfare and
with the losss Of national prestige; but
itiiss 6Spbisssffy ed Gltthiss tpHpection, in
republic i'm which popular government
haSs oFrsehchsa sritsl .p,hhiighest dsYslopment,
how near IAN approaeh to- an absolute