The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-06
OVERTHROW OF GORMAN
DETHRONEMENT OF MARYLAND'S
DEMOCRATIC DICTATOR.
Popular Disgust with His Question
able Methods Caused His Down
faIl-His Political Career.
Washington Letter in Chicago Times

of Maryland After a year from next March
he will no longer be the Democratic leader
in the United States Senate. He is another
boss who is passing and will soon be gone
In him disappears one of the shrewdest men
that ever occupied a high place in American
politics. He was not the worst of men,
He was of that type which is just bad
enough and just successful enough to pull
down the standard of public life, to sow a
crop of imitators in his trickery, to make
other and less fortunate aspirants think
that the road to fame and wealth lay along
the devious lines which he travelled. A
worse man would have been less dangerous
because unable to acquire his influence.
better man with his shrewdness and
smoothness, and perhaps with qualities of
real leadership where he had only a genius
for intrigue, would have been power in
the land
German lived and ruled as a boss, and it
is as a boss that he goes down in defeat
The odium which has attached to him and
his followers in the State of Maryland may
be imagined from the circumstance that
three years in succession has that naturally
Democratic State been turned over to the
Republican party expressly for the purpose
of getting rid of German.
This movement, led by the better class of
Democrats in Maryland, by the men who
made up that famous coterie of Democratic
leaders and counselors which has given
Baltimore note as seat of intellectual and
high minded Democracy, really began years
before. These men were disgusted with
Germans insincerity and intrigues as a sem
ator, with his seemingly uncomfortable
aversion 70 putting himself in touch with
the best men of his party and State. and
soil Low a
with the worst elements. These men long
ago determined they would never stop till
they had crushed German, and they have
adhered to their purpose year after year
with remorseless pertinacity.
HOW HIS POWER WAS BROKEN.
At first they tried to beat German within
his own party. But they found him too
strong there. Like all the bosses, he was
intrenched behind machine through which
they could not break. They quickly per-
ceved that the only way to break down
great boss is to go outside the party lines.
In 1895 they first broke the power and pres
tige of German by aiding the Republicans
in electing Governor of the State. In 1896
they had an easy task in carrying Maryland
for Mckinley, although German tried his
best to rally the rree-silver forces. This
year Germans own future was directly in
volved. He had to carry the Legislature or
retire from political life. For the third time
he is beaten and now he must disappear
from the political stage, probably forever.
Gormans strength in Maryland has been
largely due to his control of a machine, and
rupt and disreputable political machines
known to our modern politics. Its leader
was a coarse and brutal man named Raisin
and fine fruit he was. His followers We're
for the most part, ward toughS and thugs
Repeating was wel-developed and prac-
ticed art with them. They drew their sub
stance from the public treasury and terror
lied the better class of citizens. The better
people of Maryland had, therefore, two
birds to kill with one stone, and they
hurled the missile with deadly effect last
but his chief lieutenant and underboss has
gone down with him. The people of Mary
land think 1t is good fortune in both cases.
!, Germans last great play upon the poiti-
cal stage was characteristic of his whole
career. When he saw that the best men OF
the State were determined to defeat him
wrote a long letter to Mr.. Abell the editor
of the Baltimore Sun, who has been an
effective and determined leader in the anti
Golman crusade. In this letter the boss
made pitiful plea for sympathy. He made
a foolish and ridiculous and obviously in
sincere proposal that he would retire from
to the front and assume responsibility for
the Democratic party of Maryland: OF
course Mr. Abel would not be caught in
any such trap, and Mr.. Germans great
play, which, in his style of reasoning, he
thought would catch the groundlings and
win him much sympathy and applause,
proved to be a weapon against himself.
Upon just such tricks has German relied
all his life. He is so constituted that he
cannot make manly fight, He is an OPP.
portunist and nothing else and the sort of
an opportunist who can turn corners as
quickly as any cat in an alley AS protec-
ZIONIST he has played fast and loose with
the two elements of his party in Washing
ton It was always difficult to tell just
where he was to be founds EXCEPT that after
the trouble was over 1t was SAT- to wager
he would be found on his feet. AS with the
tariff issue so with the silver question. He
backed and filled on that, seeking to main
tain his prestige as a Democratic leader in
then the other. His faculty for these quick
turns. for looking variously and deceptively.
according to his monetary interests, long
ago earned for him the sobriquet of 1.-The
Janus-faced senator from Maryland"
HAS MADE HIS MILLIONS.
German has been an officeholder all his
life. He never knew what it was to get out
and work, to build to set in motion the
wheels of industry. His activities have al
ways been political, and in them he has
achieved not only reputation, but has
amassed wealth. How rich he is no one
but himself knows, but he is rated a mill
lionaire. A man who can amass a million
on q salary about sufficient to pay his
house rent is some sort of a genius. Mr..
German is noted as a lucky Speculator in
stocks. He is often seen about the ticker
in Washington brokers' Offices He has
had bucket-shop experiences, and not long
ago was in a deal by which certain bucket
shop operators lost a large sum of money.
1t was said quotation was washed" in
the stock exchange for the express pur-
pose of getting the best of the bucket-shop
people. But no one wasted any sympathy
on them.
1t was thirty or more years ago that Cor
man first came to Washington as an office
holder. He was then only a page in the
Senate. He was bright and likable boy,
and made many friends among the sena-
tors. Then he was chosen postmaster of
the Senate, and in that office he showed
great interest in the Andrew Johnson inn
parchment case, championing the cause of
the President so conSpicuouSly that he lost
his place in the postoftice, and was imme-
diately rewarded by a collectorship in
stepping stone to fortune, for with it he
secured his election to the Maryland Leg
islature, and though he had held office I'M
der a Republican administration, soon Sc
cured an election United States senator.
When his term expires year from next
March he will have served in that body just
eighteen years.
German first achieved a national reputa-
ton in 1884, when he managed the first
Cleveland campaign. He is clever poll
tician, a good director of machine forces,
and was given a good deal of credit for
Cleveland would not bow the knee to Cor
man in matters of state patronage, and in
sisted upon giving at least part of the
offices in Maryland to eminent Democrats
who represented the old aristocracy and
character of the party This greatly angered
German. Cleveland was accused of treat
ing him with ingratitude. The two men
quarreled, German making most of the