The broad ax., 1897-05-08
GROVES CLEVELAND.


We herewith reproduce extracts
Of an editorial on Grover Cleveland
written by John G. Shsnklin, ed
itor of the Evansville Courier, with
a brief comment by one of the lead
ing Democrats of Utah:
The Evansville Courier, edited
BY John G. Shanklin, one of In
diana's true-blne Democrats, gives
Mr.. Cleveland the benefit Of some
thing over a column, under the cap
ton, LET Him Passi" The Courier
recites the remarkable career of It's
former political idol. Then Mr..
Shanklin gets down to business.
With pointed pen he indited these
sentences:
owe need not elaborate the
record, for it would only recall dis
appointment and chagrin that were
better forgotten if such a thing
could be. When Mr.. Cleveland
convoked Congress In extraordinary
session soon after his Inauguration,
not to reform the tariff, which was
the issue upon which he was elected,
but to strengthen the grasp of the
money power upon the resources of
the country by an act of Congress
which he knew at least nine-tenths
of his party hated and that was in
direct opposition to the declarations
of the convention at which he was
nominated as the people understood
and as those who drafted the dec
Iarations intended they should un-
derstand them, when he began at
once to show his disdain for the
opinions of those who had been his
truest friends and to treat with
scorn those who had made sacrifices
In his name; in a word, when it be-
came apparent that in his self-in-
fatuation he intended to disregard
obligations which his acceptance of
the nomination imposed there was
first amazement, then indignation,
and afterwards-let us make a clean
breast of cordial hatred. Men
of lifelong devotion to Democratic
principles were dazed at the audac-
ity of the betrayal. That this
novice in public affairs should brush
aside with contempt the experience
of those whose lives had been de-
voted to the science of statescraft
was so unexpected, So unaccouLt-
able display of egotism, that it
was impossible to contemplate it
with any degree of patience. That
he should employ the great Office to
which he had been chosen to defeat
the very purposes of the party
which had given him its confidence
seemed so inconsistent with the la
bored homilies on virtue which he
had delivered with such JUNCTION
during his first administration that
everybody began to wonder how
such a man could have gained the
confidence of the people. Respect
for what was credited as integrity
and exceptional originality was
changed into aversion for what now
appeared mere pretense and vanity.
The whole record, including his i'll
natured denunciation of the Wilson
tariff bill as ''perfdy," his foreign
policy as applied to Hawaii, where
a young republic was struggling in
the clutches of a self-indulgent and
shameless queen, the indifference he
has always shown toward suffering
Cuba and his evident desire that
SPANS dominion might be main
tanned In the Island, everything
shows the studied disregard of the
opinions and sympathies of his
countrymen. To do something
startling and contrary to expecta-
ton seems to have been his chief
aim. If he could shock the public
sensibility by going duck hunting
when some measure of grave i'm
portance was before Congress, or
fishing on Decoration Day, he would
do it, and then scowl ill-naturedly
because the newspapers criticised
him. Protesting exclusive patriot
ism, he has been prompted from the
first by motives of faYoritism that,
If he had been monarch on an in
herited throne, could scarcely have
been more glaring.
"But the end has come. Grover
Cleveland has stepped down from
his exalted station into the COM
monplace life of a private citizen,
where it would have been better for
the. country If he had always re-