Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-02-08
An Estimate of Cleveland.

before the public. Working on an OBJ
scure Kansas paper he sprung sud-
denly into national prominence few
years ago, by remarkable editorial.
What is the matter with Kansas"
Later he wrote some short stories that
were worth reading, and his recent
magazine articles on the character
ana services Of various public men
have given him no lack of advertising.
To be sure, these articles have been
made up largely Of transformation
and prejudice, but from the authors
standpoint they have served their
purpose. His article on Senator Plat
of New York was so full of absurd mis-
takes and grossly libelous statements,
that the victim instigated legal pro-
ceedings, but dropped them when he
saw more clearly the microscopic pro-
for.
Mr.. Whites latest article is an esti-
mate of ex-President Grover Cleveland
and he succeeds in missing the mark
quite as widely as he did in the case of
President Mckinley. Here is an ex-
tract from his estimate Of the martyred
President. Mckinley never had an
idea in his head. He is essentially not
a thinker. He has not kept abreast
g A.. l.
Until the campaign of SO he was I'M
sure about finance. He has uttered no
sentiment in all his four years of
official speaking and writing that has
lived thirty minutes after it was put on
paper. Twenty men in Lyon county
can make as good speeches as McKin-
ley. No man who doesn't read can have
much to say. You can't draw water
from an empty well. A man
docn't have to know much to be Presi-
dent of the United States. The average
President stripped of his fame and
heship in mems literary club in a
country town. There have been three
exceptions to this rule in forty years"
In his article on Cleveland, Mr..
White keeps himself equally distant
from the facts. He starts out with the
statement that the American people,
''sick of politics and nauseated by all
politicians" turned with overwhelm-
ing force to Mr.. Cleveland and hurled
him into the White House. This is
too much, considerably too much, to
pass by without recalling the fact that
Cleveland would never have been
President had there been an honest
election in New York city. 1t was not
the overwhelming force of public
opinion" which put Cleveland in the
White House but the New York politi-
cans who stole for him the electoral
vote of that state. This is not a parti-
san opinion but was well established in
the evidence that sent Boss McKane
to long term at Sing Sing. But pass
ing this, let us quote from Mr.. Whites
estimate of Cleveland as a President.
He says: cleveland, as a statesman.
will be remembered as the man who
stopped things. He checked abuses;
he prevented bad men from accom-
plishing their schemes; he warded of
impending calamity. He reduced reve-
nues and saved taxes; he stayed the
ebbing tide of public credit; he throt-
tied anarchy; he stopped foreign ag-
srandizement on American soil" But
above all. in Mr.. Whites estimation
was his pure and patriotic impulse tC
keep his own personality far in the
background, land he never injected
himself nor his ambition into any pub
liz affairs"
With the possible exception of An
drew jackson no President was ever
more of an autocrat in office thar
Grover Cleveland. His personality was
never in the background. He re-
jected the advice of his cabinet and
party leaders: he overrode his party In
Congress; he vetoed more bills than all
the other Presidents combined; he
suited only himself in making appoint
monts, and was utterly intolerant OF
opposition. A little later Mr.. White
fcrgets all the good things he has said
of Cleveland and disregarding all con-
sistency draws a picture of him as a
thoroughly dishonest and unscrupulous
politician Cleveland wanted Congress
to pass certain bill and Congress
would not do it. Then, says Mr.. White
.he seized the one weapon at hand
what little patronage was left him, and
he went into the Legislative market
appointing no man to office unless the
Senator or Congressman recommending
that man promised to vote against the
Sherman law. There he stood, I'M
mindful of God, man or devil, putting
aside past promises and future obliga-
lions with the sublime shamelessness
of dire need-stolid. immoral, buying