Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1884 — WILL VOTE FOR BLAINE. [ARTICLE]

WILL VOTE FOR BLAINE.

Mr. W. J. GleAson, Chairman of the Cleveland Democratic Central Comrpittee, A Life-Long Democrat and a Prominent Irishman, Tenders His Resignation, ' ‘ '/„ ' ■ ’ <£ And Addresses an Open Letter to James G. Blaine Giving Reasons for His Change of Views. ’ FFxom the Cleveland Herald.] Mr. W. J. Gleason, ever since the day he casthis first ballot, has been one of the most prominent Irish Democrats in the city. He was a delegate to all the Irish-American conventions that have been held in this country since 1866* Last Sunday he was elected delegate to the coming Boston .convention. He is State delegate to the Irish National League, and President of the Parnell Branch of this city. He is Secretary Of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors’ Union, Chairman of the Monument Committee, and Secretary of the Library Board. With four exceptions he was a candidate to every Democratic county and State convention for twenty, years, and permanent Secretary of four Democratic State conventions under such men as Senator Thurman and Senator Pen die ton. He was Chairman of the Parnell reception, the largest Irish demonstration ever held in Cleveland, and Chairman of the Emmet centennial celebration. All positions he ever held were offices requiring executive ability and experience; they -were all positions of trust and honor, not one cent of compensation being attached to any of the offices either in the past or present, unless the usual compensation of votes of thanks are taken into - consideration. Immediately after taking this step of resignation from the committee, Mr. Gleason addressed the following open letter to the Republican candidate for the Presi- '

Cleveland, Ohio, July 21, 1884.— The Hon. James G. .Blaine—Dear Sik: As a lifelong Democrat and as an Irish-American permit me to congratulate you on your nomination for President of the United States by the Republican National Convention. Your bri»'nt record as a statesman, your earnest and scholarly advocacy of the principles of the Republican party, fully entitled you to the high and honorable recognition you have so enthusiastically received at the hands of your party. Your unflinching, patriotic, and gallant record in defense of the rights of American citizens, of native or foreign birth, at home and abroad, is worthy of the gratitude, the respect, and support of every man who loves his country better than his party. The Republican party in National Convention assembled acted generously toward the men of my race. That party is not under many obligations to the Irish race in this country, speaking from a political standpoint, and their action is therefore the more commendable. It must be admitted that they did only the right thing. Yet it is generous to do the right thing at the request of those-to whom a party owes nothing. Under all the existing circumstances, and taking your record and candidacy into consideration, the Irish-Ameri-cans cannot consistently and will not any longer wear a Democratic party collar. It is a well-known fact that the Irish-Americans have -marched in nearly solid column under the Democratic banner for the last twenty-four years to local victories occasionally, but to national defeats regularly. In sunshine and shadow, when all other classes wavered, the Irish-Americans, as a body, have been loyal Democrats; and this, too, in the face of the fact that they have been repeatedly stabbed in the back by the bigoted members of the Democratic party. Your nomination, however, coming as it did from the people, your record as a liberal-minded American, your antecedents, the of John A. Dogan, your gallant, brave, and chivalrous copatriot on the ticket; have sSt my couptrymen to thinking for themselves. Under your magnetic leadership, particularly with reference to your grand Americanism and the rights to foreign-born citizens, the hitherto solid Democratic IrishAmerican army will be badly shattered, if not entirely disbanded. Gratitude is one of the strongest characteristics of the Irish race. As an Irishman by birth, and proud of it; an American by choice, and glorying in it, and sjreaking for a large number of the leading and thinking men ot my race in this country, we owe you a debt of gratitude for breaking and casting to the winds the old moss-covered shibboleth, "Once a British subject always a British subject.” Of what earthly use is any Government that does not jealously protect the rights of its citizens at home and abroad ? None! Your broad and comprehensive American statesmanship has struck a responsive chord in the hearts of every native and adopted citizen of this free and glorious country. A firm believer in America for the Americans, and the perpetuation oljts free institutions, I appreciate the freedom we here enjoy. In common with my countrymen the world over, I will write, speak, work, and earnestly agitate at all suitable times and places fpr the same blessing ot freedom for the green isle beyond the sea, the beautiful land of my nativity. In conferences with a largo number of my countrymen in this city and State, and in correspondence with scores of them from all parts of the Union, since your nomination, especially among the boys who wore the blue during the late unpleasantness (having personally had that honor as a volunteer private soldier, from Ohio, in the Union army at 17 years Of age), the aggregate ®f opinion, I found, is crystallizing in your favor —the gentlemen to whom I refer having been hitherto leading and working Democrats in their respective locaUtles. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. The planks of the Republican platform relative to the "duty of our Government to protect the rights ami promote the interests of our own people; protection to American industry; the establishment of a National Bureau of Labor; the enforcement of the eight-hour law; the public lands a heritage of the people of the United States for actual settlers in small holdings; opposition to the acquisition of large tracts of lands by corporations or individuals, especially where such holdings are in the hands of nonresidents and aliens; liberal pensions to disabled Union soldiers and sailors, and the widows and orphans of those who died in the war; the restoration of the navy to its old-time strength and efficiency; the people of the United States, in their organized capacity, constitute a nation, and not a mere confederacy of States; a free ballot, ap honest count, and a correct return; the passage ot such legislation as will secure to every citizen, of whatever race or color, the full and complete recognition, possession and exercise of all civil and political rights,” appeals to the national pride, the sound judgment, the wisdom and support of every thinking, patriotic, independent, fair-minded American citizen. THE JANUS-FACED DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. The platform of principles ot the Democratic party, where it speaks plain, simply continues that organization where it has been for the last twenty-four years as the opposition party. The main section of the declaration of principles, however, is, as usual, made up of shuffling cowardice, Janus-faced professions, intentionally deceptive, the creation of non-producing theorists, who are more interested in their pet hobbies than in the building up and continued growth of the industries of the country. On the substantial, living issues that interest the people of the United States the platform of the Democracy is all things to all men, and bears no certain sound to any one. It is, therefore, undeserving of the support of all citizens who admire honesty and candor in public matters as well as in the every-day affairs of life. THE MONOPOLIST CLEVELAND. When a universally recognized statesman and a leader of the old guard that has kept the Democratic flag nailed to the masthead the last quarter of a century, like Allen G. Thurman, is set aside, through the machinations ot the most corrupt and despicable gang of monopolistic conspirators and political pirates that ever purchased a Senatorship or scuttled the Democratic ship, because he was a fitting representative of all that had been pure in Democracy and had a record on the side of the masses of the people, for an untried accident, a creature of circumstances, a willing tool of monopolists like Cleveland, it is high time that the heretofore faithful old Democratic guard, wno have had notice served upon them that their services are no . longer required, should vigorously repudiate the cheap pygmy that has been forced upon them by the coal-oil Johnnies and Olivers of the SAaodard Oil ring. All of the pld ’, uard, who prfa# square dealing above hypocrisy, brain more than matter, the interests of the whole people more than the abject tO 'l of the monopolists, should work and vote against a man who was placed in Reinitiation th catch a half-dozen Independent Republican dudes, one two-hundred-dollar-a-night kicker dike Schurz), one preacher advocate of bread and water for workingmen (Beecher), one imported English caricaturist.

the English press, and English free-trade sympathizers. « Very cheap raw material may be sometimes used sot Mayors ot cities, and occasionally in tidal wave years for Governors of states, as can be safely interred without going a thousand miles away from home, but the enlightened people of this grand republic will not elevate to the highest office within their gift an enemy of the Workingmen, a bigoted accident, a willing and subservient tool of grasping monopoly that has been put up as the figure-head of the party by the National Democratic Convention. Wnen bigotry becomes patriotism, when deception Is, preferred to truth, when mediocrity overshadows ability, then, and not till then, will the people of this country elect a nonentity like,Cleveland over a brainy, gifted statesmen like Blaine. In 1776, 1812. and from 1861 to 1865 England remonstrated that she did not admire the growth, freedom, and unity in the United States. Perfidious Albion’s 700 years of unrelenting persecution and tyranny over Ireland shows her hatred for the unconquered and unconquerable people ofthe Green Isle. ALL THE BRITISH PRESS ADVOCATING CLEVELAND. It is only necessary to add that every English Celt-hating journalfavors the Democratic candidate, Cleveland. Every Celt-hating English journal opposes the Republican candidate, Blaine. It is a safe rule for every’ man of Irish descent or liberty-loving sympathies to favor whatever or whoever the mouthpieces ot English tyTanny oppose. That there was a steady, persistent, ill-concealed determination on the part of the Democratic convention to ignore and treat with contempt every one and everything that had even a semblance of justice, favor, or concession to the Irish-American element is a recognized fact. When the ides ot November roll around the Irish-American element can by the potency of its ballots silently but emphatically resent the issue and assert the dignity of its manhood. OPPOSED TO DEMOCRATIC FREE-TRADE DOCTRINE. The Democratic free-trade doctrine, as advocated by a two-thirds majority of Democratic Congressmen, reasserted as a rallying cry in the Democratic platform, means the decadence of America, the building up of English manufacturers, the reduction of the wages of American workingmen to the level of the pauper labor of Europe, the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few to the detriment of the many, the creation of an aristocracy and the consequent degrading of American manhood, the turning of the wheels of American progress backward, never-ending labor, destruction of our industries for the momentary gratification of petty theorists and English sympathizers. Under the teachings of the Republican party, as contended for nearly unanimously by its representatives in Congress, and as is squarely set forth in that party’s<national platform, protection to American industry, the splendid growth of our country will continue; America will have a prosperous, intelligent, self-reliant people, homes tor the workingmen, competition in trade; the workman of to-day with the ambition and opportunity to become the employer to-morrow; the more equal distribution of the results of labor, the continuance of the independent, defiant, manly spirit that characterizes every sovereign American citizen. MERELY A PUTRID REMINISCENCE. In the light of recent events the Democratic party can only take pride in its ancient glories. If the spirits of the illustrious dead could return to this terrestrial sphere, what a feeling ofindignation would be expressed by. Jefferson and Jackson, the founders of the Democratic party, to see their mantle on the shoulders of a man whose only title to distinction is the name of the beautiful city he bears. The Republican party, true to its patriotlcliistory, has proven itself equal to the living present and hopeful future of our magnificent country. For fifteen out of the last twenty ye:<rs the writer hereof has been Chairman or Secretary of the Cuyahoga County and City of Cleveland Democratic Committees. Immediately after writing this letter, and prior to its publication, I called a meeting of the Democratic City Committee, and tendered my resignation to the Chairman, in order that I ..might honorably support the principles and men that appeal to the best impulse of. every independent, patriotic citizen. It will afford me special gratification in the ensuing election, as a matter of consistency, to cast my first Republican vote for Blaine and Logan, the true representatives of American supremacy. The Republican party, by its platform and candidates, has shown its Ability to keep up with the march of progress; of its determination to stand fully abreast of the unparalleled growth and increasing intelligence of our country. The principles of the Republican party, as enunciated ih Its platform, as well as its standard-bearers, place our immortal Stars and Stripes high above all other flags on the globe, and guarantee to every lover of liberty that America’s charming banner, borne aloft by an intelligent, free, united people, will maintain its proud and well-earned position as the grandest emblem that represents the most prosperous and powerful nation that the glorious sunlight of heaven shines upon. Very respectfully, William J. Gleason.