The Woodstock age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1844-1845, 1844-08-22

SlLAS WRIGHT.
Thomas RITcHIE, Esq, and others,
Committee
MR. CLAY'S SOUTHERN TARIFF
VIEWS, GARFIELD AND FALSI-
FLED BY THE MORT HE RN
WINGS.
The wings of the North are playing a
bold game of imposition and fraud in re-
gard to Mr. Clay's views of the present
Tariff. They dare not permit him to
speak out in his own language, on this
subject; but they put words into his
mouth which he never uttered-make
him say what they want him to say, but
what he never has said, and cannot say
without gross and palpable inconsistency.
For instance, at The masthead of the
leading wing papers in this state, will be
found the following language, displayed
with typographical emphasis, and attribu-
ted to Mr. Clay. We copy it from the
standing dish of the Albany Evening
Journal:
81 had resigned my seat in the Senate
when the act of 1912 passed, Without
intending to express any opinion upon ev-
cry item of the Tariff, l acouM sag that
/ think the provisions in the main mise
and proper Sept l3H, ls43, Letter
TO a Committee Of Georgia Wigs,
We happen to have before us the en-
tire letter from which the above purports
to be an extract, ard we do not hesitate
to pronounce it a deception, as bold and
mpudent as any that has ever character
lied its source, That we are aware is
saying agreat dcal-but we shall J1r0re
it to be such to the satisfaction of any and
every body, be he wing or democrat,
In the first place the letter from which
the extract purpOrts to be taken, was not
written"to committee ofGeorgia wings"
IA mistake trivial in itself, and important
only as exhibiting a deliberate attempt to
deceive and to cude detection, by con-
coalng the pretended source of the pas
sage. 1t was written to a Mr. Bronson,
of La Grange, in Georgia, who, it seems,
being about to establish a whig paper
there, wrote to Mr. Clay con his own
hook" because, as he says, 81 desire to
know precisely in what manner am to
meet the democracy in their numerous
modes of attack" But the design to de-
ccive is apparent enough from the pecu-
liar manner in which MIR Clay's language
is garbled, in order to make him say
that he is in favor of "the Tariff, as It 81
Mr. Clay says NJ such thing-as will be
seen by the following genuine extract from
Mr. Clay's letter to Mr. Bronson, written
in September last On the contrary, he
comedies that there MAY BE "EXCE SSES
or DEFECTS in it," which "Ought to b.
c~rectm" Mr. Clay's letter to Mr. Bron-
son reads thus:-
After my return to Congress in 1881, my efforts
were directed TO the modification and reduction
of the rates of duty contained in the act Of 1928
The act of 1892 greatly reduced and modified
hens and the act of 1888, commonly called the
Compromise Act, sill further reduced and mod-
lied them. The act which passed II, the extra
session of ISL which | supported, was confined
to free articles. ! had resigned my seat in the
Senate when the act of 1912 passed. Generality
The duties which il imposes are IOcer Maa those
in The aci Of 1892. tint, wllhou. intending TO
| express my opinion upon every item Of this last
Tariff, would say that think the provisions
in the main, nre wise and proper II there be
lHy erCeSeS or dcfccts in IT. (Of Which | hare
not The means here Of jufsingO they ought TO
be corr ccteI."
The reader will see by the Hahieiscd
portions of the above extract, what has
been clipped out, after the operator be-
gan to quotc-and how skiliully the dis
socting hand has been at work with it,
To make the passage convey the very
oppoSitc meaning from that which the
writer Intended, an entire Scmhnce is IT,
pungoI from the Jodyqthc protcndrd q"o-
totjOn--and the word connecting it with
the next erased, to conceal the trlck-and
all that Mr. Clay says at the end about
crceSScs and d,trcts in the present tariff
is carefully omitteH For, we repeat, the
garblcd passage is used by the whig press
at the north, to show that Mr. Clay goes
for "the tariff as il is"-though disguise
it as they will, it cannot be made to carry
that idea. As they have it, it studiously
avoids any expression as to the htaik OF
the present tariff; and as it originally
stood, under an if, it expressly hints at
EXCESSES and DEFECTS that oaghi
10 be corrected.
But the entire and genuine letter to
Mr. Bronson, shows how completely Mr.
Clay's position on the Tariff is iaIsifed
by his partisans in all this northern Sec
ton, and how sensible they are of the
impossbilty of placing him and Gov.
Polk at opposites on that subject, by
fair means. In the first place, Mr. Clay
in this letter to Mr. Bronson, takes dis
tinct ground in favor of "A tariff tor rece-
me and incidental proieciion-prcciscly
the ground taken in his Raleigh speech,
written out since his nomination for the
presidency, and precisely the ground taken
by Gov. Polk, in his recent letter to Mr.
Kane of Philadelphia. We quote ex-
tracts from these two letters, and defy
the most skiiul logicians to point out
shade of difference between them:-
Henry Clay says in his letter to Mr.
Bronson OF Ga, Sept. 10, 1912,
The sum and substance rwhat conceive to be- the
true policy of the United States, in respect TO Tariff
may be briefly stated. In con fDTHU ith the Briucjyl