Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1884 — BEECHER’S WRATH. [ARTICLE]

BEECHER’S WRATH.

It Is Thundered Forth from the Heights of Jsr ~~— Cleveland’s Election Advocated as a Rebuke to Slander and Dishonesty. The Plymouth Pastor Reads a Letter Which ills Wife Received from Cleveland. [Near York Special to Chicago Times.] The Independent Republicans of Brooklyn held a grand demonstration in the mammoth rink to-night, and it was packed to the utmost limits. It was not only in numbers that the audience was remarkable, bnt it comprised thousands or the Lest citizens of Brooklyn, among whom were many who are very rarely seen at political gatherings, and th'-tr presence was a proof et the thorough earnestness of the better class of Republicans in their opposition to Mr. Blaine. Stepping to the trout of the platform. Mr. Beecher was greeted with tremendous cheers. After quiet hud lieen restored, the ■peaker said; "I am in dead earnest, and that you shall find out before I finish. I Cheers. I There are two great dangers that betide our Government. One is from the corruption of wealth, and the other the corruption of too long held power. 1 Prolonged applause.) It is a c mmon proverb that an honest man will stand watching, and that a dishonest man needs it., [Laughter.) All the governments of Europe are suffering from the cankering influence of money. It la an age of money. To-day the making of money st nds above all things. Why wa< it that Ru-sia failed in the Crimean war? Because Russia was honeycombed with dishonesty through all its officials, and it broke down because it had not the means to go on. Why wan it that Austria made a hasty peace with Napoleon the Little? Because she found that her exchequer was empty. She was exhausted pecuniarily. And when Napoleon 111. went against Germany it was like a charge of cavalry against a stone wall, and France broke down because the vast sums of money supposed to have been expended for imph ments ot war had been squandered on her conrtiers and officers, and she was cheated of her glory by the corruption of her people. "Now, what a reformer Mr. Blaine would make in all these ma ters, wouldn't he? [Laughter.] He wouldn't allow Dudley to go out West to teach the people of Ohio how to vote, would he? He wouldn’t allow Congress to give lands to speculative railroads, would he? [Laughter.) He would not allow corporations to cheat the Government of its just dues, would he? [Laughter.] He would seize the great transcontinental railroad by the thn at and help Thurman—[applause]—and Edmunds—[applause] to strike it down. You know he would, oon’t Sou? If bribery is to be the order of politics, ’ excessive taxation is to he kept up. there cun bo no better selection for President than James G. Blaine. Ho advised repudiation in West Virginia and he a vised making the whisky tax Sermanent for educational purposes. Every step e has taken in finance l as b on followed by a roarof laugi ter over the whole con ini nt, and yet we are talklngof the stat- sinanshipof Mr. Blaine. For twelve yea s I have wato. ed him, anxious that be should be the right man that lie ts not. lApplause.l For more than ten years I have

been afraid or the man—a num that needed a Cong- < s.-ional committee to investigate whether he was lionert or not; a man rejected by two conventions because it was feared that stories men told about him would prevent Ms election, as they will now that the th .rd convention has nominated hm.“ [Applause.] Mr. Beecher gave many instances of the duplicity of Mr. B nine, and then turned his alien th n to Mr. Cleveland: “’The air is murky with stories of Mr. Cleveland's private life. Lies so cruel, so bus ,so atrocious have never before been set in motion, as the cocki trke's eggs, brooded and hatched by rash and credulous clergymen. '1 hey couldn’t go to Mr. Cleveland with honest inquiry, but opened Ihclr ears to the harlot and the drunkard—sensation]—and promulgated a letter io pots n the faith of holy men and innocent women. Do timid minlst rs ever refect that the guilt of the vice or crime m asuns the guilt of him who charges it falsely?” [Cheers ] Mr. Beecher then paused, and stepping to the desk read in trembling ton' s thus: “My honored and beloved wife, quite unknown to me, made clippings from ncwspiipcrs, all of which were in resjiect to the lite of Gov. Cleveland in Albany. She sent them (o him with a letter that will not be published, but which would be a gem in English literature if it were published. As quick as »ad could return. she received a letter irour Gov. Cleveland, which 1 have had between two and three weeks, and which he meant to be, and marked, private, hut such a oontplexion has this canviisi taken that I telegraphed him two nights ago to ask if I might tase my discretion w th regard to it. His reply was: ‘Certainly, If it is your judgment.’ Now I read Gov. Cleveland's letter: ”[P ivate.J “Executive Mansion, I "ALf ANY, Oct 7. f "My Dear Mbs. Beecher: Your letter, as you may well supj oee, affected me deeply. What shall I say to one who writes so like my mother? I say ‘so like my mother,’ bpt I do not alto- , gether mean that, tor she died in the belief that her von was true find noble, < s she knew he wav dutiful, iind kind. 1 sm shocked and dumfounded by the clipping from n newspaper ttiat you send me, because it purports to give what a man actually knows, and no a mere report, as th other four or i.ve lies do which 1 have road or licard about my life in Albany. I have never seen in Albany a woman whom I have had any reason to suspect w«a in any way i adj—l do Ji now not where tiny such in Albany. I have never been house in Albany except the Executive Mansion, the executive chamber, the Grange club-house—twice at reccitions given to me, and on, I thlnx, two other occasions--and the re idcnces of perhaps fifteen or twenty of the best citizens to dine, etc. Of course 1 have been to th . church. The, e never was a man. who has woi ked harder or more hours in a day. Almost all my time'hrs beem-pent ln the execu ive chamoer, and I hardly think there have been twenty nigh sin ttao year and nine months I have lived in ARi&tiy, unless > was out of town, that I have left my worK earlier than midnight to find my bed at the mansion, lam at a loss to know how It is that meh terrible, w okod and utterly baseless lies can be invented. The cont mptible creatures who co n and pass these tilings appiar to think that the attair which 1 have not denied makes, me defenseless against any and all slanderers. As to my outwar 1 life in Bmlalo, the manifestation of confidence and attachment will h was t -n----dered me there bv all the citl ens mu-t be proof that I have not lived a disgraceful life in that city, and as to my life in Albany, all statements that tend to show that it has been other than laborious and perfectly correct are utterly and in every shade untrue. Ido not wonder that your good husb nd is perplexed. I honestly think I deslie his gooti opinion more than any aid he is disposed to render me. Ido not w ant him to think any better of me than I iieserve. nor to be deceived. tan n< t 1 manage to see him and tell him «haM can not write? I shall be in New York Wednesday and Thursday mo ning, I suppose, of next week. Thursday afternoon and evening I shall spend in Brooklyn “Having written tds much, it occurs to mo that such a long letter to you is unnecessary and unexpected. It is the most I have ever wiitten.Qn the i-übjfict refi-ned to, and I bee yon to forgive me kind and touching letter has led me into any impropriety, very sincerelv, i, Gro>eu Cleveiand. "I have marked this letter ‘I rhete.’ Y’ou musr. n t infer that I at all doubted your proper use of It. <« A " G. C.” » Than Mr. Bdecher continued: "When m tfae gloomy night of my own sufferings of years gone by I founded every depth of sorrow, 1 towed if God would bring the day star of hope to me,' I would never suffer brother, friend, or neighbor to go untrlend 'd should a Hie serpent seek to crush him. '1 hat oath I’ll regard now, because 1 know the bitterness of venomous lies. I will stand against the Infamous 1 es tha seek to sting to death a man and magistrate worthy of better fare. If I refuse to e . jiose to sl.ame the swiirni of liars that nuxi.lc in the mud or sling arrows at Mr. Cleveland from ambush, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my momh, amta my right hand .orget its cunning. [Tremendous ch< ering J “This mi'ii (.rover C eveiand does not know what dishonesty is. Jim Blaine does, and he has prespere by means of capital derived fro.n it. Judge Davis says that he could not vot; for Grover Cleveland because he had personally snjierintende i the hanging oi a criminal. Dees be infetid us to infer that a man slio< id not be sup, orted who attends str ctly to his duMi s. in whatever capacity? As Mayor ot the city of Buffalo he did his duty. As a rebuke to the mana.' ers of the Republican party, he was < xalted io the lositionof Governor of the Htate. [Applause. Nor has there bee> any opportun ty to criticise hs action since his aws-si-n to the guberm toiial chair. In this position he has been as simile ns a child and as sincere is a saint XM h good common sense and uncommon honesty, th< m h a ze lone Democrat, he has shown that lie loved the State, and country more than party. [Applause.]

While Blaine was bearing votes from grog-shop to grog-shop in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Micuigan, and New York, there Mt in Albany Grover C eveland attending to the duties of his office prefe ring to let the ccun ry employ its own judgment aa to whether he should be cailed up higher. He isn’t acoeptsb e to some Democrat. Why? He is too honest for them. (Applause.] A man of •terliag hon sty is Grover Cleveland. If the Government la te be freed from the dang rs of a itniplnr combination that will endanger its future, Cleveland is the man to do IL [Applause. J They say we don’t wish to leave our party. Would you vote for Two d were he the nominee of your party? The logic of this Is infamous. The man who practices such principles ought not to go home until he has bathed nd cleansed himself thoroughly. To elect Mr. Bum under all the chargee made against him. and under hia hl-torv we published to the world, is to My to every impure man: "No matter what your life, if you get the regn'ar nomimtlon we will put you into the Presidential oLair. ’ Will you teach your children tnat lying is n A a sin? The truth is the cohesive thins whuh holds s ciety together. It is the Lond wide i creates trust between man and man, and to pat Mr. Blaine into the Pre- identtal cha r is to tesoh young men that lying is a foible. Will not such men aa Bay. rd. Thurman. Carlisle, and Lamar do for Cleveland’s cabin-1? Do you prefer that it should be Blaine** cabinet, made up of such characters aa Dorsey, Elkins, Jones, and ths like? How would you lite it to see Jay Gould seated in the chair of the Treasury? If you vote for St. John you vote in the str. If yon vote for Butler yon vote for mnd. If you vote for Cleveland you vote for aa honest man." [Great appiau-e.J When Mr Beecher finished, a mighty cheer for the reform Governor arose from the multitude.