Bloomington Telephone, Volume 8, Number 12, Bloomington, Monroe County, 2 August 1884 — Page 9

SUPPLEMENT.

suixrs LEim of Acasmscs.

Atwtota, Me,,-July 1& Following I ib text of Mr. Blaine's letter accepting the. Republican nomination for the presidency 3Tw Hon. John B. Head inon and etiaefs f the- CentaattM, etc Gentlemen In accepting the nomination for , the presidency tendered me by the Republican national convention, I beg to .express a deep - tense of the honor which is conferred and of the duty which is imposed. I venture to accompany the acceptance with some observations upon the questions involved in the contest questions whose settlement may affect the future of the Nation favorably or unfavorably for a lon series of years. ' . In enumeratinthe issues upon which the Bepublican party appeals for popular support, the convention has been singularly explicit and felicitous. It has properly give the. leading position to the industrial interests of the country as affected by the tariff on imports. On that Question the two political parties: are radically in conflict Almost the first act ef th Be Wlicans. when they came into power in 1861. was the establishment of

gte principle of protection; to American Mbor and to American capital This principtj

the Republican party has ever since steadily

taincd, while on the other hand the Demo

cratic party in Congress has for fifty years per-

aietentiy warred upon it Twice within that period our opponents have destroyed tariffs arranged for protection, and sines the dose of the civil war, whenever they have controlled the Bouse of Representatives, hostile legislation has been attempted never more conspicuously than in their principal measure at the late session of

2

THK TARIFF QUJSSTIOK. Revenue laws are in their very nature subject do frequent revision in order that they may be adapted to changes and modifications of trade. The Republican party is not contending for the permanency of any particular statute. The issue between the two parties does not have reference to a speeinc law. It is far breeder and far eper. It involves a principle of wide applieax Iton and beneficent influence, against a theory jbieh we believe to be unsound in conception Ad inevitably hurtful in practice. In the many a mriff revisions which haveVbeen necessary for the 3 past twenty-three years, or which may hereafter become necessary, the Republican party has v maintained and will maintain the poUey of pro

tection to American industry, while our opponents insist upon a revision, which practically destroys that policy. The issue is thus distinct, well-denned and unavoidable. The pending election may determine the fate of protection

a generation. The overthrow of the policy means a. large and permanent reduction in the wages of the American laborer, besides involving the loss of vast amounts of American capital h etfediBiaaufatarn The value of the present revenue system to the people of fcs United States is not a matter of theory, and 1-shaU submit no argument to sustain it I only Invito attention to certain facts ofofnaal record which seem to constitute a demonstration. In the census of 1860 an effort was made, for the first time in our history, to obtain avamatkaof all the property in the United States. The atteatpt was in large degree oneweessfnL Partly from lack of time, partly from prejudice meottg many who thought the inquiries foreshadowed a new scheme of taxation, the returns were insompleto and unsatisfactory. Little more was ethaJ to consolidate the Vocal valuation used eSg&eafor purposes of assessment, and as syeryono knows; differs widely from a ysowpWer init-of M the property. 1 Intheeensusof 1360, however, the work was done with great thoroughness-the distinction

''assessed value and '"true value being observed. The grand result was that

tfc "true value of all property in the Statosand territories excluding slaves) amounted to four-

thousand millions of dollars. This aggrewas thenet resort of the labor and the

savings of aH tim people within the area of the

United States from the time the first British oolpnist leaded in 1607 down to As year 1S60L It tsptesentsd tho fruit of the toil of two hundred sod fifty yearn After I860 the business of tins country was encouraged and developed by a protective tari At the end of twenty years the total property of taw United States, as returned by the census of 2fl88L amounted to the enormtus aggregate of forty-four thousand millions of dollars. This fyat result was attained, notwithstanding the 3etthat countless millions had in the interval tjeen wasted in tv' progress of a bloody war. It appears that, while our population between 49 and 1880 increased GO per cent, the aggreproperty of the country increased 214 per showing a vastly enhanced wealth per 4ta among the people. ' Thirty thousand miHpg of dinars had been added during these twenyears 'wo the permanent wealth of the Nation. These results are regarded by the older nations & the world as phemrnenaL That our country jhouM surmount the peril and the cost of a igigartie war, and for uu entire period of twenty years make an average gain to its wealth of one buadred and twenty-five millions per month, .terpesee the experience of all other nations, Hneient or modern. Even the opponents of the parent revenue system do not pretend that in the gio history of civilisation. any parallel can be fad to the material progress of the United htee, since ton acenssion of the Republican irty to power. 'The period between 1880 and to-dar has not een ens of material prosperity only. At no tee in the history of the United States has here been such progress in the moral and phinthropic field. Religious and charitable instiitiona, schools, seminaries and colleges have ' founded and endowed far more generously a at any previous time inoor history. Greater Jfi more varied relief has been extended to husuffering and the entire progress of the fantry in wealth has been accompanied and Tgnified by a broadening and elevation of oar jSMonal chsjsaetoT as a people. . Our opponents find fault that our revenue gfeem produces a surplus. But they should 1 forget that the law has given a specific purpose which all of the surplus is profitably and lonoraUy appEedr-he redaction of the public I fab and the consequent relief of the burden of

toxa&m. o aeaarnas neea wasted, and tne V" . &.3V i a -

auiy ewTewoow wu wuqh mo puny somas Sparge is the generous pensioning ef the solsaflors and their familiesen extravsr nee which embodies the highest form of justice recognition and payment of a sacred debt hen reduction of taxation is to be made, the jeWican party can be trusted to accomplish 3 $ fa such form as wffl most effectively aid the ' fcdastries of the Nation. Va Sequent aceiisation by our ofmoaents is the foreign cromeree of the country has decayed ander the influence of the pra- ? -juipfttf tariff. la this way they seek to array

It S a common ana yet radical

5L

error to confound the commerce of the country with its carrying trade an error often committed innocently and sometimes designedly bat an error so gross that it does net distinguish between the ship and the cargo. Foreign commerce represents the exports and Imports of a country regardless of the nationality of the vessel that may carry the commodities of exchange Our carrying trade has from obvious causes suffered many discouragements since 1860, but our foreign commerce has in the same period steadily and prodigiously increased increased indeed at a rate and to an amount which absolutely dwarf all previous, developments of our trade beyond thosea From 1860 to the present time the foreign commerce of the United States (divided with approximate equality be tween exports and imports) reached the astound -, fog aggregate of twenty-four thousand millions of dollars. The balance in this vast commerce inclined in our favor, but it would have been much larger if our trade with the countries of America, elsewhere referred to, had been more trisely adjusted.. It is difficult even to appreciate the magnitude of our export trade since I860, and we can gain a correct conception ef it only by comparison with preceding results in the same field. The total exportdggom the United States from the Declaration of nmependence in 1776 down to the day of Lincoln's election in I860, added to all that had previously been exported from the American colonies from their original settlement amounted to less than $9,000,000,000. On the other hand, our exports from 1860 to the close of the last fiscal year exceeded $12,000,000,000 the whole of it being the produces of American labor. Evidently a protective tariff has not injured our export trade when, under its influence, we exported m twenty-four years 40 per cent more than the total amount that had been exported in the entire previous history of American commerce. All the details, when analyzed, correspond with this gigantic result The commercial cities of the Union never had sueh growth as they have enjoyed since I860. Our chief emporium, the city of New York, with its dependencies, has within that period doubled her population and increased her wealth fivefold. During the same period the imports and exports which have entered and left her harbor are . more than double in bulk and value the whole amount imported and exported by her between the settlement of the first Dutch colony on the island of Manhattan and t&e outbreak ef the civil war in 1860. AGRICULTURE AND TBB TARIFF. The agricultural interest is by far the largest in the Nation, and is entitled in every adjustment of revenue laws to the first consideration. Any policy hostile to the fullest development of agriculture in the United States must be abandoned. Realizing this fact, the opponents of the present system of revenue have labored very earnestly to persuade the farmers of the United States that they are robbed by a protective tariff, and the effort is thus made to consolidate their vast influence in favor of free trade. But, happily, the farmers of America are intelligent, and cannot be misled by sophistry when conclusive facts are before them. They see plainly that during the past twenty-four years wealth has not been acquired in one section or by one interest at the expense of another section or another interest. They see that the agricultural States have made even more rapid progress than the manufacturing States: The farmers see that in I860, Massachusetts and Blinoia had about the same wealth between $800,000,000 and 1000,000,000 each and that in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to $2,600,000,000, while Illinois had advanced to $3,200,000,000. They see that New Jersey and Iowa were just equal in population in I860, and that in twenty years the wealth of New Jersey was increased by the sum of $850,000,000: while the wealth of Iowa was increased by the sum of $1,500,000,000. They see that the nine leading agricultural States of the West have grown so rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate addition to their wealth since 1860 is almost vas great as the wealth of the entire country in that year. They see that the South, which is almost exclusively agricultural, has shared in the general prosperity, and that, having recovered from the loss and devastation of war, it has gained so rapidly that its total wealth is at least the double of that which it possessed in 1860, exclusive of slaves. In these extraordinary developments the farmers see the helpful impulse of a home market, and they see that the financial and revenue system enacted since the Republican party came into power has established and constantly expanded the home market They see that even in the case of wheat, which is our chief cereal export, they have sold, in the average of the years since the elose of the war, three bushels at home to one they have sold abroad, and that in the case of corn, the only other cereal which we export to any extent, one hundred bushels have been used at home to three apd a half bushels exported. In some years the disparity has been so great that for every peek of corn exported one hundred bushels have been consumed in the home market The farmers see that in the increasing competition from the grain-fields of Russia and from the distant plains of India, the growth of the home market becomes daily of greater concern to them, and that its impairment woui depreciate the value of every acre of tillable land in the Union. ' OUB INTERNAL COMMERCE. Such facts as these touching the growth and consumption of cereals at home give us some light conception of the vastness of the internal commerce of the United States. Thev suggest, also, that, in addition to the advantages which the American people enjoy from protection against foreign competition, they enjoy the advantages of absolute free trade over a larger area and with a greater population than any other nation. The internal commerce of our thirtyeight States and nine Territories is carried on without let or hindrance, without tax, detention or governmental interference of any kind whatever. It spreads freely over an area of three and a half inillion square miles almost equal in extent to the whole continent of Europe. Its profits are enjoyed to-day by fifty-six millions of American freemen, and from this enjoyment no monopoly is created. According to Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed the same subject in 1790, '"the internal competition which takes plaoe does away with everything like monopoly, and by degrees reduces prices of articles to the minimum of a reasonable profit on the capital employed." It is impossible to point to a single monopoly in the United States that has been created or fostered by the industrial system whkh is upheld by the Republican party. Compared with our foreign commerce, these domestic exchanges are inconceivably great in amount requiring merely as one instrumentality as large a mileage of railway as exists to-day in all the ether nations of the world combined These internal exchanges are estimated by the Statistical Bureau of the Treasury Department to be annually twenty times as great in amount

as our foreign commerce. It is into this vast field of home trade at once the creation and the heritage of the American people that foreign nations are striving by every device to enter. It is into this field that the opponents of our present revenue system would freely admit the countries of Europe countries into whose internal trade we could not reciprocally enter, countries to which we should be surrendering every advantage of trade; from which we should be gaining nothing in return. EFFECT 0PON THE MECHANIC AND THE LABORER, A policy of this kind would be disastrous to the mechanics and workingmen of the United States, Wages arc unjustly reduced when an industrious man is not able by his earnings to live in comfort, educate his children, and lay by a sufficient amount for the necessities of age. The reduction of wages inevitably consequent upon throwing our home market open to the world, would deprive them of the power to do this. It would prove a great calamity to our country. It would produce a conflict between the poor and the rich, and in the sorrowful degradation of labor would plant the seeds of public danger.. The Republican party has steadily aimed to maintain just relations between labor and capital guarding with care the rights of each. A conflict between the two has always led in the past and will always lead in the future to the injury of both. Labor is indispensable to the creation and profitable use of capital, and capital increases the efficiency and value of labor. Whoever arrays the one atrainet the other is an enemy of both. That policy is wisest and best which harmonises the two on the basis of absolute justice. The Republican party has protected the free labor of America so that its compensation is larger than is realized in any other country. It has guarded ourpeoftle against the unfair competition of contract labor from China and may be called upon to prohibit the growth of a similar evil from Europe. It is obviously unfair to permit capitalists to make contracts for cheap labor in foreign countries to the hurt and disparagement of the labor of American citizens. Such a policy (like that which would leave the time and other conditions of home labor exclusively in the control of the employer) is injurious to all parties not the least so to the unhappy persons who are made the subjects of the contiwt. The institutions of the United States rest upon the intelligence and virtue of all the people. Suffrage is made universal as a just weapon of self-protection to every citizen. It is not the interest of the Republic that any economic system should be adopted which involves the redaction of wages to the hard standard prevailing elsewhere. The Republican party aims to elevate and dignify labor not to degrade it. As a substitute for the industrial system which, under Republican administration,, has developed such extraordinary prosperity, our opponents offer a policy which is but a series of experiments updn our system of revenue a policy whose end must be harm to our manufactures and greater harm to oar labor. Experiment in the industrial and financial systems the country's greatest dread, as stability is its greatest boon. Even the uncertainty resulting from the recent tariff agitation in Coneress has hurtfully affected the business of the entire country. Who .can measure the harm to our shops and our homes, to our farme and our com-, merce, if the uncertainty of perpetual tariff agitation is to be inflicted upon the, countcjdU We are in the midst of an abundant harvest; we arepn the eve of a revival of general prosperity. Nothing stands in our way but the dread of a change in the industrial system which has wrought such wonders in the lost twenty years, and which, with the power of increased capital, will work still greater marvels of prosperity in the twenty years to come. OUB FOREIGN" POLICY. - Our foreign relations favor our domestic development. We are at peace with the world at peace upon a sound basis, with no unsettled questions of sufficient magnitude to embarrass or distract us. Happily removed by our geographical position from participation or interest in those questions of dynasty or boundary which so frequently disturb the peace of Europe, we are left to cultivate friendly relations with all, and are free from possible entanglements in the quarrels of any. The United States has no cause and no desire to engago in conflict with any power on earth, and we may rest in assured confidence that no power desires to attack the United States. With the nations of the Western Hemisphere we should cultivate closer relations, and tor our common prosperity and advancement we should invite them all to join with us in an agreement that, for the future, all international troubles in North or South America shall be ad justee by impartial arbitration and not by arms. This project was part of the fixed policy of President Garfield's administration, and it should, in my judgment, be renewed. Its accomplishment on this continent would favorably affect the nations beyond the sea, and thus powerful?? contribute at no distant day to the universal acceptance of the philanthropic and Christian principle of arbitration. The effect even of suggesting it for the Spanish-American states has been roost happy, and has increased the confidence of those people in our friendly disposition. It fell 1 my lot as Secretary of State, in June, 1881, to quiet apprehension in the republic of Mexico, by giving the assurance in an official dispatch thab 4 'there is not the faintest desire in the United States for territorial extension south of the Rio Grande, The boundaries of the two republics have been established in conformity with the beat jurisdictional interests of both. The line of demarkation is not merely conventional It is more It separates a Spanish-American people from a Saxon-American people. It divides one great nation from another with distinct and natural finality." We seek the conquests of peace. We desire to extend our commerce, and in an especial degree with our friends and neighbors on this continent We have not improved our relations with Spanish-America as wisely and as persistently as we might have done. For more than a generation the sympathy of those countries Ji as been allowed to drift away from us. We should now make every effort to gain their friendship Our trade with them is already large. During the last year our exchanges iu the Western hemisphere amounted to $350,000,000 nearly onefourth of our entire foreign commerce. To those who may be disposed to underrate the value of our trade with the countries of North and South America, it may be welt to state that their population is nearly or quite fifty millions and that, in proportion to aggregate numbers, we import nearly double as much from them as we do from Europe. But the result of the whole American trade is in a high degree unsatisfactory. The imports d oring the past year exceeded two hundred and twenty-five millions, while the exports were leas than one hundred and twenty-five millions showing a balance against us of more than one hundred

millions of dollars. But the money does not go to Spanish America. We send large sums to Europe in coin, or its equivalent, to pay European manufacturers for the goods which they send to Spanish America. Wc are but paymasters for this enormous amount annually to European factors an amount which is a serious draft, in every financial depression, upon our resources of specie. Cannot this condition of trade in great part be changed? Cannot the market for our products be greatly enlarged! We have made a beginning in our effort to improve our trade relations with Mexico, and we should not be content until similar and mutually advantageous arrangements have been successively made with every nation of North and South America. While the grfat powers of Europe are steadily enlarging their colonial domination in Asia and Africa, it is the especial province of this country to improve and expand its trade with the nations of America. No field promises so much. No field has been cultivated so little. Our foreign policy should be an American policy in its broadest and most comprehensive sense a policy of peace, of friendship, of commercial enlargement The name of American) which belongs to us In our national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism. Citizenship of the Republic must bo the panoply and safeguard of him who wears it The American citizen, rieh or poor, native or naturalized, white or colored, must everywhere walk secure in. bis personal and civil righto. The Republic should nover accept n lesser duty, it can never assume a nobler one, than the protection of the humblest man who owes it loyalty protection at home, and protection which shall follow him abroad, into whatever land he may go upon a lawful errand. THE SOUTH ISBN bTATES. I recognize, not witLout regret, the necessity for speaking of two secitops of our common country. But the regret diminishes when I see that the elements which separated them are fast disappearing. Prejudices have yielded and are yielding, while a growing cordiality warms the Southern and the Northern heart alike. Can anyone doubt that between the sections confidence and esteem are to-day more marked than at any period in the sixty years preceding the election of President Linco In This is the result in part of time and in part of Republican principles applied under the favorable conditions of uniformity. It would be a groat calamity to change these influences under which Southern Commonwealths are learning to vindicate civil rights, and adapting tbemselvos to the conditions of political tranquillity and industrial progress. If there be occasional and violent outbreaks in the South against this peaceful progress, the public opinion of the country regards them as exceptional and hopefully trusts that each will prove the lusi The South needs capital and occupation, not controversy. As much as any part of the North, the South needs the full protection of the revenue laws wliich the Republican party offers. Some of the Southern States have already entered upon a career of industrial development and prosperity. These, at least, should not lend their electoral votes to destroy their own future. Any effort to unite the Southern States upon issues that grow out of the memories of the war will summon the Northern States to combine in the assertion of that nationality which was their inspiration in the civil struggle And thus groat energies, which should bo united in a common industrial development, will be wasted in hurtful strife. The Democratic paity shows itself a foe to Southern prosperity by always invoking and urging Southern political consolidation. Such a policy quenches the rising instinct of patriotism in the heart o;f the Southern youth; it revives and stimulates prejudice; it substitutes the spirit of barbaric vengeuce for the love of peace, progress and harmony. THE OlVHi SRBVICB. The general character of the civil service of the United States under all administrations has been honorable. In the one supremo test the collection and disbursement of revenue the record of fidelity has never been surpassed in any nation. With the almost fabulous sums which were received and paid during the late war, scrupulous integrity was the prevailing rule Indeed, throughout that trying period it can be said, to the honor of the American name, that unfaithfulness and dishonesty among civil officers were as rare as misconduct ard cowardice ou the field of battle. The growth of the country has continually and necessarily enlarged the civil servio. until now it includes a vast body of officers. Rms and methods of appointment which prevailed rhen the number was smaller have been found insufficient and impracticable, and earnest f fforta have been made to separate the great m&s of

ministeria1 officers from partisan influence and personal control. Impartiality in the mode of appointment, to be based on qual ification, and security of tenure, to be based on faithful discharge of duty, arc the two ends to be accomplished. The public business will be aided by separating the legislative branch of the government from all control of appointments, and the executive department will be relieved by subjecting appointments to fixed rules and thus removing them from the caprice of favoritism. But there should be rigid observance of the law which gives in all cases of equal competency the preference to the soldiers who risked their lives in defense of the Union. I entered Congress in 1863, and in a somewhat prolonged service I n6ver found it expedient to request or recommend the removal of a civil officer except in four instances, and then for non-political reasons, which were instantly conclusive with the appointing power. The officers in the district, appointed by Dir. Lincoln in 1861 upon the recommendation of my predecessor, served, as a rule, until death or resignation, I adopted at the beginning of my service the test of competitive examination for appointments to West Point, and maintained it so long as I had the right by law to nominate a cadet In the case of many officers, I found that the present law, which arbitrarily limits the term of the commission, offered a constant temptation to changes for itneca political reasons. I have publicly expressed the belief that the essential modification of that law would be in many respects advantageous. My observation in the Department of State confirmed the conclusions of my legislative experience, and impressed me with the conviction

that the rule of impartial appointment might I

with advantage be carried beyond any existing provision of the civil-service law. It should be applied to ajmointmeate in the consular service. Consuls shculd be commercial sentinels eneh cling the globe with watchfulness for their country's interests. Their intelligence and competency become, therefore, matters of great public concern. No man should be appointed to an American consulate who is net well instructed in the hiatoiry and resources of his own country, and in the requirements and language of commerce in the country to which he is sent. The same rule should be applied even more rigidly .to

secretaries of legation in our diplomatic service. The people hawe the right to the most efficient agents in the discharge of public business and the appointing power should regard this as the prior and ulterior consideration. THK MORMON" QUfcflTTOW. Religious liberty is the right of every cHiaen of the Republic. Congress is forbidden by the Constitution to make any law 'respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. For a century, under this guarantee, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and gentile, have worshiped God aCjpording to the dictates of conscience. But religious liberty must not be perverted to the justification of offenses against the law. A religious sect, strongly intrenched in one of the Territories of the Union, and spreading rapidly into four other Territories', claims the right to destroy the great safeguard and muniment of social order, and to practice as a religious privilege that which is a crime punished with severe penalty in every State in the Union. The sacredness and unity of the family must be preserved as the foundation of all civil government, as the source of orderly administration, as the surest guarantee of moral purity. The claim of the Mormons that they are divinely authorized to practice-polygamy should no more be admitted than the claim of certain heathen tribes, if they should come among us, to continue the right of human sacrifice. The law does not interfere with what a man believes; it takes cognisance only of what he does. As citizens, the Mormons are entitled to the same civil rights as others and to these they must be confined. Polygamy can never receive national sanction or toleration by admitting the community that upholds it as a State in the Union. Like others, the Mormons, mast learn that the liberty of the individual ceases where the rights of society begin. OUB OUIU1RNCV r PUBLIO IAKD9 SHIPPING. The people of the United States, though often urged and tempted, have never seriously contemplated the recognition of any other money than gold and stiver and currency directly convertible into them. They have not done so, they will not do so, under any necessity less pressing than that of desperate war. Tho one special requisite for the completion of our monetary system is the fixing of the relative values of silver and gold. The large use of silver as the money of account among Asiatic nations, taken in connection with the inorc&sing commerce of the world, gives the weightiest reasons for an international agreement in the premises. Our government should not ceasa to urge this measure until a common standard of value shall be reached and established a standard that shall enable the United States to use the silver from its mines as an auxiliary to gold in settling the balances of commercial exchange. The strength of the Republic is increased Jy the multiplication of land-holders. Our laws should look to the judicious encouragement of actual settlers on the public domain, which should henceforth be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of those seeking homes. The tendency to consolidate large; tracts of land in the ownership of individuals or corporations should, with proper regard to vested rights, be discouraged. One hundred . thousand acres of land in the hands of one man is fir less profitable to the Nation in every way than when its ownership is divided among one thousand men. The evil of permitting large tracts of the national domain to be consolidated and controlled by the few against the many is enhanced when the persons controlling it are aliens. It is but fair that the public land should be disposed of only to actual settlers and to those who are citizens of the republic, or willing to becorae bo. . Among our national interests one languishes the foreign carrying trade. It was very seriously crippled in our civil war, and another blow was givea to it in the general substitution of steam for sail in ocean traffic. With a frontage on the two great oceans, vrith a freightage larger than that of any other nation, we have every inducement to restore our navigation. Yet the government has hitherto refused its help. A

small share of the encouragement given by the government to railways and to manufactures, ' aud a small share of the capital and . the zeal given by our citizens to those enterprises would have carried our ships to every sea and to every port A law just enacted removes some of the burdens upon our navigation and inspires hope that this great interest may at last receive its due share of attention. All efforts in this direction should receive encouragement. SACRKDNESS 09 THK BALLOT. This survey of bur condition as a Nation reminds us that material prosperity is but a mockery if it docs not tend to preserve the liberty of the people. A free ballet is the safeguard of republican institutions, without which no national welfare is assured. A popular election, honestly conducted, embodies the very majesty of true government. Ten millions of voters desire to take part in the pending contest The safety of the republic rests upon the integrity of the ballot upon the security of suffrage to the citizen. To deposit a fraudulent vote is no worse a crime againsj constitutional liberty than to obstruct the deposit of an honest vote. He who corrupts suffrage strikes at the very root of free government He is the arch-enemy of the republic. He forgets that in trampling upon the rights of others he fatally imperils his own rights. "It is a good land which the Lord our Godaoth give us," but we can maintain our heritage only by guarding with vigilance the source of popular power. I am, with great respect, Your obedient servant, James G. Blaine. Augusta, Me., July 15, 1884.

GEft b03Aira LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE

The Germans and the Democratic Platform New Orleans Deutsche Keitimf. We think just as little of the platform of the Democratic convention as we do of the candidates. The main question, which undoubtedly will divide the campaign in the North, is avoided in an unworthy manner, by which nobody will be fooled. With the old often repeated declaration against sumptuary laws the Democratic party will not draw one German Republican over, because they have only lately made tho experience in Ohio what such Democratic promises amount to. We will discuss other faults and weaknesses of the Democratic ticket and platform later. To-day it may suffice to say that neither one suits us, and that success of such Democratic candidal oa such a pfetform looks to us more than doubtful Democratic Spelling, BurMngton Hawkey. First class in spelling "Henri Wattewon, spell only." l4E-x c-l-u on s-l-Y-e-!t-y iy only." 4Righ&, my boy, you may goto the head, and have one of those beautiful chremos entitled The Star-Eyed Goddess uf Reform,' a poem in black" Hr. Hendricks" Kjeeptlons. National Republican. Mr. Hendricks says, "I do not ask that all be turned out No doubt the exceptions in hie mind are the very' large number ef Democrats now holding omce under Republican rule in every department of the fedeiul service

Washington, July 21. Following is the text of Gen Logan's letter accepting the Republican nomination ae a candidate for Vice prewdente WsHrKOTOW, D. C, July 19, 1864 Dear Sir Having received from you on the 24th of June the official notification of my nomination by the national Republican convention as the acpubliean candidate for Vice-president of the United States, and con&ilermg it to he the duly of every man devoting himself to the public service to assume any position , to-which he may be called by the voice of his country men, I accept tlie nomination with a grateful heart and a deep sense of its responsibilities, and if elected shall endeavor to discharge the duties of

the office to the best of my ability. This honor, as is well understood, was wholly unsought by me. That it was tendered by the representatives of the party, in a manner so fettering, will serve to lighten whatever labors I may be called upon to perform. Although the variety of subjects covered in the very excellent and vigorous declaration of principles adopted by the late convention prohibits, upon an occasion calling for brevity ef expression, that full elaboration of wh fen they are susceptible, I avail myself of party, usage to signify my approval of the various resolutions of the platform, and to discuss them briefly. PROTECTION TO AMSRICA3C IABOi. The :esoiutions of the platform declaring for a levy f such duties "as to afford security to our diversiied mdaetries, and protection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that active and int diligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just award, and the laboring man his full share in the national prosperity," meets my hearty approval - If tbisre be a nation on the face of the earth which might, if it were a desirable thing, build m wail ufton its every boundary line, deny communion to all the world, and proceed to live upon its owe resources and productions, that nation is the United tates. There is hardly a legitimate necessity of civilized communities which cannot be proiiueed from the extraordinary resourcos ef our several Sta s and Territories, with their manufjLCtories, mines, farms, timber lands nd waters rays. This circumstance, taken in con neetior with the fact that our form of government is entirely unique among the nations ef. the world, makes it utterly absurd to institute compai'isons between our own economic syems and those of other governments, and especially to attempt to borrow systems from them. We stand clone in our circumstances, oar forces, our pagisibilitaes, and our aspirations. In al successful government it is a prhns requisite that capital aud labor should be upon tlte best terms, and that both should enjoy the highest attainable prosperity. If there be a disturlance of the just balance between them,

lows, which is harmful to both. The lessons furnished by the comparatively short history of our own national life have been toomu&h cvertpoked by our people. The fundamental article tn the old Democratic creed proclaimed almost absolute free trade, and this, tooy no more than a quarter of a century age. The low condition of our national credit, the ftnaneiil and business xracertamties and general lack of prosperity under that system, can be remembered by every man. now in middle life. ""''' Altbuh fn the great number of reforms instituted by the Republican party sufficient credit has not bten publicly awarded to timt of tariff reform, its benefits have, neverthel sss, been felt throughout the laud. The principle underlying this measure has been m process of gradual development by the Republican party durjng the comparatively brief period of its power, and today a portion of its antiquated Democratic opponents make uu willing concession to the correctness of the doctrine of an equitably adjusted protective tariff; by following slowly in its footsteps, though a very long way m the rear. The principle in vol v"? is one of no great obscurity, and can be readily- comprehended by any intelligent person calmly reflecting upon it The political and social systems of some of our trade-competing nations have created working classes miserable m the extreme. They receive the meiest stipend for their daily toil, and in the

great expense of the necessities of life, are deprived tf those comforts of clothing, housing; and hctalth-producing food which with wholesome mental asd social recreation can alone make existence happy and desirable. Now, if the products of those countries are to be plaosd in our markets, alongside of American product, either the American capitalist must suffer la his legitimate profits, or he must make the American laborer suffer, in the attempt to compete with the species of labor above referred to. In the case of a substantial reduction of pay, th9re can be no compensating advantages for the American laborer, because the articles of daily consumption which he uses with the exception of articles not produced in the United States, and easy of being specially provided for, as coffee and tea are grown in our own country, and would not be affected in price by a lowering in duties. Therefore, while he would receive less for his labor, his cost of living would not be decreased. Being practically placed upon the pay of the European laborer, our own would be deprived of facilities for educating and sustaining his f;unily respectably; he would be shorn of the proper opportunities of self-improvement, and his value as a citizen, charged with a portion of the obligations of government, would be lessened, the moral tone of the laboring class would euffer, and in torn the interests of capital, and the well-being ef orderly citizens in general, would be menaced, while one evil would react upon another until there would be a general disturbance of the whole community. The true problem of a good and stable government is how to iufuse prosperity among all classes of people the manufacturer, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer alike. Such prosperity is a preventive of crime, a security of capital and the very boat guarantee of general peace and happiness. . The obvious policy of our government is to protect both capital and labor by a proper fasposition of duties. This protection should extend to every article of American productie which goes to build up the general prosperity of our people. The national convention, in view

of the special dangers menacing the wool interests of th3 United States, deemed it wise ta adopt a separate resolution on the itubject ef tts proper protection. This industry h? a very large and important one. The necessary legislation to sustain this industry upon a prosperous basis should be extended. No one rc&lizes more folly than myself the great delicacy and difficulty of adjusting a tariff so nicely and eQui tatty as to protect every homo industry v sustain every class of American labor, promote to the highest point our great agricul-

turai lnKsresiB, nuu as uie ohihv uun w wm . one and all the advantages pertaining to forekra

productions not in competition with our ova