Fort Worth Daily Gazette

Who Elected Cleveland.

The question as to who elected Cleveland is being discussed and the honor is claimed by various parties and confederations. The printers of New York, 3000 strong, voted against Blaine in a body because Whitelaw Reid's paper, that had been crying for protection to the laboring man, was what is termed 'a rat office,' that is, it did not pay compositors the rates demanded by the printer's union. Three thousand votes were a good number as the matter resulted but they were not enough to elect. Then come the Prohibitionists claiming the honor; then Tammany; then the County Democracy; then Conkling and his stalwarts; then the Reverend Burchard's tirade on Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, and lastly the elements which poured down the aqueous flood in such torrents that it was impossible for the honest Republican voters who live in the rural districts to reach the polls, giving the city Democrats the day to themselves. Of course all these things contributed to the election of a Democratic president, but the chief reason is that the party in power had become so corrupt that they attempted to convert the federal government into a school of iniquity and in its place James G. Blaine, as professor of rascality.

Blaine was known to be impure; his record is sullied by divers and sundry nefarious dealings and while money flowed freely and while every feeling that passion, prejudice or interest could arouse was resorted to, there was yet enough rugged honesty in the American people to arise in their might and overpower the hosts of darkness. It was a close struggle, but the right triumphed and the people are victorious. The lesson should not be forgotten. When a candidate or a party has grown powerful and corrupt it is time the people should displace the one or the other, or both. It will be easier to do so when first discovered than later on when vice has fortified herself in every commanding position. The claims for the honor of electing a president this year should be borne equally by the people who elected him, and not by any faction or party.