The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

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THE STORY OF "THE SUN"

at first it considered the President too mild and conciliatory in matters of foreign policy, it praised him and
his Secretary of State, Richard Olney, for their stand
against Great Britain in the Venezuela boundary dispute; praised them just as heartily as it had condemned
Mr. Cleveland's earlier action in the Hawaiian matter,
when the President withdrew the treaty of annexation
which his predecessor had sent to the Senate.
The Sun's most deadly weapon, ridicule, was constantly in play in the years of the Hawaiian complications. It found vulnerable spots in Mr. Cleveland's
re-establishment of the deposed Queen Liliuokalani and
in the President's sending of a commissioner-" Paramount" Blount, as the Sun called him-without the
advice and consent of the Senate. As jealous then as
it is to-day of any raid by the Executive upon the Constitution or the powers of Congress, the Sun had the
satisfaction of a complete victory in the Hawaiian
matter.
On the other hand, the Sun applauded Mr. Cleveland's attitude on the money question and his brave
stand against the mob in the Chicago railway strikes of
1894, when the President used troops to prevent the
obstruction of the mails by Eugene V. Debs and his
followers.
Dana was seventy-seven years old when William J.
Bryan-whom the Sun had already immortalized as the
Boy Orator of the Platte-was nominated for the Presidency in 1896, but the veteran editor went at the task
of exposing the free-silver fallacy with the same blithe
vigour that he had shown twenty years before. His
opinion, printed in the Sun of August 6, 1896, is a good
example of Dana's clear style:
The Chicago platform invites us to establish a currency which will enable a man to pay his debts with