The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-01-05
Gm Wesseruer.
GROVER

misfortunes which nave befallen the
party in the last thirteen years.
The only man Of the whole country
who was strong enough before the
people to be elected president on he
democratic ticket in the last forty
eight years is still being charged with
having disrupted the party. He is
accused of being the cause of the de-
feat of every man the democrats have
put up since 1892.
What is surprising to us is that
some of his detractors who have been
ever ready since that date to rush into
print with arguments to prove that
but for him and his policy during his
second term there would never have
had a republican successor in the
show that he was to blame for the
defeat of the democratic candidates
for president at the seven national
elections which occurred between 1856
and 1892.
There would be little less sense in
this contention than there is in the
one that has been made since the
latter date that he is responsible for
the two defeats of Mr.. Bryan and Of
Mr.. Parker.
Mr.. Cleveland led his party to vic
tory on two occasions. AS we have
said above, he is the only democrat
urhn hoe hoon oh1o tn do ca IN poarlv
a half century. Is it not absurd, then,
for any coterie of democrats to de-
nOunce him as a traitor to the party
and a black sheep within it's fold?
We cannot see the consistency in
such a course on the part of these
democrats. 1ney helped elect him in
1884 and again in 1892, in the mean
time having done all they could to
those days he was such a great man
and SO staunch a democrat that he
was considered the only man worthy
of three successive nominations to
the presidency. The great Grant,
even, could not, with all his popularl-
ty and prestige with his party, in
duce it to give him the third nomina-
ton.
With all these facts before us, it
makes us mighty tired to hear demo-
Gratis still harping On the old string
of the democratic party being disrupt
ed by the action of Mr.. Cleveland dur
ing his second term.
1t was during that term OF office
that this man rose above the plane
of p~artisanship and showed himself to
be a statesman and a true American,
and we firmly believe that had the
democratic party nominated him for
president in 1904 Mr.. Roosevelt and
his friends would not today be able
10 boast of his overwhelming major
iUy of the popular vote and of the
electoral college.
Since Mr.. Cleveland's nomination
and election in 1884 we have though
him one of the greatest men in Amer
lea, and we have now no reason for
changing our opinion of him. The
trouble with him is that he was years
in advance of his party, and it will
not be long before the rank an file
of that party will recognize the truth
of this statement, if it has not al
ready done so. Notwithstanding the
snortings and barkings of the small
fry and self-constituted leaders of the
party.
Regarding Mr.. Cleveland, The Fay
etteville Observer says:
IT is now that there will
be no river and harbor bill his SeS-
sion. That means more delay for our
Cape Fear canalization scheme. The
cause is the deficient revenue caused
by the republican tariff. which, in
stead of being a tariff for revenue is a
tariff for protection-and a tariff for
protection is not a revenue produce
in the proper sense. While it is the
republican tariff which is Immediate
>ly to blame for our disappointment,
the real blame lies at the door of Mr..
Cleveland. The paramount issue of
the democratic platform upon which
he was elected president in 1892 was
tariff reform. So pressing was the
need for this, that every one was
expecting Mr.. Cleveland to call an ex-
ira session of ess as Soon as he
was in~augurated. in order that the
public will. as expressed at the polls.
might be Immediately enforced. In
stead he called an extra session for
the purpose of considering the money
question: question upon which he
knew that the democratic party was
hopelessly divided. The result was
that. when he brought up the tariff
question a year later, the triumphant
majority which came into congress
along with his own election to the
presidency, was a demoralized mob.
incapable of any democratic legisla-
ton.
Mr.. Cleveland's action not only led
81 hslD-