Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-08-06
Mr.. Wcliinsio, 81 Ma'yl,nd.

H'Icu tudt tHCIc may ne ITO truth IN
| the report that his forces are to be
| marsha led by Mr.. Wellington Of Mary
Senate as Republican. by Republican
votes. this man first attracted at
tention to hirsclf in the summer of
| 1897. at the special session of Congress
Which passed the Dinghy Tariff law,
| by his incorporate and senseless
TRADES against President Mckinley
who. in the proper exercise of his
executive duties. had refused to turn
over to him the entire political patron
| age of the state of Maryland So dis
gushing were the gyrations of this
| Peanut statesman at that time that
ington Post. with a due regard for
truth. felt constrained to characterize
| him as IA lurid ass He was the
laughing stock of all parties at the Ma
tional capitol, small vain man with a
rnuch swelled Uranium. Because he
could not be state boss. Wellington
drfted into the Democratic party and
in the late National campaign ap
peared on the stump as a champion Of
| William J. Bryan.
Had Mr.. Wellington been possessed
of any elements of honor or decency.
l h.. ,nf hu& inc in, hA
| Cnited States one minute after he
ceased to represent the principles and
policies of the party that sent him
| him there; but he has shown himself
| to he destitute Of both.
1t is possible-his eGotism is quite
| equal to it-that Wellington really be
| I:cvcd that the redemption OF Mary
! land from Democratic rule was wholly
| due to his own personal efforts. Hav-
| Ing unfortunately been the benc-
| iiCiary of a great movement he inn
agined himself to be the movement it
| self At any rate he staggered around
Washington. exploding his voice upon
ali possible occasions. and doing his
| best to create the impression in the
| public mind that he was the whole
| show" He lost no opportunity to vent
| Lis spleen upon the administration,
and later let it be understood as his
reason for not resiGninE his seat in the
| Senate after he had become renegade
| to his party. that the Republicans
| in his own state stood with
| him almost to a man. 1t is be-
| licved that one of the principal reasons
| of Wellington in taking the stump for
! Bryan in the last national campaign
| WAS to show the Mckinley administra
ton and its friend that the mighty
man whose superhuman efforts had
| brought Maryland into the Republican
ranks could with equal ease turn it
| back again to the Democracy. In sea-
| son ana out he assured his friends.
| and the general public that Mr.. Bryan
would carry Maryland by rousing
ina jolity: but he was destined to a
| rude awakening.
| He made himself so far as he could
an issue with the administration. and
| the people of his own state endorsed
| Mr.. Mckinley by $4,000 plurality. Mr.
| George L. Wellington awoke in the
morning to find himself-ncxt to Wall
inshost Pettigrew of South Dakota
tho most thoroughly discredited man
in America. This merited humiliation
very men he pretended to carry around
in his political vest pocket He had
made his issue sharply. Upon it he
V ent before the voters to whom he
owed his election to the United States
Senate. and they overwhelmingly re-
pudiated him If he We're a man of
| honor he would. under the circum-
| stances. resign the seat in the Senate
to which he no longer has moral
right.
| If this discrcditcd intellectual grass
| hopper and political mosquito is to
direct the Sch1ey forces, the Maryland
admiral will be very much in the posi-
ton Of ancient Sinbad with the Old
Man Of the sea upon his back. TIL
proverbial milestone would be far pref
crable ..
|