The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-05-14
GoODWIN's ASSAULT ON CLEVELAND.

equalled him since Mark Twain and Bret Harte
turned their backs to the mountains and placer
diggings and began to write of other things than
| stories that made them famous
Generous to excess extending airs right and
left while dollar remains in his pocket, the
friend of domestic animals and the idol of school
children, one expects to find and does find in the
writings of Judge Goodwin the attributes of the
humanitarian linked to those of the scholar and
deep thinker
When a writer begins his work. there is on one
side of his chair good angel and the other side
bad angel-invisible spirits, the one tempting
and the other restraining. When Judge Goodwin
finished an editorial not long ago, contrasting
Frederick Douglas with ex-President Cleveland
eulogizing the one man and scandalizing the other
a battle must have taken place between these two
angels Perhaps the bad angel triumphed. Per-
haps it ended in draw. We can judge best from
what follows Gin par) in Goodwins Weekly of
April 80:
that he ever had coored for his guest, but
some papers are charging that he really did enter
tain Fred Douglas several times at the White House
and in his own book Douglas speaks with gratitude
of Mr.. Clevelands social courtesies.
1T is a matter of small consequence, only the
mention of it sets rather ancient memories in
motion Forty years ago Grover cleveland and Fred
Douglas residents respectively of Buffalo and
Rochester, New York. Grover Cleveland was the
of clergyman. he had been given all the adj
vantages of the schools he trying make a
living in the practice of the law in of the most
dourshng cities on the continent but he could not
to support him. Moreover his life such that
him. Indeed, after an eccentric fate and a whole
train of accidents had made him president of the
vi % the town in which he had lived so long, only
espectable gentleman in that city could be found
who would open his doors to him."
The rest of the article is a tribute to the OK
slave, Fred Douglas and further excoriation of
the ex-president, with that blending of aduIation
and irony which no one masters so we'll as Judge
Goodwin
But it is to the accuracy of statement that we
are most concerned, and tho separation of truth
from falsehood. This is not difficult when denial of
the charges made in Goodwin's Weekly against
Grover Cleveland is based upon personal
knowledge of his character as an individual and
his ability as lawyer. As to his acts while presi-
dent two of Cleveand's state papers merit the APP
proval of Democrats, the exhibiting American
backbone in the affair of Great Britain and Vene-
zuela, the other his position on the tariff. But the
excellence of this state policy does not absolve him
from the injury he inflicted upon the money
the opinions of Judge Goodwin and bimetaists |
of the west. No condemnation of Clevelands |
financial policy is too severe because no
act was more harmful to the people than
his colossal bond issue to complete the de-
8tructon of silver. Looking back upon the
years Democrats ardently hoped for change
in federal administration and got it at last
through the election of Grover Cleveland how
soon JOY was changed to mourning! How
poignant the regret that the vote cast for Cleve-
and was not given to the matchless Blaine, The
9lumed knight could not have hurt silver more ia
ally than the other did No other president ever
wrought the evil that Cleveland did through his
alliance with bankers
But posthumous politics aside, let us examine
he individual Cleveland. He is not the bad, i'm
moral creature that Judge Goodwin makes out The
ditor of this paper a county official in Buff
alo at the time Cleveand's term as sheriff had
Yearly run out Part of his duties covered the is
uing of warrants in payment of salaries and fees
o county officers and appropriations for charities
nd corrections In this way he came into official
ouch with Grover Cleveland (This parenthetieal
xpanation is germane to the subject only as it
oes to prove the writer's knowledge of Grover
leFeland ana ms ABILITY TO back up what foilowS)
Grover Cleveland, at that time. was bachelor.
o worse and no better than the average person in
nat state of life burdened with the passions of the
esh No worse and no better than the great ma
5rity of bachelors residing in Buffalo. in Salt
axe, or anywhere elsey If this "son of a clergy
ian" chose TO spend the Sabbath over a game of
penupple" with beer, rather than tend meetin'. if
as matter between his conscience and his God
ct him who is without sin cast the first stone.
As peader before the courts, Grover Cleye
nd did not rank with Albert P. Laning and Oscar
olson, his partners in the best known law firm
western New York He stood in the position of
'unselor, the member of the trio who drew I'D
W briefs. No concern in the western part of the
ate presented more briefs to the court of
'peals sitting at Albany than the firm of Laninr ,
eyeland & Folsom of Buffalo t
After the death of Oscar Folsom the law part .
'rship was dissolved, and Cleveland united with
man IL. Bass, who represented Buffalo district !
the lower house of congress. Lyman K. Bass :,
mt to Colorado Springs, Colo, hopeless con- i
mptive, and died there. His widow subsequentlv
1rrled Senator Wolcott. Meantime Cleveland I
rmed partnership with RisseIl after,,,o. IL 49,