Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1897-05-06
wATTERSON ON CLEVELAND.
A Sharp Dissection of the Ex-Presidents
Professions and a Warming TO
The Democracy.
Washington Post, Ind ]

Washington Post, Ind
The first gun ofthe battle of 1900 is fired
somewhat early, but it was fired by the
Reform Club in New York last Saturday
night. The Reform Club is made up eX'
clusively of the personal followers OF Mr.
Cleveland, 1t exists in point of fact to ex-
plot the fame and to advance the interests
of the ex. President. The names of Fair
child and Honblower and Peckham ale
sufficient guarantee that the association has
no other source of inspiration nor any fur
ther point of destination. The dinner was
given to place Mr. Cleveland in the field as
a candidate for President, and from this
time forward all the appliances of small
but energetic and intelligent machinery
will be put forth to make a campaign OF
education and & canvass for Mr.. Cleveland
SYNONYMOUS terms.
Mr.. Cleveland can never again be Presl-
dent Of the United States Under no con-
ceivable circumstances ought he to be.
That he should contemplate another can
didacv affords strong evidence of a lack in
him Ct integrity and virtue, That club
of satellites should conspire to place him
again in nomination is not merely proof Of
the treason of its members to their country
and to the party to which they profess al
legiance, but ola degrading sacrifice OF pa
triotsm and manhood.
But there can be TO reason to doubt the
fact that Mr.. Cleveland is the one man to
be reckoned with by those who seek to at
tain good governments as distinguished from
the operations of rampant partyism, swing
inc the pendulum from one to the other
dizzy height Of political excess. From
first to last this calous, sef-seeking man
has been the direct cause, the sole occa-
sion. Of all our undoing. To go back no
further than the last internal Democratic
conflict. if six months before the nominal
ING period in 1896, Mr.. Cleveland had
firmly said, Il will not he a candidate I'M
der any circumstances, nor allow my name
to be used by anybody" the elements OF
order in the party could have got together
and united on some leader equal to the
task of meeting and beating the eXtrem-
lists. But Mr.. Cleveland could not be in
duced TO make the slightest sign. He was
as silent as an oracle, standing the while
exactly where the lightning might be ex-
pected to strike. Except for this, paralyz-
ing Carlisle, Kentucky could have been
held; but, Kentucky gone, the rest fol-
lowed like landslide Mr.. Cleveland was
known 10 be covertly candidate, and,
handicapped by him, the friends Of sound
money and revenue reform were over
whelmed by the malcontents, raised up in
the first place by Mr. Cleveland's exasper-
ating temper and incompetency for leader
ship.
tits discouragingt to thefriends of reform
in the South and West that thus prema-
turelv the movement for honest politics
and sound money should be freighted
down by name which is potent only for
evil. But it is still more discouraging to
reflect that the man behind this name is as
indefatigabe as he is mischievous; that he
is very much richer than ever he was, and
much more ambitious than ever he was;
that his removal to New Jersey was the
first adroit step in his new plan of cam
paign; that every day OF his lifein that fine
efTeminate Italian hand he will write from
two to fifty letters, addressed to persons in
every part Of the country; that, posing as
a retired statesman and philosopher, and
PLAYING upon the credulity of the simple
minded and easily hattered, he will leave
no string untouched for stimulating the
activity of the expectant; and that day and
night the Reform Club, having in charge
the circulation Of Democratic literature,
will be silently, surely working to the one
end. which ne and they have before them
his nomination in 1900.
If Mr. Cleveland were possessed Of the
faculty for conceiying any public affair
apart from his own interest-evenif he had
any real sense of personal Gignity-he
would rid the great questions at issue from
the embarrassment of a presence which is
not q help but menace. Instead ofplay-
ing the part of philosopher and states
man while exhausting every artifce to re-
gain the Presidency, he would perceive the
grandeur Of being such in point of fact land
of enjoying, like statesman and philos-
opher, the repose of his honors and his
wears But he would not be himself if he
considered ANYTHING else than his own de-
sire and will. The executive office repre-
sents both. He likes the power, the emol-
uments and the employment He has
talent for industry. He is dominant and
experienced. To him the Presidency has
become, what indeed he made it while he
had it, a personal affair, held regardless Of
party obligations. Destitute alike Of I'M
agination and Of sympathy, he subjects ev
erything and everybody to his unboundec
and unquenchable egotism. This egotism
indeed became so sincere that he grew al
last to believing that he did actually know
something of the questions of his time anC
had some policy other than his love o
power and display. 1t is just as we'll tina
Democrats who seek the rehabilitation o
the party on sound political lines Of actor
and thought should know to begin on wha
lies across their path, and that they shoui(
begin to cast about them how to shake
from their shoulders this Old Man of TIM
Mountains. He is with US only for wha
it will bring him. All his life an office
seeker and an oGice-holder, he differs from
the riT-rafr of his class only in his higt