Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1904 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Oosslp of the National Capitol. -Special Correspondence to The Democrat: Tho President’s speech of acceptance at Oyster Bay is received tiere with varied emotions. It is thought by his champions to be comprehensive, complete and unanswerable. Democrats, on the other fiand, consider it the first speech of the kind ever delivered by an American president —that is, the first speech of acceptance devoted, in every paragraph, to eulogizing his own party and denouncing tlie opposition. In it the President says, “We are striving to do our work in the spirit with which Lincoln approached his,” but Senator Daniel, who was in the city yesterday, calls attention to the fact that Lincoln’s acceptance of his second nomination, like Washington’s, was carefully nonpartisan; and that even McKinley’s address of acceptance spoke of his opponents with respect and indulged in no such rancor as is heard in the utterance of the Rough Rider of Oyster Bay. Concerning the rash surgical operation whereby the Panama veriform appendix was slashed from the vitals of Colombia he says “We conducted the negotiations with the nicest and* most scrupulous honor,’’ which is certainly the construction of an executive euphemism whose delicacy has seldom been equaled.

t t t Grover Cleveland is making a creditable effort to solve the conundrum, “What shall we do with onr ex-Presidents?” It has been suggested that every man who has been president ought thereafter to be ex-officio a member of the Senate, but objections to that transfer have been raised which are difficult to overcome. Washington went back to his farming and fox-hunt-ing; John Adams carried his dignity back to his old estate; Jefferson wrestled with his detractors and his debts; Monroe kept -himself alive by traveling as a bookagent; John Quincy Adams greatly enlarged his fame by becoming a member of the House of Representatives; Grant lived precariously Biid imperiled his good name by getting tangled up in Wall Street. Cleveland is the first of ex-Presi-dents to enhance and magnify his fame by becomiug a literature and publicist—by officiating as a

University lecturer and enlightening the public as a contributor to magazines and controverted matters of national concern. This is a highly honorable position; no service could be more useful; and it is a work to which most presidents are competent. Every expresident has an enormous clientele enabling him to win a large revenue from colleges and periodicals, and at the same time confer a lasting benefit upon the whole people of the country. Mr. Cleveland is entitled to gratitude for having courageously helped to solve a difficult problem. ft t

The unanimous election of Thomas Taggart of Indiana as chairman of Democratic National Committe helps to clear a cloudy sky. As Parker earned his first money as a janitor and Davis as a brakeman, there is a certain propriety in selecting as their manager a real Irishman who earned his first quarter of a dollar behind the lunch counter. It seems to complete the Democratic triumvirate. From dissecting sandwiches Taggart has risen to the proprietorship of several large hotels, and besides being rich is immensely popular. He is a blonde, blue eyed athlete, and he shakes hands as if you were his long lost brother. He is gifted with the same fian-Indiana smile which Schuyer Colfax had, and he vigorously embraces every acquaintance with “Good-morning, brother!” He has an immense outfit down at the French Lick, the Monte Carlo of the West, which spouts a gey-ser-the Pluto-that congested Kentuckians quaff to get rid of their superflous mountain dew by turning themselves inside out. Taggart has twisted Indianapolis round his fingers a good many times, and if he shows the same ability to handle Indiana, he can go into the Cabinet or be minister to Ireland if he prefers it. On Tom’s broad shoulders vast responsibility is laid. t t t

Senator Gorman was in the city to-day and expresses himself as very anxious about Indiana. He expects to carry Maryland and looks to Mr. Davis to hand over West Virginia. Hemenway’s district in Indiana was formerly Democratic, but bus recently gone Republican by a small majority. Taggart is expected to wipe out that majority and send into exile

the present chairman of the Appropriation Committee. Senator Gorman laughs derisively at the suggestion that Kentucky may go Republican. He says, “Well, I suppose Texas may.” t t t Some prominent Eastern Democrats regard Illinois as not beyond the possibility of captnre. The big Chicago strike with probability of indefinite continnanpe, will accentuate Republican troubles in the Western oampaign. If Chicago goes Democratic by only fifteen or twenty thousand, the state will probably be safe for Roosevelt, but if the labor unions, excited and instigated by strikes, boycotts, lockouts, and blacklists, should raise the city majority to forty or fifty thousand, Mr. Cortelyou’s folks would be a good deal worried.