The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-28
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
By SAY OYARD

row, and he that will be captain of none but honest men will have small hire to pay" And Hill used bad men, but he was never of them. Tammany was his instrument, never his master, and in this he was of the school of Tilden, the most consummate politician even New York ever produced. It was unfortunate for them as public men, unfortunate for the democartic party, unfortunate for the country, that Hill was not as content to follow Grover Cleveland as Tilden had been to follow Van Buren. Hills fatal mistake was in not forcing the re-elec- ton of Cleveland in 1888. which he could have done. It was his only path to the presidency, just as Thomas A. Hendricks path to that distinction was in the re- nomination of the old ticket of Tilden and Hendricks in 1880. But Cleveland held Hill guiltless, and so he was innocent of any sin of commission; but he omitted. Had he served notice on the whisky men
 that he would not be governor unless Cleveland carried New York Cleveland would have carried New York and been reelected. Then nothing could have pre- vented Hills election to the presidency in 1892.
 In matters of doctrine Hill had as high
 ideals as Cleveland himself. Empha.i- cally he was a democrat. It was his
 methods that were obnoxious to criti- cism. He looked at the full sack and was careless of the crooked row He elected to be a poor man. He might
 have been ten times millionaire. He scorned to hold
 That povertys a crime and want a sin
 That gold to every wish it's object draws,
 Can purchase honor, can command ap-
 plause,
 Can laugh at punishments and mock at
 laws.
 As must every one who is base enough to get rich in the public service. It is sometimes amusing to note the vicissitudes-evil and beneficent-that wait on political career. Tilden bolted the democratic ticket in 1S4S, voted for Van Buren and did as much as any other man to elect General Taylor President of the United States. Yet Tiden lived to be the most trusted as he was the ablest democratic leader since Andrew Jackson. ] Carl SchurZ was the pioneer and the controlling spirit in the rebellion in the republican party in 1872; but in 1877 he took without protest from any quart CT
 seat in the cabinet of R. B. Hayes James B. Weaver was originally a re- publican He seeded and joined the sreenbackers; but in 1880. the candidate of the rag money men for President he contributed very materially to the cleo tion of Garfield, and narrowly escaped a fist fight on the floor of Congress in open session a few weeks after the cleo tion for the part he played in the cam paign. But in 1898 Weaver was of the very aristocracy of the democratic party as the democracy then was and as poit- cal aristocracy then went | Ben Buffers was more strange case. | Originally a democrat. a disgusting dough face, a Northern man of southern prin- | ciples.' ready, eager to fetch and carry for the slave oligarchy,' later he was | .everything that is pusillanimous in war, I inhuman in peace, forbidden in morals, and corrupt in politics. and the strong est debater on the republican side for l four or five Congresses. But he lived to be democratic governor of Massachu-
 setts and even after that he did his at | most to elect his old personal enemy, James G. Blaine, President
 l John M. Palmer, southern born and | democrat. was charter member of
 the republican party and a stout soldier
 in the federal armies of 1861 -65 also twice or thrice republican governor of Hi nois. but subsequently he got what vas refused to Morrison himself; a United 1 States senatorship from democratic leg l slature.
 | And now the two leading candidates | for the democratic nomination in 1s1- 1 were Palmer and Buckner men in 1s9f
 and either will be President if nominated And it may be that the whirllgg will fetch it around so that we shall see Taft l and I4aFollette, Cannon and MuidocS | Dalzell and Cummins, in the same bas
 ket. but not sn 1912.