Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-04-27

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WOLVES IN SLEEPS CLOTHING.
Some gentlemen, of whom ex-Gov.
Campbell, of Ohio, Judge Wilt, OF
Alabama, and other fugitives from the
Democratic party, gave themselves
dinner in New York one evening last
week, the object of which, they said,
was to celebrate the 18th anniversary
of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, but
the real object of which was to form
conspiracy for the second political as
assassination of VIM. ]. Bryan. 10
be present with this masked collection
of plotters the Hon. Grover Cleveland
was invited, but could not be there.
but he sent letter, the first indicted
by him for public use in good WHILE
The object of the meeting had his
hearty approva al. He engaged in plot
of the same character four years ago,
when there were many Brutuses. and
while he did not succeed, as it now
transpires, in entirely destroying the
intended victim, did inflict a very
grievous wound and in fact so multi
lated was Bryan, and desperately
stabbed in the house of his friends
that many obituaries of him have been
published since, telling how. when and
where be fell and died, and where he
was buried, and just who dealt the
blow.
But withal Bryan still lives, and
now a new plot is being Matched to
kill him, effectually and certainly this
time. To his pals Mr.. Cleveland
writes in part:
s'Our principles are so simple and
they accord so we'll with the honest
American disposition, which loves
freedom and cares for the pubic well
fare, that they are easily understood
by the Democratic masses. as q re-
suit of this there has never been a
time when false leadership of our party
and departure from simple Demo-
cratic faith have not been quickly dis
covered and ruthlessly rebuked by
listless support, pronounced detection
and bitter defeat"
Here is a man who has twice been
elevated to the highest position in the
gift of the Democratic party sympathlz-
ing with hostile element under mask.
with deserters to the camp OF the enc
my and Incorporating in false livery.
Both Mr.. Cleveland and they have a
right to leave the Democratic party
when its princinles do not suit them.
We have never objected to this, but
we do object and SO does the great mass
of honest voters object to their as
sumption of the name and their dicta-
tion of the only principles of Democ-
racy, and their patronizing care of a
party in which they have no more
place than Benedict Arnold in the list
of Revolutionary patriots. 1t surely
cannot be that there is vanity enough
in these examples of departed great
ness to suppose that they form a nu-
clus around which any body OF voters
will ever form, nor can it be possible
that they suppose themselves capable
OF magnetizing even few small par
ticles of any kind from any source, or
OF FORMULATING political doctrines
that even the strayest, and longest
strayed sheep, from any political fold,
would not butt out of its way the first
time its hungry eyes rested upon
them. When Mr.. Cleveland ther efore
tells the conspirators, as he did in
that letter, that he cloves the old
Democratic party" he either places
his affections on an ideal, or upon
very small element of the political
world. If the old party be those who
would today follow him then the party
he loves is fewer in numbers than
were the Scotch Highlands after the
battle of Colenso. Today Mr.. Cleve-
land stands for nothing that is Dem
Ocratic. He is hand in glove with the
Mckinley administration on almost
every issue. He was the most pleased
man outside of Mckinley at McKin-
ley's Inauguration. He is for the gold
standard, in fact be is for every Repub-
lican principle unless it be for high
protective tariff, and the Lord only
knows whether, if put to the test, he
would not abandon all of his ancient
views on that point and advocate
bill for even more than Is per cent.
tariff on the starving Porto Ricans.
The Democratic party never gained
anything by pandering either to the
gold bug or tie straddle bug element,
and when it is expected that she will
accept as her guide a bolter, and every
conceivable kind Of bug even to the
worst of the humbug variety, it is put
ting strain on human endurance that
few can bear. The Democrats Of this
quarter would go down III defeat from
AOW I'LL UDC III avn Va oOOu3 tlOJ Wou1N
see their tongues cleft to the roofs of
their mouths and their right arms pal
sled in their sockets before they would
submit to such indignity or allow any
such dose as this to be crammed down
their Threats. They can brave defeat,
and prefer it to surrender of princi-
pies which such utilization as this would
entail.
After Mr.. Perry Belmont had been
dined by Mr.. John R. Mclean as his
guest of honor, Mr.. Belmont was in
particularly good frame of mind for
talking about Mr.. McLean's brother
in.law, Admiral Dewey, the self an
nounced candidate. 1t had been just
as well for all he said if Mr.. Belmont
had followed the habit of some great