John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[465] Carlisle as an able man, and always mentioned him with respect, but this did not blind him to the fact that both the speaker and his party were on a road which must end in failure and defeat. His first duty under his repeated declaration of independence as a journalist was clearly to the public and to his own views of public interest. In this connection it is to be noted that throughout both of Cleveland's administrations he was just as independent and aggressive in his criticisms of men and measures as he was throughout both of Grant's. As will be indicated further on, he was frequently right in this, though it is not to be denied that his strictures upon the administration, and upon the measures which it adopted, were so uniformly hostile, and his personal references to Cleveland were frequently so disrespectful, as to subject both him and his newspaper for years to the harshest criticism.

This was emphasized in the public estimation by the fact that Dana had found no noticeable difficulty in giving his unqualified support to General Butler, first for governor of Massachusetts, and second for the presidency of the United States. In both instances his critics claimed that Dana's main purpose was not so much to express his disapproval of the other nominations as it was to witness “the rattling and smashing which would take place among the dry bones” if by any chance Butler should be elected. In this, curious as it may seem, he was far from being alone. It is well known that there were many voters in Massachusetts, and not a few in the country at large, who desired, in the phrase of the day, “to see what the Old Man would do” if called to either of the high offices to which he aspired. When his notable peculiarities were taken into consideration, this desire was perhaps natural enough, but it was difficult to defend it, or to justify the course of the Sun, against the suggestion which was frequently