The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-26
FALLEN VERY LOW.

Small as is the respect winch peO-
| pie in general have for Senator Nor
| gan, it will be still further diminished
| by his extraordinary performance in
the senate in ascribing, without any
warrant in fact, to Mr.. Cleveland
| disposition to connive at the anneXa-
| ton of Hawaii This is so utterly and
| impossibly at variance with the fact
that it reflects discredit not only upon
Mr.. Morgan, but upon the cause of
/ which he has at present constituted
himself a champion. Surely the case
of the annexationists has fallen into
| desperate straits when they are oblig-
| ed, in order to bolster up a failing and
miserable cause, to resort to palpable
Justification. 1t would be quite as rea-
sonabIe to charge Grover Cleveland
| with secret weakness for the free coin
| age heresy, or with a love for extreme
| protective duties, as to intimate that
| the annexation of Hawaii was ever
present to his thought as a possibility,
under any circumstances, during his
| administration. The extremes to which
SANDER may go and the total irrespon-
! sibility of Senator Morgan, to what
ever cause it may be due, appear at
their worst in this extraordinary
charge.
1t really did not need a personal dis
! claimer by the ex-president to put him
right in this regard, although one can
not wonder that he has broken the
reticence with which he has surround
ed his private life that he might repel
an accusation at once so discreditable,
so improbable and so unjust. The first
| act almost of his last administration
was to administer checkmate to the
rascally scheme for stealing the Sand
| witch islands. He withdrew the annexa-
| ton treaty from the senate, he in
| Vestigated the facts OF the subversion
| of government in Hawaii by the
| assistance Of the United States forces
and put an end to the closing scandal
of Mr.. Harrison's rule. While these
acts were demanded by practical con-
siderations of justice, it is equally true
that the principle of annexation itself,
| even if brought about by righteous and
| tolerable means, was as utterly abhor-
rent to the ideas of Mr.. Cleveland as it
| is to so many patriotic Americans He
saw not merely the mean and sordid
motives behind it, but he saw also that
to consummate this act would be to
| abandon a fundamental policy Of this
| government, to discredit and dishonor
the Monroe doctrine and to introduce
into our political system an element Of
fatal weakness. He was utterly against
| annexation either by Republicans or
Democrats, and opposed the acceptance
of the Hawaiian government at the
! hands of either its former monarch or
| the later usurper who styles himself
| its president.
Meager, indeed, must be the resour-
ces that occupied Morgan in his four
days speech in the senate, if they had
| to be supplemented with such an act
of effrontery, of bold and unblushing
falsehood as the assertion that Mr.
| Cleveland was at any time in favor
Of the principle of annexation, no mat
! ter how consummated. Senator Nor
gan has little reputation to lose in the
eyes of the American people, and his
| past records and utterances do not
leave him above the suspicion of be-
ing willing to resort to invention, if
| he might thereby cast discredit upon
a president whom he has hated and
maligned so desperately for unlikeness
to himself. The expedient to which he
has had to resort should not, however
pass without notice as indicating the
extremity to which the advocates Of
annexation are driven in an attempt
to overcome the sober sense and sound
Judgment of the American people.