The Arkansas banner., 1844-09-25

whigs desire to secure prosperity to them,as those just noticed. But enough here.
 When and where did Mr. Van Buron utter the sentiment attributed to him by Capt. Pike; He may have said something of the kind; but if he did, it must have been i'll re- ference to the enormous promises made toI the people, by the whigs in the canvass of 1880. Such as, if Gen. Harrison were elect ed. he would secure to every poor man TWO DOLLARS A DAY AND ROAST BEEF. Indeed, they promised to raise the price of labor, all kinds of produce, and pour wealth and plenty into the laps oi all--revive commerce, enable the people to pay ther debts, and bring upon the country unpfece- dented blessings and prosperity.
 Mr. Van Buren held, and so do the demo- crats, that it is the business of goyernmentto protect commerce, trade, and furnish the con- stiiatjonaz medium of crchoage, If ourshiPs are filled with the productions of our rich, exhaustless, and widely extended soil=-I our home and foreign markets are crowded with articles of trade-if the debts Of the people are paid, and they grow rich, it must all be accomplished by the labor, industry and en- terIfise of our people, and not by the gov enment. He who teaches a different doc Urine is either ignorant of the nature and de- sign of government, or intends to pYy the demagogue. will not charge eithet npon Capt. PIKE. He may be judged by those who heard him, according to his teachings.
 Instead of telling Us about the great con ventions which he had yisited,- ,-as expected, and had right to expect from the hand7bills, much to my disappointment, and thought from remarks and appearance, to the dfsap- pointment of large portion of his audience, the speaker nexttook up the Tariff; and gave us a long, long argument oil this haellneyed theme, saying but little out of the beaten track.
 From the time entered the Hall, l was eagerly listening for those bright flashes of fancy, and brilliant dashes Of oratory, which | had been induced to expect from the ssPoet of Arkansas" Finally, ln his introductory remarks about the Tariff, he gave us one glow from fancy's full fountain He drew upon the sun, moon, and stars, and, l thought, forced them in rather unnaturally, awkward lY, and in bad time.
 He said in effect, for six thousand years (erersince tha sun, moon and stars. Ssc., Sc , men had been trying to build up liberal form of government that would last-ihat would go on. That most of them had been overthrown by the people, because they were openly burthened and oppressed to support them, and they would not stand it
 But our government had finally found out the great secret. It had been in existence for nearly sixty years-there were men present who had been paying money to support 1t, for 10, 20, 40, and 50 years, and did notleel or know it. They hardly knew there was government over them. How was this Why the government was snppoFted by a Tariff. Many man paid large sums to sup port the government, under the operation of the Tariff. and did. not grlmble at II. Be- cause he did not know t. While if he were taxed directly, five dollars in Arkansas mo- ney, for the same purpose, he would com plain heavily. There were. 10 me, several strange things about this argument First, call 1t the arguu2ent901 ad ignoraadum.- Was it a compliment to his audience to tell them that they were ignorant of the operation oi the Tariff? That 1t took money from them with a secret and noiseless hand, and they missed il not from their pockets. It would be hard to convince an intelligent man that it is-belter. .for-him that len dollars be stolen from him while he sleeps, than two or three to be taken from him, or even the same amount, before his eyes. Yet this was one of the main arguments of Capt. Pike in favor of Tariff
 But again, mark you, he said the PEOPLE, his AUDIENCE, had been paying money fer the support of the government for great length of tune. And how was this Why the government laid a tariff on goods brought into this country from abroad, and the con sllalers of the goods paid the tariff, and in this way they supported the government. Every candid person present will bear testimony that lie took this position. He positively admitted, in this part of his address, that the coRS@naer paid the duty on goods, and thereby supported the government. And vet, passing sively strange, afer getting through with this part of his argument, he laid down, and ar gued for an hour, the contradictory proposi- lion, that the consu7l,er did not pay the duty, but that it was partly paid by the foreign producer, by a strange peryersien of the laws of trade, he made the manufacturer of this country pay the balance. So that the people (the consumers) did not pay any thing to support the government, as he had stated in the outset 1 vas utterly surprised, sir, to find the great Arkansian champion of Whig principles laboring for an hour or longer, to DlSPROVE what he had ADMITTED in the out=set His speech on the tariff was it's own refataiion. He took several positions, and made q number of illustrations, to show that the tariff does not fall upon the consumer, which l would notice but for lhe fact that a speech so contradictory in itself, cannot mis- lead any thinking man who may have heard il, Next CAPT. PIKE took up the character of MT. Clay, and then he gave Us the benefit of his fancy. And he ayailed himself to the fullest extent of the poetic license--he drew largely on his imagination, to make out the fine picture that he gave us of the great Whig leader.
 Mr. Clay's history was the history of his country. His name was associated with every