The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-05
HILLS FIGHT.
What His Nomination for President
Would Signify.

The case is clear. Hill is making a
desperate fight for personal rehabillta-
tion. In the nope that people will for
get what manner of man he Is. and
what his record has been, he is striv-
ing TO take advantag. of party reunion
TO restore his ruined political fortunes.
And it is unhappily true that the eyes
of many democrats in the west and
south are fastened upon the New York
contest this year, in the belief that a
democratic victory will mean the COM
ing forward of Hill as the man for
1904
That Hill has thrown himself into the
struggle with that end in view there is
no room to doubt. Political altruism is
not in his lexicon. His consistent rec
ord for cold and scheming selfshness is
unmatched in our annals. You will
vainy search his public acts and utter
ances TO find one generous instinct, one
magnanimous attitude, one thought not
self-centered. With characteristic eff
frontery, he has now thrust his own
personality forward, as if all the efforts
of his party in this state and in the ma
ton to purge itself of the faint of Bry-
anisnl. and to unite it's, discordant
forces, were designed solely for the be-
hoof and advancement of David E. Hill.
Whether he succeed or fail in his i'm
mediate purpose, it is of the highest
Importance to make it clear to the DEM
ocratic party throughout the country
that a Hill leadership would infallibly
mean both disgrace and disaster.
Has the popular memory failed so
soon? Have Hill's character and ca
reer so quickly ceased to cause obser-
vers to shudder? Charges of personal
corruption come with fine grace from
the man who. as governor. was shown
in court proceedings to have demanded
| and received ten thousand dollars as
his personal "rake-off' on public con-
tract! His theft of the state senate had
the proper brand put upon it by judges
| Of his own party. Aside from these
moral msdemeapors, almost amounting
to high crimes, his whole governorship
was of the lowest tone. Intrigue and
trickery marked it from beginning to
end. and he consistently brought to the
discharge of his public duties the spirit
| anu ItlELIiDuS "a al uIloCTupUtpuS warn
politician. Nobody who was in touch
with the official atmosphere at Albany
when Hill was governor failed to get an
| impression Of unspeakable meanness
and pettiness everywhere prevalent. 1t
was the day of small men with shrunk
souls. The most sordid motives were
appealed to and acted upon, and the
creatures who glided in and out of the
executive chamber had the appearance
and Displayed the activities of men en-
gagged in packing primaries or stealing
election returns.
1t was Mr. Hills own fault if the re-
spectacle people of this state came to
think of him as one of the most reptil-
| ian politicians that ever crawled over
the loathing earth. His chosen associ-
ates were the dregs of his party.
| Scoundrels were drawn to him as IRON
| filings to a magnet. When democrats
of high standing were brought into con-
tact with him on account of his official
position, they invariably went away af-
fiicted with something like nausea or
asphyxia. His administration was as
repellant as his personality, and the
| feeling that the intelligent and moral
citizens of the state came to have for
him went beyond aversion and amount
| ed to positive loathing. His overwhelm-
! ing defeat in 1894 meant more than the
general democratic debacle of that year;
| it had In it something of the moral re-
probation which had come to be so gem
orally cherished in New York for pub
lie man who had left his trail of bills
tering slime" over the politics Of this
state.
| The idea of this man being thought of
as a national leader is abhorrent. To
| take him up after dropping Bryan
would be like getting rid of a hawk to
adopt buzzard. The simple fact is
that, in a presidential campaign, Hills
| character and record would drag every
| thing down. OF what use would 1t be to
repudiate free silver, or to bring for
ward the issues of tariff reform and
anti-imperiaIism, If the candidate were
| to be a man without convictions on any
subject. the int innate of the very sewers
and sinks of politics, and whose politi
cal past would be enough to involve in
ruin the finest platform ever written or
the noblest party ever mustered? For
our part, as we have said many times
before the Evening Post would not sup
port David B. Hill If he would let us
dictate the political principles for which
he and his party were to stand. His
known character Is such that his NOM
ination would be, to decent voters, as
call to arms to repel a public enemy
| New York Evening Post.