Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1889 — DAZED BY THE RESULT. [ARTICLE]

DAZED BY THE RESULT.

DEEP GLOOM PREVAILS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Little Ben Harrison Says He Didn’t Do It, Uncle Jerry Rusk Calls It a Johnstown, and the Man with the Guillotine Cries “Fraud.” [Washington special.] The Harrison administration is in a laze. It was knocked into a state of consternation by yesterday’s upheaval. It was not till this afternoon that the full extent of the disaster dawned upon the leading Republican officials. Virginia they gave up early in the morning and also New York, but Ohio they clung to as a drowning man to a straw. When at last they were compelled to let go, and in addition to have the flood made a deluge by the great tide from lowa, their feelings were aptly expressed by Secretary Rusk, who said: “We are Johnstown. The dam has broken." Not so many callers were at the executive mansion to-day. Senators and Congressmen with favors to ask thought this anything but a propitious moment for presenting their requests. Those who did call found the President in a state of mind. Mr. Harrison is too cold and impassive to show much of the disappointment under which he was laboring. But his manner was more sharp and testy than usual and his callers were glad to finish their business and get away as soon as possible. Among the visitors was Senator Sawyer, of Wisconsin. The Senator, with the best of intentions, thought to make a jest about the election and endeavor to laugh the President into a better humor, but in about five minutes Mr. Sawyer was sorry he had broached the subject at all. His facetious remarks appeared to jar upon the nerves of the President like a buzz-saw upon a bundle of splinters. Mr. Harrison turned upon the fat and happy Senator a look which put an abrupt end to the effort to be facetious. One of the Illinois Congressmen entered the President’s library just as Mr. Sawyer was leaving, and he said that the Wisconsin statesman was most completely sat down uron. Later in the day the President sent for the best politician in the ranks of his official servants, First Assistant Postmaster General Clarkson. The two went riding together for a couple of hours. By this time the President had somevhat recovered his equanimity, but was not able entirely to conceal his chagrin. Notwithstanding the statement given out at the White House as coming from him, to the effect that he does not regard the defeat of the party as invo ving the administration, it is known that he does look upon the result in New York as a direct rebuke to his party leadership. He said as much to several of his callers during the day. Though he ascribed the result in Virginia, Ohio and lowa to local causes, he is net able to deceive himself with the same argument as to New York.

A pi eminent Republican who had a long talk with the President to-day says he is quite sure Air. Harrison doesnot appieciate the significance of the elec-, turns, “he does not realize the blow which has fallen upon him,” said this gentleman. “It is the opinion of a large majority of Republicans with whom I have talked that this election means a single term for Mr. Harrison; that his name is not to be considered in the next Republican nominating convention. It means that the Republican party has a crisis to face, and that its future largely depends upon its ability to do something nt the approaching session of Congress which will regain the confidence of the country. But I have no sort of idea that a consciousness of the situation has dawned upon the President. The envelope of* conceit, self-sufficiency and confidence in the Lord which surrounds him has not been penetrated even by this extraordinary disaster.” Said. another prominent Republican, a Western Congressman of more than ordinary influence and acumen: “This election emphasizes the unpopularity of the President. The men of the Republican party who make the party, who carry on its campaigns and win its victories, are disgusted with the President’s selfishness and lordliness. They do not care whether the party wins or loses. To their indiffeience, as well as to adverse local causes, must be ascribed the Waterloo of yesterday. ” An effort is now being made to have it appear that the administration is not responsible for Mahone. It was given out at the White House that the President does not take the responsibility for the little brigadier’s candidacy, but holds that whatever assistance and support he gave Mahone was not more than he would have given any nominee of the party. Mahone was in no sense personally his candidate. The facts are, as stated by a member of the Cabinet to-night: “Mr. Harrison’s disappointment over Virginia was greater than his regret for all the other phases of the great disaster. He had set his heart on breaking the solid South and he had a foolish sentiment about having it done in his ancestral State of Virginia. He did not like Mahone very well, but he was very, very eager for Mahone’s success. He gave Mahone everything he asked for, and would have given him more if there had been more to give. It is not true, however, that Mahone had a lot of money to spend in his fight. Besides what he raised himself in Virginia, he had about SIO,OOO from the outside, and not more than that. As it turns out no amount of money could have saved him, though $50,000 would have reduced McKinney’s majority one-half.” An evening paper publishes the following statement, which, it is understood, is authorized: “The President does not regard the defeat of the Republican party in Virginia, Ohio, and lowa as involving the administration. While he is, of course, sorry that that the result is as it is, he is not surprised. The result in lowa he attributes to the temperance issue and to the unpopularity of one of the candidates with‘the farmers. He does not take the responsibility for Mahone’s candidacy in Virginia, but holds whatever assistance and support he gave Mahone was not more than he would have given any nominee of the party. Mahone was in no sense personally his candidate. He attributes the result in Ohio to the opposition of the voters on general principles to the election of any man to an office for a third term. He regards it as a protest against a third term for Foraker

i and against the idea in general of a third term. Redoes not feel th*t the voters were passing a verdict upon the national administration." It is impossible to picture the demoralization into which the Republican cohorts have been thrown by the upheaval. They have no opinion to express for publication, but in private they agree that Harrison’s fate will be that of Hayes. First Assistant Postmaster General Clarkson, in giving his views regarding Tuesday’s election, said; “The invariable results of the year following Presidential election have repeated themselves this year. There are surprises in the Republican defeats, but they come from local causes in every State except Virginia, and there the result was gained by the usual methods of fraud, suppression, and false counting. “The causes operating in Ohio and lowa were largely the same—evidently and mainly a reaction against radical temperance and Sunday legislation. This year’s results are in the main simply increased evidences of the indisposition of a majority of the American people to accept prohibition and too radical legislation on questions that are moral and social rather than political.”