Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1888 — THE GOVERNOR'S DISCOURTESY. [ARTICLE]

THE GOVERNOR'S DISCOURTESY.

The President has nominated Leon O. Bailey, of Indianapolis, to be United State district attorney, to succeed E. B. Sellers, resigned. Bailey is not only unfit for the position from a professional point of view, but he is one of the dirtiest and most unscrupulous political sculldudgers to be found in the state of Indiana, — and that is saying a great deal. He is especially offensive to Republicans from the leading part he took during the late campaign, in compiling and circulating the dol-lar-a-day and similar campaign slanders —which no decent democrat could be found to endorse. It is safe to to say that the Senate will make short work of rejecting this unworthy appointment.

The Goodland Herald is badly off in censuring Senator Ingalls for an alleged coarse attack upon the private character of President Cleveland. Senator Ingalls has made no such an attack, but, on the contrary, he has made a very dear and positive denial of Mrs. Whitney’s implied charges that he had been concerned in circulating the scandalous stories in regard to Mr. Cleveland’s private life, which were first given publicity by democrats, at the St. Louis convention. While making his reply to Mrs. Whitney, Mr. Ingalls took occasion to pay the finest tribute to the many excellencies and graces of the President's wife that she has ever received. But he said nothing for or against the President’s pri-

For several years the usual state tax has been 12 cents on each SIOO valuation to meet the ordinary expenses. —The next legislature will be confronted with expenses not ordinary for which they must provide. To finish and furnish three new insane asylums will require $165,000. To complete the payment for the State House $125,000. The school for the feeble minded and Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home will both on a low estimate take $300,000. There are outstanding orders against new asylums for SSO- - Orphans’ Home $25,000 institution for feebed-minded $32,000, and the December collections overdrawn SIOO,OOO. These items are but a sample of what the next legislature will be called upon to look after. It is thought the needed appropriations wi ll exceed by $2,000,000 what a 12 per cent levy will meet

The custom which has long prevailed in pur town, to a greater or less extent, of keeping business houses open on Sundays is one that is almost universally reprehended by the people of the town, and regretted by most of those who have felt obliged, in order to protect their business, to follow the example of their competitors, in this respect. The fact is, so long as two or three business men

selling goodswSunday, the same line of trade >w the example, in defense >wn business. It is thus that if this Sunday s to be diminished to any it extent it must be stopcly. A movement lookrds this result is now on

foot in the town, with good prospects for success. A paper expressing the wish of its subscribers for the cessation of Bunday trading has been circulated and has been signed by nearly all the business men and firms in the town, and of the few who have not signed the paper, several have endorsed the movement and will not stand in the way of its adoption. It is a good move and should, and we believe will, be pressed to a successful termination. Every person is entitled to one day of rest in the week, and for that reason the civil observance of the Sabbath should be insisted upon and enforced.

Figuring and forecasting on the make-up of Mr. Harrison’s cabinet is a very common and at the same time a very harmless amusement among the newspaper brethren, just at this time. It is a pastime in which The Republic can does not teel called upon to indulge extensively. We will say, rnwever, that if Mr. Harrison fol-

ows the exam pl jof -most of his predecessors since Lincoln’s time, and selects one of his advisors rom among his true and long ried friends in his own state, then Ex-governor A. G. Porter is the man who will be chosen. Surely here is no man in the state better fitted than Mr. Porter to occupy a cabinet position, and no one whose choice would call forth so little of jealousy and unfavorable criticism. Neither is there any public man in the state who enjoys in so high a degree the confidence and esteem of people of all parties, nor one whose

add more strength and dignity to that body. Gbv- Porter deserves well of his party, too, and especially for his great and efficient labors in its behalf, during the-late campaign. In short, the more the matter is reflected upon the stronger is the conviction that in no one act can the President-Elect add greater strength to his administration nor do more to please and Strengthen his party in Indiana, than by calling'Gov. Porter to a place in his cabinet.

. There are a good many mighty mean men among the Democratic of them are mean enough and at the same time small and petty enough to have conducted themselves in so spiteful and yet cowardly a manner as did Gov.’ Gray, when asked for the use of the room in the State House, known as the Governor’s parlor, for the public reception to Vice-president elect Morton and wife. The following account of the incident is condensed from the Indianapolis Journal: When the idea of a public reception to Mr. and Mrs. Morton was first broached, it was determined that it should be distinctly nqnpartisan. Mr. Morton was,o no longer a Republican candidate; he was the Vice-president elect of the United’States, so far as the action of the people of the States could invest him with that dignity. The committee appointed at the Board of Trade meeting, with the Mayor at its head, and with two prominent and courteous Democrats as members, worked faithfully and successfully to make the reception at once a fitting compliment to Mr. Morton and a credit to the people of Indianapolis. This committee thought it better that the reception should be held in the State Capitol, if possible; and it being feared that to have the receiving party, with Mr. Morton, who was already suffering from a cold, stand in the corridor during the whole evening might expose them to drafts, the use of the Governor’s parlor, simply for Mr. Moi ton and party, was deemed wise, the people to* pass into the room from the corridor through

one door and out through the other. Governor Gray was waited on by the committee, and presented with the request The Governor received it churlishly, tapped his fingers bn the rim of his chair, and said that the matter had come to him so “suddently” that he could not make up t his mind at once. He would have to think about it There were prop-

rieties that would have to be observed; Mr. Morton was not in office yet, etc. Governor Gray said he would think over the matter and give the committee an answer next day, an hour being agreed upon for the second visit This gives substantially the language m which Governor Gray received the committee at the first meeting, and shows the manner in which he understood and treated the request for the use of the executive parlors. The next day the committee waited upon him again, according to the engagement he had himself made, only to find that he gone to Logansport, leaving no word with his private secretary. At first Mr. Pierre Gray gave the impression that he knew nothing of the matter, but it soon became evident that he and his rather had ialked together, and a line of aciion agreed upon, which was simpy non-action —saying neither yes nor no. The committee thereupon withdrew, and the reception was ixed for Tomlinson Hall, where it was so handsomely successfully carried out.

These are the facts, and they tell their own story, There was no question raised of the eligibility of the Governor’s rooms for the purpose; none about the size of the doois; none as to the sacredness of the executive ink-stand and paper weights, which Governor Gray now fears might have been broken or stolen in the throng. None of these things were hinted at. Had the Governor frankly and courteously offered the use of the rooms, discussion of details would have been proper and necessary, and, after all, it might have been found better not o have attempted their use. But jnvernor Gray received the request in a boorish spirit, and the evident purpose of treating the Republican Vice-presiden-elect with a discourtesy which some Indiana democrats alone can display. The incident was ’ a fitting sequel to the disgraceful campaign proceeding the election, conducted under the nominal direction of “Si” Sheerin, Charles L. Jewett and Ed Gould, but which was really managed and directed by Gov. Isaac P. Gray. The Democratic' canvass in Indiana was a Gray canvass, and the refusal of of the use of the parlors for a reception of the Republican Vice-president-elect, in company with the President-elect, was an exhibition of Gray Democracy.