The daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1904-1905, 1904-11-02
PARKER AND BUCHANAN.
Mr.. Cleveland's Comparison Causes q
Nation. Wide Smile.


When ponderous person plants his
feet in shallow puddle there is likely
to be mighty splash. This is precisely
what has happened as the result of
President Cleveland's discovery of the
! slight resemblance between the candi-
dates in 1856 and 1904.
The comparison of Roosevelt with FIRE.
mont because of their fancied resem-
blance appealing to romantic senti-
ment and popular love for the spectacu-
lar, scarcely produced ripple on the
surface of political thought. But the
ikening of Judge Parker to James Buch-
anan as the model of what a mature,
undramatic and experienced" candidate
for the Presidency should be. has pro-
voked scornful laughter clear across the
continent.
If ex-President Cleveland had searched
the roll of prominent Americans for a
name less likely to arouse popular en-
thusiasm than that Of James buchanan
he would have had to look among those
whose records were positively odious to
F, find it. There was nothing actively vici-
| Gus or, what Mr.. Cleveland would call
"perniciously active about President
Buchanan. He was not what, accord
! ing to the sage of Buzzard's Bay. would
| be called an offensive PARTISAN
But in the vital emergency that low
| cred above the Republic during his ad-
| ministration he was tried in the balance
and found wanting. Where man
| worthy to be President would have
i grasped the nettle of secession with the
| firm hand of American patriotism and
| crushed it in its incipency, Mr.. Buch-
aran dallied with the question. He held
that Congress was rot competent to deal
| with the antislavery agitation. that 1t
| was a question for the individual States,
| and that it was better for all parties,
including the slaves themselves, that 1t
| should remain so.
AS President he deferred to pro-slav-
cry leaders and quailed before their
| threats of secession. While he temper
| lied the seceders perfected their plans.
| Instead of meeting their threats with
the words and measures Of an Andrew
Jackson he took the illogical and impo-
tent position that. while the States had
a right to secede the nation, with a
little II. had no power to prevent them
| doing so.
And this is the man of mature, un-
dramatic experience" who in Mr.. Cleve-
| lands judgment. is the prototype of
! Judge Parker. Irresolute and ineffective
| as Mr.. buchanan was, we are not so sure
| but injustice is done him in comparing
| him with Judge Parker. He was certain
| ly man of greater maturity than the
man from Esopus not only in years but
| in experience with affairs and in knowl-
edge of men. Everything that expert
ence could teach of politics and state
craft Buchanan knew-only the intrinsic
capacity to master them lacking.
Judge Parker has had absolutely none
of the experience and training that seem
ed to fit Mr.. Buchanan for the Presi-
| dency. In 1877, at the age of twenty
five, he was elected surrogate of Ulster
| County, New York, and under the shell
| tering wing of David B. Hill he has
vegetated in some judicial position ever
| since. That there is certain parallel
! ism between his weak, undramatic and
vacillating utterances and those Of Mr.
| buchanan cannot be denied. Their views
| upon the unconstitutionality Of the pow
err of self perpetuation in the Union and
| of the folly of an army and navy com
mensurate to the dignity and necessities
| of great nation. are Strikingly similar
| and equally false, barren and reaction
| airy.
Buchanan lived to repent the tundra
matte" moderation that warmed seces-
sion into life. He supported I.incoln's
| administration and lent all his influence
| to the prosecution of the war. But it
| does not appear that either Judge Parker
| or Henry Gassaway Davis, who also
harks back to the days of Buchanan
! follow his precept and example when
in the fierce flame of civil war, he saw
a bright light that taught him that the
| Union must be saved at all hazards
| When he came to the conclusion that his
country was more to him than his own
Interpretation of its constitution, Judge
Parker and Mr.. Davis quit his company
and continue to steer their courses by the
chart that ran his administration on the
breakers.
The American people will never elect I;
counterfeit replica of James Buchanan
to the Presidency. If they are warned il
time; and, thanks to eX-President Cleve
land, they recognize that Judge Parker
has all of the falings and none of tn,
redeeming qualities of President Buch
| anan.