Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1888 — THURMAN ACCEPTS. [ARTICLE]

THURMAN ACCEPTS.

Judge Thurman’s letter of acceptance was given to the press Sunday evening. The letter is as follows: Tbe Hon. Patrick A. Collins and Others Committee : Gentlemen— ln obedience to custom, I send you this formal acceptance of my nomination for the office of vice-presi-dent of the United States, made by the national convention at St. Louis. When you did me the honor to call upon me at Columbus and officially notify me of my nomination, I expressed to you my sense of obligation to the convention and stated that, although I had not sought the nomination, I did not feel at liberty, under the circumstances, to decline it. I thought then, as I still think, that whatever I could properly do to promote the re-election of President Cleveland I ought to do. His administration has been marked by sueb integrity, good sense, manly courage and exalted patriotism, that a just appreciation of these high qualities seem to call for his re-election. lam also strongly impressed with the belief that his re-elction would powerfully tend to strengthen that feeling of fraternity among the American people is so essential to their welfare, peace and happiness, and to the perpetuity of the Union and of our free institutions.

I approve the platform of the St. Louis convention and I cannot too strongly express my dissent from the heretical teachings of the monopolists that tbe welfare of a people can be promoted by a system of exorbitant taxation far in excess of the wants of the government. The idea that a people can be enriched by heavy and unnecessary taxation, that a man’s condition can be improved by taxing him on all he wears, on all his wife and children wear, on all his tools and implements of industry, is an obvious absurdity. To fill the vaults of tbe treasury with an idle surplus for which the government has no legitimate use, and to thereby derive the people of currency needed for their business and daily wants, and to create a powerful and dangerous stimulus to extravagance and corruption in the expenditures of the government, seems to be a policy at variance with every sound principle of government and of political economy. The necessity of reducing taxation to prevent such an accumulation of surplus revenues and the consequent depletion of the circulating medium, is so apparent that no party dares to deny it; btft when we come to consider the modes by which the reduction may be made, we find a wide antagonism between our party and the monopolistic leaders of our political opponents.

We* seek to reduce taxes upon the necessaries of life; our opponents seek to increase them. We say, give to the masses of the people cheap and good clothing, cheap blankets, cheap tools and'cheap lumber. The Republicans, by their platform, and their leaders in the Senate by their proposed bill, say increase the taxes on clothing and blankets and thereby increase their cost, maintain a high duty on the tools of the farmer and mechanic and upon the lumber which they need for the construction of their modest dwellings, shop and barns, and thereby prevent their obtaining these necessaries at reasonable prices. Can any sensible man doubt as to where he should stand on this controversy? Can any well-informed man be deceived by the false pretenses that a system so unreasonable and unjust is for the benefit of the laboringman? Much is said about the competition of American laborers with the pauper labor of Europe, but does not every man whe looks around him see and know that an immense majority of the. laborers

in America are not engaged in what are called the protected industries? and as to those who are employed in such industries, it is not undeniable that the duties proposed by the Democratic measure, called the Mills bill, far exceed the difference between American and European wages, and that, therefore, if it were admitted that every workingman can be protected, by tariffs against cheaper labor, they would be fully protected, and more than protected, by that bill? Does , not every wellinformed? man know that the increase in price of home manufacturers, produced by a high tariff, does not go into the pockets of laboring men, but only tends to swell the profits of others? It seems to me that if the policy of the Democratic party is plainly presented, air? must understand that we seek to make the cost of living less, and at the same time increase the share of the laboring man in the benefits of the national prosperity and growth. I am very respectfully, your obedient servant.

ALLEN G. THURMAN.

A dagger eighteen inches long, inlaid with blocks of gold engraved in Arabic characters, was found lately by a herdsman in Gillespie county, o 'Texas, and it is thdtigbt to be a relic of the time of Cortez, aud'to have been originally bought or captured from the Moore