Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1898-09-23
A Warning to Republicans.

mOnstrOus crusade to destroy the pres
tige Of victory in war is now acknowl-
edged to have as its object the discred-
iting Of President Mckinley. The Chi
cage Chronicle has laid aside all SUBJ
terfuge and stated directly that Presi-
dent Mckinley was responsible ''for all
the remissness which has caused fear
full suffering to our gallant soldiers who
died by fevers in Unsolicited and ILL
managed camps of starvation, because
the supplies which were 81 generously
provided by the nation had not been
delivered to the soldiers"
The Chronicle, being a Democratic
organ, has done what Republicans be-
lieved from the first that it would do.
This vas a part of the copperhead con-
spiracy Of 1893. Early in the war the
malcontents and irreconcilables entered
into a conspiracy to defeat the Repub-
lican party at the Congressional cleo
tions this fall. They believed that IL
they could brighten the administration
into sending an army Of $4,000 or 49,
600 men to attack Havana in the rainy
a disease would make such havoc
among the troops before October came
that the American people would be in a
panic. Then the distressing facts Of a
long death list and the suffering Of SOL
diers in fever-stricken camps could be
used as campaign material against the
supporters of the administration in the
fall election.
ThfQ SQnnNC nnnSfnOYIc whom ~ la npyf
into cold type, but the proof Of such a
conspiracy was positive, and day after
day those newspapers that had been
forced into a support of the war
by the patriotism of their constitu-
ents urged the President to move
the army on Havana. 1t was ex-
planned that the President, the Sec
rotary of War and Gen. Miles were op-
posed to any attack on Havana in the
rainy season. This explanation was re-
ceived with SCOTS and sneers, and the
newspapers in the conspiracy charged
the President, his Cabinet and the COM
handing general of the army with
cowardice.
The President had his way; Havana
was not attacked; the army was not
sent to the malarial districts of Cuba
in the rainy season. Santiago was at
tackled, Cervera's feet was destroyed,
and the war was ended. So complete
was the victory, SO astonishing We're
the results, that the conspirators for
the time We're at a loss what to do.
Then they conceived the plan Of using
sensational reports as to sick and
wounded to alarm the people and ac-
complish what they had failed to ac-
complish by their cry, ION to Havana
They charged that the Secretary of
War, through ignorance and negli-
gence, had connived at the destruction
Of the army. Some of the yellow jour
nals went further than this, and charg-
ed that the War Department had delib-
erately planned the assassination Of the
flower Of American soldiery. This
seems as monstrous as the plan of in
weighing the administration into an in
discreet invasion Of Cuba; but the con-
spirators, the yellow journals, mug
wsump and Democratic, have not hest
tated to make the most reckless and
Infamous charges, with the purpose, as
the Chronicle now admits, Of striking
at the administration which conducted
the war to a triumphant close.-Chi-
cago Inter Ocean.