u-'jl *
The Conservative.
Many good citi
PARTISAN zens of the United
KTII1CS.
States nud some in
the state of Nebraska seemingly forget
that offices , from the president , cabinet
officers , senators , congressmen and gov
ernors of states down to county and
township positions , were originally cre
\ ated for public utility and "to promote
the general welfare. " On the contrary
places in the service of the public are ,
quite generally , regarded as creations
for the honor and emolument of those
ambitious citizens who may by trick ,
trade or merit achieve them. But offices
do not honor a man , though a man may
honor an office. All offices were insti
tuted primarily for the promotion of the
public welfare.
Now however the ethics of partisan
politics in the United States ignore the
fundamental thought that all public
positions are instituted and established
for the benefit of the people collectively.
Party morals hold that offices are exist
ing merely for the purpose of personal
preferment , individual profit and for
the liquidation of obligations for party
services rendered either to organizations
or individuals. Offices are openly and
avowedly claimed because of alleged
services to presidents , parties , or prom
inent persons belonging to the dominant
political organization of the republic.
Not often for more than a generation
have the ethics of partyism in this repub
lic recognized services to the country at
large , however meritorious , as good rea
sons for electing a citizen to the presi
dency. And no man with the exception -
* tion of Grover Cleveland during the
last forty years , has been elected to the
presidency of the United States merely
because in subordinate civil official life
ho had with honesty , fidelity and ability
done a patriotic service. In the election
of Grover Cleveland in 1884 we saw the
first revolt against the ethics of party-
ism in this country. Mr. Cleveland was
elected by the rebels the insurgents
against the morals of the party which
named James G. Elaine its candidate.
And Mr. Cleveland was nominated be
cause ho had served the people of New
York faithfully and efficiently as a
sheriff , a mayor and as governor. And
in those places he made such a record
and gave such a service that he attracted
, , , to his support thousands of the best of
the republican party when his candidature -
. * ' ture for the presidency was announced.
During his first term of four years as
chief executive of this republic Mr.
Cleveland proved himself a broadminded -
minded and states
, far-seeing patriot
man. He ignored many partisan prac
tices. Ho stood firmly for all that
* seemed right and just. Thus many
leaders who like Gorman of Maryland
had been evolved from the party bossism -
ism of city politics , and were in reality
only a larger and ranker growth of
* ward-heelers and precinct managers an
tagonized President Cleveland. His
straightforward , honest ways were not
their ways and his political morals were
not like the morals they practised.
Particularly were the small-bore states
men disgusted with the honesty and
courage of Mr. Cleveland upon the ques
tion of a protective tariff.
Becausa of his renunciation of the
ethics of his party and its principal
In 1888 and 1802. manipulators _ , , ,
Grover Cleveland
was defeated for the presidency , in 1888.
But after four years of the Harrison ad
ministration , in which President Harri
son himself rebelled against the dictation
and morals of bossism separating him
self from Blaine and others of similarly
lax views the renomination of Presi
dent Cleveland was accomplished in
1892 , at Chicago , in spite of a united
delegation against him from the state of
New York. Here again , for the third
time , Mr. Cleveland was named for the
highest office of the republic because he
had bravely and stubbornly antagonized
the ethics of partyism as represented by
certain sachems of Tammany. And for
the second time he was inaugurated
president on the fourth day of March ,
1893.
At the beginning of his second admin
istration President Cleveland found a de
pleted treasury. Already an order for
the printing of United States bonds
for the purpose of protecting the one
hundred millions of dollars gold reserve
had been issued by the retiring secretary
of the treasury , Charles Foster of Ohio.
That treasury which on March 4 , 1889 ,
was plethoric with a surplus was on
March 4 , 1893 , virtually bankrupt and
the entire country was quaking with
premonitions of a commercial panic.
The industrial and financial prostration
which followed was cunningly charged
to the re-election of that president who
four years before after an honest and
economical administration had retired
from office leaving a surplus in the
federal treasury of many millions of
dollars.
The primary cause of the panic of 1893
was the operation of the Bland-Allison
_ , _ , . act which provided
The Bland- , , , . ,
Allison Act. for the coinage of
not less than two ,
nor more than four millions of silver
dollars each month out of bullion pur
chased by the United States in the open
market. This act was passed to aid in
keeping up the price of silver. It failed
to accomplish the purpose , therefore ,
of the friends of that measure who had
passed it by a two-thirds vote over the
veto of President Hayes , William Me-
Kinloy being recorded , as a congress
man , among the said two-thirds. But
the promoters of silver mines and silver
bullion interests who had provided in
the third section of the Bland-Allison
act for the issuance of silver certificates
to represent 412) grain dollars of that
metal and that : "Said certificates shall
bo receivable for customs , taxes and all
public dues , and when so received maybe
bo reissued ; " failed to , in that way ,
exalt silver to the level of gold. Not
long after this law came into vigor
everybody realized that a depreciated
metallic currency was just as bad as a
depreciated paper circulation.
In his veto message President Hayes
appealed to the morality of congress say
ing : "The silver
An Appeal to dollnr authorized
1'nrty Conscience. , , , . , . , , . , ,
by this bill is worth
8 to 10 per cent less than 4l purports to be
worth and is made a legal-tender for
debts contracted when the law did not
recognize such coins as lawful money. "
But his appeal was vain. And even his
admonition as to abolishing the only
means which the government had for
obtaining gold contained in the follow
ing wise and honest statement was un
heeded.
"The right to pay duties in silver erin
in certificates for silver deposits , will ,
when they are issued in sufficient
amount to circulate , put an end to the
receipt of revenue in gold , and thus com
pel the payment of silver for both princi
pal and interest of the public debt. "
Nevertheless the ethics of politics
urged the passage of the bill over the
veto by a vote of forty-six for it and
nineteen against it in the senate and one
hundred and ninety-six for and only
seventy-three against it in the house of
representatives. Among the majority is
the name of William McKinley whose
conscience seemed not to have been
reached by the appeal of Hayes nor by
the possibility which Hayes foresaw and
denounced , that the act would eventu
ally "compel the payment of silver for
both principal and interest of the public
debt ! "
Under that infamous legislation the
United States bought two hundred and
ninety-one million ounces of silver bul
lion at a cost of more than three hundred
and eight millions of dollars. This
Bland-Allison law came into operation
February 28 , 1878. It was the first in
dication of a lack of good morals in
American legislation.
In 1893 when the panic came there
were more than four hundred and nine
teen millions of Bland-Allison dollars in
circulation or represented in circulation
by silver certificates. They had pushed
out of circulation in the United States
that much gold coin , under the operation
of the inexorable Gresham law.
However the most ardent supporters
of the Bland-Allision act became doubt-
, , fcd as to the bene-
Iii 1800. . . ,
fits from their leg
islation which they had so zealously
prophesied as early as 1890. Therefore
a new device for putting an artificial
value on silver was invented.and it