The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-07-05
shark From the Tomb~ q Doleful
SOuud>

Sir: It has been a long time since
the American people have offered c..
Cleveland, Ii. D., the self-made man
Of Princeton, any prcvocation for
thrusting his peculiar individual views
upon them. This fact, however, has
not deferred him from disturbing the
peaceful, academic shades Of that au-
gusE aga Of learning from time TO time
and giving rent to various n sundry
alarms. In the latest periodical note
of warning which he has sounded with
such sepulchral and oracular gravity.
emphasizes and cocksureness he has
inflicted upon a lon~g-sufering public
his protest against this country enter
ing upon a policy Of foreign con-
quest" as he is pleased taiong with
a plethora Of anaemic verbiage) to call
il. Taking this as his text, he has
frightened US his solar plexus and in
Weighs against evils, some OF which
are imaginary and the most OF which
are unimaginable. Ponderous pro-
verbs for the past and platitudinous
prophecies for the immediate and re-
mote future make up this profound
deliverance which exhibits the Cleve-
landisQue ear-mark of intense pre-
~paredness, accompanied by
intellectual parturition. The none
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS trademark
stereotyped and h~ackneyed illusions TO
"landmarks,' "self-government," etc,
are all paraded in this recent disserta-
tion upon the destiny and duties Of the
nation.
1t is hard for his pompous and pom
derous gentleman to realize that in so
far as existing any particularly posi-
tive determining influence pom popu-
lar life and thought he is deceased.
He is not only dead, but has been a
long time dead, and everybody else
but him ought to understand what
suggestiveness that condition onvey
He has entered hat limbo of limo
cuous d~esuentude" from whose boure
no discredited politician ever returnsHe
lags superfuous and his warnings"
nave become matters of idle superero-
CATION. In the matter of excessive
avorpupois he was once the incarnation
Of a terrible warning" himself, but
since there is no more access of adipOse
tissue he is no longer interesting even
for museum purposes. Many believe
now hat party degeneration has be-
come as much an intellectual as a
physical in1rmity with him.
Let this all be as it may, there is
no call for the Honorable Grover
Cleveland Ga la Spanish GLORIOUS but
sad" Renaissance hat he isl lecturing
the people of this country about their
manifest destiny" If a corpse ex-
poets to be respected it must exhibit
some self-respect. There are proprie-
ties hat must be observed, sensibili-
ties that must be considered. The liv-
ing nave some rights as we'll as the
dead. We may look curiouSly at the
we'll preserved remains of the Pharoah
Of an extinct civilization, but we do
not expect the umm to humble. The
(~~-,-- C1A--~1@-I 49, 1900
given heretofore ample opportunity to
enforce his opinions upon the public
in an authoritative name The coun-
try has extended indefinitely the va
cation which was allowed him, and it
wants a rest itself. The country is
very neal we'll acquainted enough with
the C~levelandisque Intellectual cult to
know fully we'll what the philosopher
will think upon almost any given sub
ject, from piscatorial diversions to
the conduct Of Sound money" cam
paignS. The country wants to see his
cacoethes scribendi cured. It want to
see his penchant for sesquipedalia
verba curbed.
The country ear take care Of itself
and it's destiny. Whether the porten-
tous shadows hat the incoming cen
fury is casting before mean that it
shall continue it's continental or devel-
Op a colonial policy; whether it shall
add ~conquests of war to the victories
of peace; whether it shall rest content
upon the magnificent achievements Of
it's domestic career or shall plant it's
footsteps on the sea" and follow the
track of empire until the sun never
sets Upon it's pOssessions-all these
are questions which the masses of the
American people (and not those who
arrogate to sit in councils and judg-
ment upon them, denouncing not long
ago "a as cOnspirators against
their honor who are now at the front
fighting it's battles instead of sending
substitutes) must settle. That they
will settle them, regardless of obsolete
traditions and effete politicians and
in accordance with American history
and primary among the nations Of
h earth, nobody but victims of ar
rested mental development can inter-
tain a serious and abiding doubt.
EDWARD GILLIAN.
Lancaster, Pa, Jun %, 1898.