Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1888 — VILAS’ VOICE UPLIFTED [ARTICLE]

VILAS’ VOICE UPLIFTED

POWERFUL SPEECH BY THE BECBETABY OF THE INTERIOR. The Administration Declares Itself to the Northwest An Answer to the Enemies of Cleveland and the Friends of the Tariff. [Milwaukee special.] The administration spoke to the Northwest on Wednesday night. Secretary Vilas was its eloquent medium, and an ample occasion was furnished by the convention of the Democrats of Wisconsin, flushed with the consciousness of having nominated a candidate of uncommon strength and therefore e igtr for the fray. The occasion was thus invested with unusual imporitance. Thousands of the tariff-ridden and tariffhating people of Wisconsin looked to the Secretary of the Interior for an almost oracular utterance, breathing a promise of relief. Nor were they disappointed. Mr. Vilas never appeared in better form than when he faced his hearers in the great hall. His speech is hero considered the master effort of bis life. He began with dignity, sustained himself with spirit, and closed in a burst of irresist’ble eloquence. His speech, though of great length, lost no point of interest to the close. After some preliminary remarks Mr. Vilas said substantially: I invite you to contrast the conditions, the principles and professions of the great opposing parties in this contest, and the promise for the future afforded by them respectively. What is the Republican party of to-aay and wherein is it better or more worthy of confidence than it was in 183 i? It was in the beginning more a popular uprising than a political party. It found ■ origin and quickening power in the high appeal of justice and tenderness for human brethren in • oppression, an 1 in the honest zeal of deep conviction its following was well nigh fanatical. It was a crusade against a great national sin ; and it fell upon the time appointed of heaven for the .purification of the Republic by fire. So it rose to rapid power like the whirlwind, and like the . whirlwind it swept its course of destructive 1 though wholesome violence. Within a decade i the evil which had engendered its being was ' more than destroyed; it was deracinated as by i dynamite, and the lon I wai strewn with the • tn ghty wreck, where, in fantastic chaos, lay States, constitutions and peoples amid the wid?- i flung havoc of war. That was the logical period ■ of the party's existenca. It stool upon or i possessed no doctrines of government, no principles for the guidance of the insti- i turions of freedom in the repose of ! peace. It was not national, but sectional; a 1 party for civil war, not for national fraternity. | But the heart of a victorious people was in its grasp, and the rage of war was long unspent. The party retained unslackened control of ail l legislation and taxation, with all their possibilities of fraudulent gain. It was the opportunity of opportunities for the political freebooter. There lay the carcass, and there tie keen-scented birds of prey were soon gathered together. The Republican party was not in origin the party of ■tiro rich or the aristocratical. Its vanguard was the persecuted abolitionists, its mission was to i redeem the lowly slave, and its appeal was to j the poor and humble rather than to the rich and high. But the eye and nose of graad never fail, nor , ever its insatiate thirst relents. Even in the darkest days of the mighty life-struggle of the nation, when every thought was agonizingly bent anil every muscle tense in the fearful strain •of war, even while the drench of our brothers' blood was yet undrunk by the sated earth, tho agents of personal an I confederated avarice, darkly moving behind the scenes, gave con- 1 etantly the skillful tuin to private grin of meas- > ures for the proscution of the war.

R >b’»ery on a G gantic Sc ile. And never for cne moment did they suspend their efforts nor spare the exhausted ]>eoplo. ! Upon one pretext and another, from almost the ■ earliest grasp of Republican dominion, coiruption began its work and schemes for dishonest enrichment of the few to prevail. It was in 1862 that, pursuing the sentiment that national defense required a transcontinental highway, the Pacific Railroad legislation began ; and in 1864 that, with unrelenting ingenuity. it was so amended to diabolical perfection that, the Government really built the roads, and i •gave them, with land enough for an empire, to 1 the successful conspirators. Then, also, the ' earliest act for laying taxes, and afterward, with i a greed tha‘ heightened with each new gluttony, every revenue measure was perverted and distojfced by ingenious touche?, imperceptible to any but the practi.-'d eye, by which a private tiioute was extorted from the people five times greater than the tax that went to the Treasury. Then it was that the monstrous vampire hidden in the tariff, which seductively fans with the wrings of protection the laborer whose heart's Wood it sucks, was begotten in sin to rob the toiling producers in the fields and forests of the wealth they create. And when war had ceased, a great people, with its coffers unlocked and its resources exposed, lay before the spoiler, while in the exhaustion of struggle and the heat of rage national guardiansnip was gone. Then followed such a seizure of the national wealth by various devices, so rapacious, *> gigantic, so ingenious in the methods by which the grasp was laid, as liai never been exhibited i i history. Nothing is comparable to it but India under Warren Hustings. Other nations have been despoiled by conquerors in the open force of unlicensed conquest; this people was robbed by the devilish manipulation of its -own legislation and agencies of administration in the bands of i s supposed friends. You kn >w ■ this story; at least so much as has been brought I to open light—par. only of tbe shameful whole. ■ fiixty-five million dollars stand in your stated public debt to-day to the account of the Pacific Railroad loan as the ouen share of plunder's farreaching rascality levied o:i a coming generation. The broad expanse of the public domain, gained under Democratic administrations and designed for the numerous homesteads of independent pioneers, you have seen granted to corporations i y principalities in area, or delivered to the pets of partisan power to become the estate of landed lords where some Elkins may ■ rqvel in sudden wealth. Obstruction and Misrepresentation, You may define their party policy of the lust three years in two words—obstruction and misrepresentation. It has manifested but a single purpose—to prevent to the utmost the accomplis! iment of every measure of reform which might do a great service to the people, lest •thereby the Democratic party, or Grover Cleveland, the creator of its terror, gain new credit •■with them. And as it has opposed these msasvuros, so well nigh every man striving to promote tgreat public interests his been the object of their incrimination and sander, brought forward and propagated with a skill beyond the compass of d.csnt honesty to comprehend, cither in motive or metho 1. Dor the personal slanders let us pass them by. The man who cannot sustain that condition of public life cun me ver achieve much good for his fellow-men in ithis land of vocal license. But with official obstruction to measures for •their benefit the people have everything to do; ana to the extent of its official power the Republican party, during the last three years, has mre--closed all claim to mercy or relief from their former condemns ion. The hour is too short, ■my theme too full, for the numerous instai ces - of proof to support this’accusation. Look at the . Senate’s dealings with Chief Justice Fuller—an i honorable gentleman, learned, pure, able. The ■Judiciary Committee of the Senate of the United State admits anpnymous slander as an accusation against him, and for months suspends a nomination which dignity and justice required ■to be approved in almost as many days. Why? Was not the mean suggestion alluring to any ' Senator, that perhaps the election might enab o ithe Democrats to be defeated? Was it the rising popular shame and indignation which finally -extorted confirmation? x Let me consider briefly another illustration. "What was the matter with the fisheries treaty that it should have been rejected? An old, longstanding cause of quarrel, so d fficult of satisfactory adjustment that when the treaty of independence was framed it was passed by untouched, lest it should wreck negotiation ; which was but half-settled by the treaty of 1818; whicu • has been a continual bone of snarling and con- . tention ever since ; which the Republican Commissioners so dealt with in the treaty of Washington so as to inflict national injury, almost humiliation, upon us, and which now threatens to interrupt our relations, and more by wounds of feeling than adequate substantial injury to deetroy the privileges and prosperity of our peace. Wnat was tbe matter, again, I say, with the fisheries treaty ? Repeatedly Republican Senut- - ors were challenged to point out what they ■wanted otherwise, what provisions should be changed, what new stipulation interposed for the advantage or protection of our people. Repeatedly they were urged to present amendment or suggestion of amendment, and at least to exercise the Senate's constitutional prerogative to '“advise’’ the President if at first they could not -ooxiaw : ‘ Not a word would they either offer or

i accept They simply stood to carp and cavil, striving to stir up prejudice to the political dis- ; advantage of the President, now enshrined in the : hearts of the people. What, then, was the mu- , ter with the fisheries treaty? It-ria an eaav i answer. The truth need not be blinked. Had that treaty gone into effect it would have coml>osed the difference sbstween this country, I Great Britain, and Canada. Carp at it and cavil at it as they may, they know full well its practical operation woull have been such tha:, with dignity and honor to the United States. ■ the differences that have disturbed us so long ; would have disappeared. That was the ob- ' jection. The Secretary of Stat ian i his associates made a convention with England which would have done an excrilleut service to the people of this country if tha Senate had ratified it. That was the matter with the flsharies treaty. And th’s is Republican policy? The Democracy they revile], the bugaboo' of their political propincv, hid again shown capacity to govern, ' to uego iate with skill. A national bensfit that comes burdened with credit to Democratic Government cannot be accepted; the terms are too hold for a Republican Senate ; this is more than i “true faith and allegiance to the Constitution' j can bear. Nor docs tho spirit of obstruction rei lent or relax when their own ac ini is accepted, j No sooner did the President, having exhausted I every friendly resource, set out to avail himself : of the most efficient means of retaliation than i again he encountered obstruction instead :of receiving co-operation. Is it possible ■ that the country's honor and interests can- ; not command their official help against the dic- ■ tates of party opposition? This is the quesi lion the people will put to the majority of the , Senate.

But it seems to me that we in the Northwest must send another question to the Senators chosen here, whom we may rightfully ask to consider our interests. A moment’s glance at the map, a moment’s reckoning of our border business interests, and tho utility to Western Tinners of Canadian competition in transportation to and from the seaboard, suffices to show that the entire fish catch of a year is but a trifle in comparison with the volume of our Western dealings to be injured by an embargo on intercourse with Canada. Why, then, did Western Senators vote to compel retaliation by embargo? And now, when the President, carefully surveying the opportunities, seeks a means to press most severely upon our unfriendly neighbor with least resulting harm at, home, they are still to continue to be led by their party autocrats of New England and needlessly sacrifice the West? Let the embargo fall first on the supplies of Canada. The object of it is to tsach that country the evil aud the folly of neighborly injustice, in the hope they will cease inflicting it upon us. Effective severity is the essential of tho lesson. The President studies the situation and discerns the way to administer the wholesome discipline. Shut off their supplies through European importation and leave the borders unharmed! It was the blow that Grant, with military sagacity, propose l when in the Presidential chair, it proposes to do the work. True, it will fall most heavily on northern New England. But there, too, lies the entire interest which has provoked the necessity, and it is but just the.burden should be heaviest where all the benefit is to be enjoyed. Th ) Northwest will ind -cd never set its interests be’ore the honor of the nation. When the hour of that necessity shall arrive, if over—aud may heaven avert its coming—this loyal region, over faithful to the Union, will cry to the nation's head: “Strike, strike, and spare not; our country first and for ever!”

But why should our Senators have refused posti’onsment of the treaty’s const leration until election fevers cooled? Why now refuse the keenest weapon of effective ’retaliation? Is their allegiance to “the uncrowned king” of the Republican party, with his railroads and his trusts, paramount to their duty to their Nor.hwestem countrymen? “Oh,” say some, inspired bv the fishery trade, “put the embargo on Cana linn fish !” That is indeed the policy of latter-day Republicanism! Put the honor of ihe country to the use of favored pockets! “Re.aliate, indeed, but just enough to let us make our countrymen pay us more for fish!” Not so dees the President deal with national honor. If it is wronged, the wrong is deep aud grievous, and tho remedy shi ll be potential an 1 the relress ample. Is he right, fellow-citizens? Such is the Republican par.y; no longer vitalized by a national purpose, but decaying to dissolution,’a mere obstruction to i.a.ional progress. What new measure, what new policy does it offer to the people? Do they see no ev its pressing harmfully upon thn laborers of the countiy and retarding ths growth of our prosperity? What redress do they p-opo.so? Can you name any new measure suggested even in that instrument of spacious profession, their platform? Yes, they make two proposals, both in the same interest, and pre-eminently characteristic. Realizing the enormous overburden of unnecessary taxation, now that economy and care have again made the postal service selfsustaining, they would strite off one-half the revenue from letter po itage in order that the cost of that service mav fall on customs duties • and they would repeal the tax on whisky in the interest rs morality, that their friends may continue to extort a tribute from the people on the necessaries of I fe. This is the summa ratio of their statesmanship I—the preservation oi class legislation und the obstruction of measures for the popular goed The Republican party has already become the Bourbon party. Its claims to trust are not in the promise of the future, but iu b >usts o past achievements ; and the achi ivements were never wrough; by them who boatt to-day. The p rrty lies athwart the path of national progress. The banner of reform and progress it sees in Democratic hands, and the c luinn moving on tha course of tho republic’s advancement and destiny. It has nothing better to suggest than to stop the forward movement and to try out against every forward step, wh : le it supplicates conttol of the Government, with no better promise than its record <f subserviency to personal and private ends. Against this picture, fe lowDemocrats, can we not confidently contrast the action and the result of Democratic rule during the brief period since its restoration ?

Pensions to Our Soldiers. In the jargon of political prophets of evil, no subject was more fruitful ot horror than that of pensions to our soldiers. The Government of Democracy, it was loudly procla’med, wo ild be a rebel government, ana <hs maimed and glorious heroes of our war would be its victims. The pension roll would be ruthlessly invaded, and the succoring bounty of ths nation to its brave men in necessity was to be dried up. See what it is for one class of men to think they contain all the patriotism, all tho sentiment, all the manhood. How overwhelming has been tho demonstration of th s effrontery I Contrast, in few words, the official figures of the doings of the last time years of Republican administration wiMt the three years of Democratic administration—l mean the three y. ars ending June 3.), 188, with no large force, nay. with a smaller force, of clerks and assistants, in the Democratic bureau—l9l,22l pens on certificates issued during the last three years of Republican rule; 359,451, nearly double, during the Democratic three, an excess in favor of Democratic diligence and consideration of 168,233. The net increase of pensioners on the roll during the former pericd, 59,429; the net increase during the latter period, 104,875, an excess und.-r Democracy of 45,447. 'the new names placed on the pension ro!l during the former three years, 92,215, as against 172,132 in the latter; the admission or 79,917 new pensioners by the Democratic administration in excess of what was done by Republicans in the same period of time ; and un increase of money payments of over .'534,009,900. Much has been said of the private pension bills, and much effort, to maintain a theory, of ill-will to toldiers on the President’s part because cf his v toes. Yet already more such bills have passed into enacted law under him than during the administration of both Arthur and Hayes, and by the end of his first term the nunber will bo larger than during the administration of Lincoln, Johnson, Grunt, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur altogether. In face of such figures, when anjj man talks of the hostility of the Democratic party or its President to the pensioner, observe the good old rule of the Scripture: “Answer tho fool according to his folly,” and pass him by. “Free Ballot and Fair Count ” Another accomplishment of the political change ot 1834, affor.ling the forward look a greater satisfaction than almost any other, is the restored dominion of peace and fraternity iu the land. It never could have come under the rule of the Republican party. It strove to acquire a national character; it was impossible; its every effort was a bungling and clumsy failure, a stroke to divide rather than unite. National fraternity required a party national in its principles, founded upon the Constitution and breathing the sp rit of that great instrument of liberty, to be in administration of the Government. And then the wish'.d for consummation came with rapidity and power. It has been, indeed, the crowning triumph of the great war for the p -eservation of freedom. W.thoutit, anything short of a full

restoration of actual constitutional equality and thorough self g ivernmsnt in every State and in every community—the great object of the war—was short of full realization. 'The war and its results are the noblest triumph ever wrought by humanity. The soldiers of the Union went forth for no conquest, in no love of aomini >n. Thoy set out to fl ;ht for humanity, for thoir fel-low-men. for the preservation of those institutions which reomea to them b=s; davisel of any Known on earth, to extend and en'a ge the individual happiness of mankind. They nod nothing to gam peculiarly for themselves. Whatever might be the product of tne war, it was equally the advanta ;j of their fellow-coun rymen. And this has now been gained. This elevation of human sentiment almost up to participation in divine love was the crowning glory of th it gre it general whose mighty arm and brain guided the enginery of war, an >, realizing the perfection of tho victory he had won, he told his countrymen, even when his life ebbed in agony anl pain: “I have now seen what I have wished to see ever since the war—harmony and peace be.ween the sections." They stand established, God be prai-ied, noble spirit, beyond the power of weak anl litt'.e men to invade or destroy! We shall, indeed, hear in this canvaes a last and vain at empt to rekindle the embers of hate. A 1 itle more than a year ag >the blast of the sectional trumpet resounded in the lanl. It passed away in vain and hollow resonance amid the contemptuous derision of this great, sturdy, stea ifast people. The Republican platform of this year panders in few words only to tho element that loved to hate. There remains but the ancient clap-trap about a “free ballot and a fair count;' the expiring cry of that same party which, by the infamous returning board of Louisiana and the shameful chicanery in Florida in 1876, defrauded the nation of the President it had lawfully chosen. It is a futile hypocrisy. For twenty years the Republican party had this subject under their hand, they were able to do abso.utely whatever was within their capacity to do.' If, in that period, with that unrestrained license, it was impossible for them to better the conditions they complain of, what hope lies in another opportunity to try it again? What measure do they suggest not open to them before? What line o£ conduct which has not already been condemned ?

Benefits of Denaoc.-atlc Ascendnecy. The benefits of the fraternal policy of Democracy have been conspicuous during the past three years ; the tide of commercial enterprise has swept over the South and rejuvenated it with stirring life. The active spirits of the North, as well as the men of the South, have learned its great resource its tremendous possibilities. It is now too well known how valuable is its trade, how useful to the country its products, how actively its business interes s have risen and reacted to tho common welfare ever to return again to the folly of suppression and strangulation. No oye now can ■fail to see that the course of true policy is not backward, but forward; that by widening and strengthening the grasp of national fraternity w 11 come a. more vigorous and dutiful allegiance to the Unicn, a more bountiful prosperity to all the land. It is far from my purpose to maintain tha; a mistake in popular choice should not be freely corrected, even at all peril of the affairs of business which a change of administration from one party to another occasions, Timidity in tha presence of duty can never mark a re eple fit to .be free.

But steadfastness in conluct is equally the characteristic of a groat people, as vacillation of the frivolous. No one can fail to recognize iu the repeated declarations and the exasperated temper of the Republican leaders that were they to gain a restoration to power their earliest and most diligent labors would be in removing all Democratic officials and the substitution of their fasting followers. The inevitable scene would be again presented of clamoring crowds of place-seekers and turbulent intriguing, and, if we may trust their declarations, the equal of it has ’ never been. During some moist is, with the best of fortune, business interesi s must wear an anxious though helpless eye, awaiting composure of the public disorder and the settlement of polic.es affecting commercial affairs. This necessary evil of a political change in administration comes often enough when necessity demands it. It seems to me well worth the while Of our citizens who desire only goo 1 government, with protection and enuoura (emeat in tue prosecution of affairs, to consider wi ether, now that wo have safely made the transition and the wheels are moving smoothly, an exigency exists that demands renewal of the experiment of change. ■ I ask you, then, my fellow-citizens, have I overdrawn the ease between tho parties contending in this canvass? Is it not the demonstrated truth that the Republican partv during its latter years has been steadily deteriorating in value as a governmental agency, cankered with abuses, given to coiruption, and in hands* constantly sc >eming for private gains? Are there any but its partisans who think to-day this nation met with misfortune by the change of administration decreed in 1881? Does any intelligent, fair-minded man in his heart believe that to day the country would have been more prosperous, stronger, or happier had James G. Blaine been chosen President instead of GroverCleveland? Who will now challenge the gracious providence of God, so often manifested to this great people, in the popular judgment of four years ago ?

Is it not true, a truth within the grasp of every man who will “think straight and see clear,” that this nation has been, under this administration, united by a firmer grasp of constitutional obedience, i r w inner love of all its citizons, in truer faith and allegiance, in a higher and better hope for its future destiny aud glory? That the false idols are broken which cast a baleful fear over the minds of the colored race, or clouded with apprehensi m the intellectual perceptions of many whose fairer skin gave ciaim to greater strength ? That your affairs h ive been administered with hone’sty, with fidelity, and with industry on the part of your public servants? Nay, more, that many great abuses have been reformed? That many great wrongs have been retlressed ? That your moneys have been honestly collected and faithfully applied to the objects to which your Legislature appropriate! them? Taut your public domain lias been jealously guarded’ for the settle-, your foreign affairs managed with dignity and firmness, and that your navy, once the source of pride, but more lately of shame, again woa s fair promise of regainin’strength and honor? And ar j not the excellent Iruits of this conduct shown in the business confidence, activity anl enterprise, which are wi nessed on everv hand, the basis and oulv basis of domestic comfort, tranquillity and happiness ? Such results having followed Democratic rule, to what end, upon what reason, will patriotic citizens choose to disc ird this ug nev of administration to try another once so wisely discard d ? Levying Tribute to Factory Lords.

Towhat end is faithful, honest administrati >n ; what advantage i i it to ha people if there be retrenchments in public expenditures, f the public debt be paid, if everywhere prudence and economy repress waste, when from all this the people derive no benefit in the reduction of taxation? For a quarter of a century they have paid taxes at the exacting rates created by a state of war—in si me particulars even heavier. Is it not an object of desire that less should be taken by the tax collectors? Wnenes comes this new theory of government taught by the example, almost the precept, of mod rn Republicanism, that fixation is a blessing, rising wi h its weight? The taxes levied by ptrminent law, passed under Republican rule, now yield a vast sum in excess of nil tho requirements of the Government. We can pay nil the cost of civil administration, of the army and navy, the maintenance of our courts, the interest upon our public djbt, our munificent pensions, aud every o:h----er rightful charge upo i ths poop e, and "have mwe than ahundred millions a year besides unnecessarily taken from the people. This is an enormous sum ; over twice as great >; s the avei ago annual cose of tho wh d’ Government durin; the periods of Domosr. tic rule from the vear 1800 to 1831. Apply the case directly to ourselves. The share of Wisconsin alone, if pro;>ortioned in this saving, would exceed S2.00),00 '. Think of it! More than double the cost of the State government ; more, perhaps, than the cost of all our county gov mments, although I have not the figures just at hand. Suppose it were put di rectly to the people of Wisconsin to save either our State or county taxes, could it bi conceived they would refuse to acquiesce in such a measure of relief? To make this great saving to the people is what this administration seeks ; this is the thing which the Democratic party pledged itself to attempt ; this is the thing which the Republican party has promised in its platforms, through canvass after canvass, to coniode to the people; and this is the thing it has prevented for many years after it ought to have btjen done, the thing which they are now exerting their utmost to defeat. I have said that the policy of that party is obstruction. Look at their action in respect to this matter. With the first Congress assembled after President Cleveland’s inauguration the effort to reduce taxation w-as commenced. During tho whole Forty-ninth Congress it was

successfully thwarted. Finally, when this present Congress assembled, tho President urged this sub.ect, of sucn vast and overpowerinmomen , by his entire annual message. Repeatedly Republican members have been reminded of their multiplied platform promises. And what have they done during this long and tedo is session? In the House the Democratic committee devoted months of untiring and assiduous labor, sparing neither nig nt nor day, to adjust a measure which would relievo the people with tne least disturbance to any business in .eresi. Were they met by any effort of co-op-eration? On the contrary, every step forward, every inch toward relief, has been gained only against an almost solid phalanx of Republioon resi,tance. For three months tho debate upon the bill was protracted in the House. It wai a magnificent debate, an honor as it was a triumph tq the studious and zealous labor of the Democrats of the House. They overwhelms 1 their adversaries with arguments, they united the Democratic lin >s, they perfected tho bill by every touch of amendment wi.hin reach, but they received no contribution toward its perfection from Republicans. The latter proposed nothing, offered nothing but cavil and criticism. Finally the measure was passed, and the utmost of Democratic power was done to unload the public burden. Meantime the Democratic party, assembled in national convention, had spoken in cheering tones its approbation of tho work. What said Republicans when their convention assembled? Free Whisky and Tobacco. “Th j protective system must be maintained.” * * * “The Republican party* would effect all needed reduction of the national revenue by repealing the taxes upon tobacco,” * • ♦ “and the tax upon spirits used in the arts and for mechanical purposes.” * » ♦ “If there shall still remain a larger revenue than is requisite for the wants of the go /ernment we favor the entire repeal of internal taxes.” That is to say, when driven to the wall f ey declare their purpose of tariff reduction, so often pledged and promised, to have been false aud hollow, intended only to deceive; that sooner than relieve the taxes upon any of the necessaries of life, which every man, woman and child must contribute to pay, they would hoip only those who use tobacco and drink whisky. After that declaration came before the country the Mills bill went to the Senate, and 10, a transformation scene. Republican Senators assembled in caucus at the appropriate hour of dinner, when wine and feasting bring them in sympathy with the people, and we had their givings out that at last they would frame their measure of long-promised tariff reform. Already the session of Congress had reached its usual period of termination. The subject had bean in agitation for months and months; they then just began to look into it. Mauy weeks have since passed away, more dinner caucuses have been enjoyed, and still the Senate’s tariff bill lingers in gestation. Is there any one who believes the serious purpose exists to give the people this longed-for redress? Is it not patent, so plain that he who runs may read, that this is only another mode, ingeniously devised, to throw obstruction in the way of real relief? For once you may find their true purpose in their platform. They purpose no substantial measure; they intend no help to the people; or, if driven at last to release something from taxation, their relief will go to the suff ring whisky-drinker, not to the laborer who wants clothes for his family. Oh, can you no. see. can any man be so blind as not to see, why it is that the President makes this appeal to the people? What motive, what end, what advantage to him or to his party? What special class, what special interest rs it possible for him to subserve by this m asure? Who can be the gainers by it but his countrymen, for whoso welfare he consumes by day and night with toilful labor and anxious care tho natural powers of his life? It is easy to sea who derive the colossal gains of tariff laws, but, tell me if you can, who but the people at large cauderive tho benefits of relief from taxation? It is to you, then, my fellow-citizens, it is to your wisdom, to your fidelity to yourselves and your country that this great appeal is made. Here is a thing which the administration is powerless to do unaided; it cannot change the laws ; it is useless and vain to struggle agamst extravugan e and folly, to suppress waste and enforce economy unless these iniquitous impositions of law shall be condemned by tne peopie. It is for you, for you alone, fellow-citizens, that this man of tne people, this great and honest servant, faithful to their interests, confiding in their wisdom and integrity, lays open this necessity for your action, and invokes your aid. Will you help him? Will you help yourselves ? Perils of the Surplus. The worst of this evil is not in the present pecuniary burden, great and wrong as it is. It is the indirect consequences and the future peril. The one thing which more than any other nas been the wreck of republics is the profligate use and corrupting influence of public wealth, sometimes seized by violence, but ofcener through the forms of taxation. The poor and frugal republic has easily maintained its freedom ; the rich and strong have failed. I cannot detain you to read the chapters of history; but no lesson is more forcibly imprinted on its pages than that to preserve its perpetuity the government of the free must leave the people's money in the people’s hands. A great surplus in the public treasury is a menace to security, and constant over-taxation as fatal to free institutions as poison on the tongue of man. It incites a thousand devilish sche nes of corruption; it turns away all the healthful agencies of popular government. Keep your Treasury needy; compel yo-ur statesmen s efforts toward retrenchment of expenditure within qrescribei charges, not to swell the disbursements in order to consume superfluous taxes. No free people wants those politi ians who win favor with constituents only by skill in grasping the largest measure of public money for expenditure at home. This grab game is only successful by combinations, and iu the end the aj p irently favored suffer with the rest. No people, as never any man, makes solid gain by wrong. Have you not yourself seen this oft illustrated? And so recently, indeed, that it needs no stionger argument, is not your Congress to-day crowded with schemes of every sort to reach the surplus of the Treasury? How many measures nave passed, or hang on the verge of passage, which every principle of republican government condemns ? What is the Blair education bill? What the bill to return the direct taxes to the States? What much of the river and harbor bill ?

Even in this very Congress, where your truest mon have incessantly struggled to withstand the tide of combinations, you have witnessed the profligate effects of the subtle poisoning surplus. Even bit lately liepublicans have seized upon the vast appropriations made, the measures they most have aided, as a new reason wny tax itioa should mt br reduced, and with triumphant jeer have sought to defeat th; ob.ect by claiming ihat the enormous surplus of the year can be consumed by lavish expenditure. You have but one course, fellow-country-men, you must reduce the taxation and s op the needle as ingathering of money. Public expenditure needs retrenchment, net extravagant enlargement, and to retrenca expenditure the first step is to cut off supplies. Aside fom pensions and interest on the public dent, «by is it necessary that the Govermnnnt should cost to-day four times as mu-h as in 1810? True, v.e have dotbl d population, but. at most, this ca;li for nj more than double expenditure, and, in prudent management, it should rather call for less. It is but the product of excessive taxa ion, maintained to enrich the financial lords of the Republican party. The Consumer Pays the Tax. But all this is vain argument, and every attempt in administration for relief is equally vain unless you, fellow-citizens, shall persistently and steadfastly demand and co-operate to produce the measures of relief. Ana what is the objection to it? What argument opposes a pleasure apparently so useful, so desirable? It is all summed up in one ing nious euphemism, by which oppression in taxation is made to sound sweetly to the ear, the invention of its rich beneficiaries. They call the tribute laid by tariff laws “protection,” “protection to American industry, " and they hope to hide the wicked fact under the specious cover of the p’easing word. Many a robbery hai been veiled by a phrase. Are the American people not superior to the risk of being victimized by a trick of words? That is the question. Let us examine this matter patiently and fairly, and fear nob to accept the conclusions of our judgment. Where nis the proteclion of the tariff? In what manner does it pro tec-,, and whom does it protect? The tariff is simply a tax levied upon articles brought into this country from abroa 1 for sale, use, o consumption. On every article within tae list the collector at the custom-house exacts the sum prescribed by law when it enters our port. This is either a specific amount charged upon certain articles, or it is a percentage of their valu >: There is nothing more of the law except its provision o.' m tchinery and officials for collecting the tax. Now, it is obvious that the importer must odd to what he pays the foreign merchant the amount of the tax, because that is a part of the cout of the article to him. Upon

that cost he computes his profits, and in the end the consumer pays the ta-x as well as the foreign price, with the merchant's profit charged unon both. So far, to the extent that articles are imported, the tariff operates nothing but taxation. There is. so far, no protection to anybody, but when the duty is made high enough upon such articles as are manufactured in this country to prevent the foreign merchant from competing with the domestic m mufacturer, then another effect follows. No duty is now paid by the consumsr to the Government, directly or indirectly. All that happens is that by reason of foreign competition being excluded the domestic manufacturer can sell the article : to his countrymen at any price he chooser to fix below that at which it can be imported with . duty' added. It is here that the so-called pro- , tection begins. The tariff helps the American producer of such articles as the American public wishes to buy only to the extent that it ex- ■ eludes foreign competition. When you hear any I mm talk of the protec.ion of the tariff, ask him j to show you how it otherwise affords protection. No man can truly make another answer. If the tariff is only such as to impose a tax without interfering with trade, there is no pro.ection in it; it is merely a tax. Then wherein does the protection lie ? Simply in this: It enables the manufacturer of such articles as the tariff prevents competition on to exact from his fellow-countrymen a higher price than they would otherwise have to pay. And of course when the tariff duty can be placed so high that the i rice he is able to charge greatly exceeds the cost of production the manufacturer can derive a splendid profit at the cost of his countrymen who buys his wares. Strip the subject of the deceitful drapery of words which the skillful euphemist employs, and there is the whole of it. When you hear men deny it, ask again wherein does the tariff protect otherwise ? If it were not for this, what is it that the manufacturer wants of it? If it were not f# this, would they seek continually to make the tariff tax higher ? If it were not for this, would the specially favored manufacturers contribute so enormously of their “fat” to their party ! Why otherwise would there be objection to the reduction of the tariff taxation? The tax which is paid on articles imported we all know the amount of. It was «z-20,00J,0)J during the last fiscal year; but what was the tribute? There lies the pith of this matter. That is hidden to every one except the careful, patient, plodding student of statistics. It is in the concealment of this quantity that the success of the devilish machination lies. If tho American people were directly charged with it, instant revolt would follow. But what is the amount of it ? Ask the st itistician. The more studiously and laboriously you inquire, the greater will the startling sum appear. It is safe to say as the result of statistical inquiry that the enhance 1 cost of the articles protected by the tariff law is more than five times th? amount of the tax which the tariff yields tne Treasury. The Laborer Not Benefit® I. And what are the benefits to compensate thia national burden ? The favorite argument is that it increases the wages of tne laborer in protected industries. If it did there would at last be something in its favor. Yet, even then, it would be better and cheaper to make the increase by a direct bounty. We should, at least, know what we paid and know that the laborer got it. But no pretense was ever falser than this. No laborer derives a m il of gain by reason of this tribute. It is simply a bol i assertion, untrue in fact and incapable of proof. The manufacturer hires his labor, and always will, ns cheaply as he can; and the price dees not depend on the abundance of his means, but is governed by the law of supply and demand. You have seen manufacturers become millionaires. Did they raise wages thereupon? Do wages raise as employers grow richer? How preposterous ! Have not manufacturers repeatedly reduced wages when the tariff tax was not reduced ? Let the records of the Knights of Labor answer. Let the history of strikes, the plague of tramps, both almost unknown tons before exorbitant tariff, give reply. But a simple comparison which every man can make oa his own knowledge effectually disposes of the salsa pretense. Contrast the wages paid laborers in protected industries with wages ea ned by carpenters, by masons, by bricklayers, by blacksmiths, by printers, in shor , in any unprotected industry. No labor is more prosperous than theirs ; no laborers more independent than they. But suppose it wera true that sometimes something has been doled out to tho laborer from the increased profits paid by tne people to the producers of tariff-pro tec ted articles? Is that a system to be permanently sustained by American freemen? Are the sixteen millions of laborers engaged on farms, in trade and transportation, in professions and personal services, in the various unprotected industries, to be earning great sums of money, year by year, forever to be given the few employers in the industries claimed to be favored by protection, upon the weak and simp e trust that they will pay their laborers more? Is it in aecor.iance with American liberty to establish such a system of financial feudalism in the land, to set up lords of wealth in order to take care of those they hire? How foolish such an expectation let a single case unfold. Colonel Scott, the Representative in Congress from the Erie district of Pennsylvania, himself an extensive employer of labor, an honest, fearless man, who finds no necessity for wrong-doing in order to be successful in business, exposed on the floor of Congress the unvarnished truth. He recently stated to that body that a member of the Ed;, ar Thomson Steel Works (meaning Mr. Carnegie, though he gave no name) personally admitted to him that in a single year he drew as his individual share of that company (■51,5 13,90'1 of money; and he but one of several partners. Five thousand dollars per day to that poor laborer for three hundred working days in the year. And what was the average daily wages his workingmen received dur mg such time as he employed them? About ts-2. Tne company divided as the profits of an hour more than th® workingman received for the labors of a year. That is the pith of protection to the American laborer. This doubtless is an extreme case, but it is an illustrative one. Few of the tariff protec.ed lords are so lordly as Mr. Carnegie,, with his castle in Scotland, and his coach and four upon which Mr. Blaine rod the industries of Great Britain shortly before he came back to this country to tell us, in our benighted ignorance, all about labor there and here, with that keen and appreciative sympathy with toil which one derives from a residence in a British castle. Let the laborer banish fear from his heart and stand upon the order of heaven and the nobili y if his manhood. He needs nothing but freedom - in the law to enable him to maintain his full J rights and receive the full measure or his earning? What is cap tal without the laborer? Absolutely nothing. It will not add a dollar of increase to itself without his nourishing hand. Leave tho laborer free, take off the burden of the laws which draw class distinctions against him, and L®con bargain without fear of injury in the trade. It is capital that benefits by class legislation ; the laborer neeas only liberty. Liberty makes laoor noble and commanding. Pernicious law makes, it abje. t and dependent. Law made slavery, put the whip in th; master’s hand, and the scar on the to ler’s back. Liberty makes Jaber noble, prosperous, >m 1 strong. The less it is bound by law ,he greaser is its pow.r, its consequei.ce, ana it's rewards. Decay o. Our Navigation. Collecting the statistics of protection and wages, aud especially noting tnose of the ten year ; b tween 18<'O and 1880, the most favored era of high protection, the Arthur t.irift commission of 1882 finally discovered the truth, which they stated in the fallowing paragraph: “It will thus be seen that great as hr., been tho pr,’port onate increase in mauuf.. .uring in tho United States during the last dec .i, it has not more than kept pace with th i p .pulation, and is not more than propor ionare ,o tne home demands for o”r domes ie products.” What, then, is the sum of the srery told by this commission? That this great aud enterprising nation, with the richest natural resources of every kind,at command, with the most active spirits, tho most intell'g nt labor, aud the finest opportunities for competition presented in the known world, has been limited and constricted by the follies of its legislation simply to dealing with itsslf, and that all the enterpris s which invite labor have been such only as the market at home would supply, while the world has been cast into tho embrace of other countries. This it is which in great part is answerable for the decayof our navigation, which has stripped the sea of our merchant vessels and deprived our labor of the opportunity of employment in the ocean transportation cf tho world. This it is which makes vessel-owners, in tnut hallucination which these doctrines create, seek tho 'Treasury for subsidies to maintain thoir steamships instead of turning to that natural source of all business vigor—an active, thrifty, prosuerous trade that pays its own way. It must always be a very terrible thing for a woman to find that any man she likes heartily, and only likes, loves her.—rJfisa Muloch.