Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1896 — CLEVELAND’S MESSAGE. [ARTICLE]

CLEVELAND’S MESSAGE.

It Wag Written While He V.aj On His “Duet Hunting” Trip. Seattle, W«.L, January 9.—C. P. Ba* her, receiver of the Merchants’ National B nk, of this c.tv, has returned from Washington city and tells an interesting •tory of President Cleveland’s last duckhunting trip and the reason he made it.— i be storv «as told to Mr Baker by one high in Government circles, and is as follows: “I called on the President juit before tb° issue of his Aonezuelan message, and in reg*, d to that there is a little incident th .t is not generally known. Mr. Cleveland s trip w«s not a duck-hunting expedition st all. The story is this: Lord Salisbury had agreed not tom ke it pub he until it was received bv the President of the Uni ed States, Now, Mr. Cleveland absented himself on this dnek-bunt-ing trip so that when Lord Salisbury’s reply arrived.jhe would not be in Washington to officially receive it. In the meantime he did receive it on board the tender Violet, and on board that vessel he got up his famous message, and it went before the world as an answer 8 ili-bury’s repty st the same time as that reply became a public document, Ernest Ju det, one of the leading political writer of France, says: “Since the removal jof Napoleon no man at the head of a government has talked to Great Britain as Grover Cleveland. And even Napoleon never talked as the disinterested friend of a third party. • * • It is no wonder that to European ears the Venezuelan message came as a thunderbolt fiom a clear sky. That the dictator of Europe should be met by a superior diet..tor is the surprise of the generation Jnd the method of the interference is equally unique. A nation to whom the case is not referred for arbitration calmly proposes to decide it, and to enforce its decision. When did the world ever hear of such a thing? It is without a precedent, it is the establishment of a new doctrine in international law. And yet the whole nation supports it. Congress adopts it unanimously. The commission is established by law and given full powers. It has met and organized, and is proceeding to its work. And Great Britain is preparing to put her side of the case beiore t e world by presenting it to parliament, while at the same time she seeks to recpen negotiations with Venezuela. It is a most remarkable result and it h.s been attnined by th© firmness and plain speaking of President Cleveland."

Senator Vest severely arraigned the hypocrisy of the Republican leaders in his recent speech—- “ When the Republicans returned to power in all branches of the government in 1890,” he declared, ironically, "they thought they owned the country. They rested their fate on three niea ures the force bill, which failed, tne McKinley law, and the Sherman law. They went to the people and came back a funeral procession, stamped beneath the feet of popular disapproval. The McKinley law was afterward d nounced by many Republicans; the Sherman law, bastard that it was, was repudiated bv one of its auth. ors. Whatever the Democratic party had dono it had not placed on the statute books a law that it was compelled to go before the country and repudiate.”