The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-10-18
CLEANING AND

CLEANING AND COMMENT.
A good thing has happened for the
benefit of the country. President Roo
sevelt has ignored Hanna's patronage.
and disappointed the republican ma
tional committee. Hanna's harp now
hangs upon a little willow, and his bad
occupation is about gone. At least in
so far as bossing the new president.
His advice was not solicited, and some
of the appointments he made are said
to be decidedly distasteful to the great
ballot suffer and suffrage buyer. That
is a very hopeful indication. If the
president shall keep aloof from Hanna's
influence and dictation all the time he
will serve his country well. Hannaism
is blistering shame and an unmixed
curse.
The Messenger has given very little
consideration to McLaurin, of South
Carolina. since he set up the standard
of revolt and sought terms with the
enemy. He and all others who desert
the standard of the democracy for Of
flee are at once under suspicion. Great
men, true men. noble men never de-
sert principles and betray party. We
are not surprised to see it stated that
Mr.. McLaurin is losing his ground"
in South Carolina. How could it be
otherwise among as faithful, decided,
sincere democrats as those of that
state? A dispatch from Washington
which we find in a gold paper, tells
| fhaf MIL amin iS ESnnf tho nnuar ha
was supposed to be-" This is good. The
dispatch says:
Senator McLaurin is making the
best fight he can without any sound
reason for believing that he can carry
any weight. Blalock's friends, while
not making a bitter war up to date
against McLaurin, are urging the pres
ident to reconsider his determination
not to appoint Blalock. So far as in
timations presented here so, Senator
McLaurin is charged by friends of Bla-
lock with having forsaken Mr.. Bla-
lock and his report is making enemies
for the senator. In other places it is
said that Senator McLaurin declared
said that Senator McLaurin forsOok
Blalock because the latter had declared
that he was no longer friendly to the
senator"
The new treaty concerning the 18th
! milan canal gives satisfaction to Great
Britain. When the United States sem
ate amended the H~ay-Pauncefote
treaty in three particulars, Britain
took alarm and opposed. The idea was
that the old Clayton-Bulwer treaty was
repealed or set aside. All is calm now.
The rejection of the treaty by Great
Britain was not regarded as promising
But in point of fact the senate did not
conflict with British contention. The
New York Evening Post says of the
present outlook:
The provisions of the new treaty
lave not been made public, but there
have been outgivingS through English
newspapers that it embraces in sub
stance the senate amendments to the
former treaty. We should not be sur
prised if it should so turn out. At the
| same time it would not be fair to as
sumo hat England has surrendered
everything in the new arrangement,
since she has gained the main point
for which she contended in the former
negotiation: that an earlier treaty
should not be set aside without pre-
vious consultation between the parties
which had DUN themselves by It,"
The United States navy is now di-
vided. There is a section that effects
exceeding aristocracy. n caste is reg
nant. That is something new perhaps
strange to say. Sampson, born in much
obscurity, is one of the aristocratic ma
hobs, while Schley, much better born,
is a pleb, is ruled out. We confess that
we had no idea of any such conditions
existing until the Schley persecution be-
gan. The leading newspaper in its Sec
ton. the New Orleans Times-Decocrat.
writing of this caste says:
In all this Schley-Sampson business
there is, to Americans who have brains
in their heads and a little iron in their
blood, nothing so depressing as the spirit
of jealousy which evidently animates
many of the officers Of the United
States V In reading the testimony
of not a few witnesses who have ap-
peared before the court Of inquiry, one
is lead to believe that among American
nav officers the cultivation and con-
| ~SerVatism of puerile animoSity it little
less than necessary and requisite. The
record of the court now sitting in
| Washington is So biased with evidences
of this contemplate characteristic that
it is well-night incredible that the pres
ent naval regime is, in truth, possible
in a nation whose history is luminous
with the names and deeds of Lawrence,
Perry, Macdonald, Joh Paul Jones.
Farragut, Semmes and Dewey"
The Messenger has already called