Delaware gazette and state journal., 1902-11-20
OPEN LETTER TO ROOSEVELT.

W Mllliam hiCnhei DyrueY il5q,f Oultou
States District Attorney for the Dis
trict of Delaware. 1t is currently re-
ported that this appointment means that
the favor and influence Of the Admins
tration are to be enjoyed by j. Edward
Addieks, and that the Federal patronage
in this State is to be at his disposal.
That the Interpretation put upon this
appointment can be the correct one and
that the Administration will hereafter
place at the disposal Of Addicks the |
Federal appointments in Delaware, |
cannot be believed Unless the iden- |
tity and personality of Theodore Roose-
velt have been completely swallowed up |
and lost in that abstraction called the |
Administration, believe that you still |
stand for civic purity, civic honesty,
civic morality. believe that you will
permit no argument of political ex-
pediency to blind your eyes or stop
your ears TO the truth OF the situation,
to darken your apprehension, benumb
your conscience, stiiie your voice, or
paralyze your arm when you have
| learned the truth.
| | assume then that the question
whether the Administration will lend its
powerful aid to J. Edward Addicks will
| not be decided merely as question of
| party policy, hut that the standards OF
common honesty, ordinary good citizen
| ship and simple civic morality will also
| be applied in its determination. These
are matters that may smack Of sim
plicity and rusticity and even super
fiuity to the practical politician = to
yourself they must appear far other
wise, for on them is bottomed and
grounded that character which your
friends and foes alike admire and
respect.
In the State of Delaware the strong
holds of j. Edward Addicks are now
and have ever been among the Repub-
iioans of Kent and Sussex counties
These people are almost entirely en-
gagged in farming and kindred pursuits.
They are largely people Of limited
means, of small opportunity and of
narrow horizon. They are to a great
extent cut off from the stimulus of
education and the civilizing and en-
Tightening influences which invigorate
and vitaliZe communities more favor
ably situated. Essentially honest as
between man and man, their ideas of
their relation to the State are not SO
high as we could wish. In addition to
this, there are a large number Of
negroes Of varying degrees Of Ignorance.
|
years ago one of the most dangerous
! enemies Of the republic, a man of large
; wealth, strong ambition, ruthless de-
termination, and dogged pertinacity, a
man whose absolute lack of any con-
ception of political principle and civic
morality would be an interesting study
were it not SO shocking and SO appall
, ing. Cautiously at first, he inooulated
, the body polite in those members
which afforded him the least resistance.
As disease spreads through the human
body in ever widening areas from the
point of its first entry, so by little and
little this corruption has extended until
, the condition of affairs in the two lower
, counties. Kent and Sussex, is dreadful
beyond parallel-so dreadful as to be
pitiable.
He holds majority of Republican
votes now in this State by only one
means-the power of purchase His
power numerically has grown just as
the number of purohasable voters has
grown by the force of example, the
effect of use and the sapping of
principle and conscience. By the
temptation of wealth, he has destroyed
the self-respect of thousands. He has
led his slaves to the ballot box to cast,
r not the ballot of their choice, but Of
J their masters choice. He alone and
, single handed dictated the nomination
of William Michael Byrne as a oandi-
date for Congress against l.. Heisler
Ball. then already the nominee of the
! Republican Convention. He nominated
| Byrne against the wish of his own con
vention. He cast 1900 votes for the
! most unpopular candidate that ever ran
for Congress in this State, and he
could have polled as large a vote
: had his candidate been a Democrat
: Opposed TO him stand 5000 incor-
ruptible Republican voters and 16, 900
Democrats.
You are now asked to join forces With
this man. You are asked to lend him
the powerful weapons of Federal
| patronage and the favor of the Ad-
| ministration to overcome the resistance
of those enlightened and patriotic Re-
publicans who have for years fought
the good fight against all the forces OF
his wealth, his ambition, and his cor
! ruption. Theirs has been no selfish
motive. No desire for power or place
4 has animated them. Time and again
has he sought to lure away their leaders
with offers of place and office. Two
Senatorships have been availableA He
could fill but one of them, and the
other has gone begging among the
opposition, before whose eyes it has
been dangle1 as bait and lure, to bt
! theirs if they would but permit him tc
have the other. Steadfastly has this
temptation been resisted. 1t has beer
Q spurned and scorned and put aside by
men who would have dignified this
position, who would have sought il
t with clean hands and clear conscience
| ltrh fun ha all k.,t
q honesty, honor, and the welfare o
their State to have attained it. The,
were and are animated by spiri
o which is the foundation-stone of ou
, institutions, the spirit of resistance t,
Q the corruption and debasement of tn
,r ballot. Against these men you arr
-, asked to wage war. In such figh
: you are asked to lend the sacred in
Is tiuence of your high Office to the mai
/ whose selfish ambition has debased
Is debauched, and corrupted free people
IL who has made his State, of whose homo
q he should DO jealous and whose repu
!, tatiou he should treasure, mooker
u and by-word.
.. Surely you will not do this thing
To you have we looked for aid an
comfort in this good fight. On yo
y have we confidently relied as pro
T, and stay. To you as man, and as th
DO President, have our eyes been turne
DR. for cheer and encouragement in ou
! struggle to save the honor and tn
j. virtue of our State from the hands c
ID the spoiler. So far have we succeeded
IN Are we now to find the great forces c
1t the Administration arrayed against us
Ill Will Theodore Roosevelt ally himsel
i. with j. Edward Addioks?
Mr.. President, honor and honest
8 are higher than political expediency.
g. mind conscious to itself OF rectltuds
ns of mnra wnrth than roiificaI aucoast