Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1888 — TAMMANY’S BIG BRAVES. [ARTICLE]

TAMMANY’S BIG BRAVES.

Cleveland Writes Them a Letter In Which the Tariff I s Touched Upon. The Tammany society of New York, on the 4th inst., celebrated for the one hundredth time the anniversary of the declaration of Independence. The braves assembled in the Academy of Music. In addition to the well-known Tammany chieftains present there occupied seats on the platform as guests Senator Vest of Missouri, Representatives Roger Q. Mills of Texas, Patrick A. Collins of Massachusetts. James B. McCreary of Kentucky, Charles E. Hooker of Mississippi, Benjamin F. Shively of Indiana, Melbourne *H. Ford of Michigan, William McAdoo of New Jersey, Gov. Biggs of Delaware, S. S. Cox, F. B. Spinola. Gen. John Newton. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Maynard and Gen. Fitz-Johu Porter. Many letters of regret were read from distinguished Democrats, including the following; Executive Mansion, I Washington, D. C., June 19, 1888. ( Hon. James A. Flack, Grand Sachem : Deab Sib —I regret that I am obliged to decline the courteous invitation which I have received to attend the celebration by the Tammany Society of the birthday of our Republic on the 4th day of July next. The zeal and enthusiasm with which your society celebrates this day affords proof of its steadfast patriotism, as well as its care for all that pertains to the advantage and prosperity of the people. I cannot doubt that the renewal of a ‘love and devotion to a pure Jeffersonian Democratic form of government’ which you contemplate will suggest the inquiry whether the people are receiving all the benefits which are due them under such a form of government. These benefits are not fully enjoyed when our citizens are unnecessarily burdened and their earnings and incomes are uselessly diminished under the pretext of governmental support. Our government belongs to the people. They have decreed its purposes, and it is their clesr right to demand that its cost shall be limited by frugality and that its burden of expense shall be carefully limited by its actual needs. And yet a useless and dangerous surplus in the National Treasury tells no other tale but extortion on the part of the Govemm nt and a perversion of the people’s intention. In the midst of ourimpetuous enterprise and blin'd confidence in.our destiny it is time to pause and study our ■condition. It is no sooner appreciated than the conviction must follow that the tribute exacted from the people should be diminished. The theories which cloud the subject, misleading honest men, and appeals to selfish interests, which deceive the understanding, make the reform which should be easy a difficult task. Although those who propose a remedy for present evils have always been friends of American labor, and though they declare their purposes to further its interests in all their efforts, yet those who oppose reform attempt to disturb our workingmen by the cry that their wants and their employment are threatened. They advocate a system which benefits certain classes of our citizens at the expense of every householder in the land—a system which breeds discontent, because.'it Iperm its the duplication of wealth without corresponding additional recompense to labor, which prevents the opportunity to work by stifling production and limiting the area of the markets, and which enhances the cost of living beyond the laborer’s hard-earned wages. The attempt is made to divert the attention •of the people from the evils of such a scheme of taxation by branding those who seek to correct these evils as f ,ee-traders and enemies of our workingmen and our industrial enterprises. This is so far from the truth that there should be no chance for such deception to succeed. It behooves the American people, while they rejoice in the anniversary of the day when their free government was declared, to also reason together and determine that they will not be deprived of the blessings and the benefits which their government should afford. Yours, very truly, Gbovkb Cleveland. Speeches were mado by Senator Test, Congressmen Mills, Cox, Collins, McCreary, Hooker, Shively and Maisch, and others.