Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1846-03-13

fully prove what we say: The one charge,
thousand times reappearing in a Thousand
forms-for falsehood is Proteus-the ont
charge against the democracy and the demo
cratic administration has been, that it sough
to stir up war with England.
Now mark how the tables are suddenly
turned. Note the ludicrous etfrontery wifi
which the whole~whig hunt catches the new
scent. and starts off baying open-mouthed up
on the new track. Experience OF the past
and shuddering fear for the future, force
England to open her ports to the teemlng pro
ducts of our soil. Pending delicate negotta'
tons, she sends US word that she Is in wan
of corn. The very crisis comes which the
friends of free trade in this country-the dem
ocratic par.y-have long been looking for. Il
is the very moment to do the democratic deed
of commercial and financial justice and equal
ny. The tariff of l842-against which the
democrats protested when it passed-agafns'
which they resolved at Baltimore-agains1
which they rallied in canvdss-against which
they placed the present administration In
power-against which they came up to Con
gress from the West, and the South,sa the
North, fully committeG-against which they
are sustained by all economical doctrine, by
the best modern example, and by the clear
tendency of the times every where, as wei! as
by the universal demand throughout our own
country for equal justice to all classes at the
hands of our law, and in conformity with our
constitution; the tarif of 1912, against which
the democratic party now stands thus embat-
tied and thus intrenched on its old battle
ground, and under its time-honored and victo-
rious flag; the tariff of 1842. the offspring of
the political debaucheries of the bacchanal
canvass of 1910, at this moment stands be-
tween US and the great grain and meat market
of twenty-five millions of men, n0tU on short
allowance Of food, in the British empire!
From the very date of its advent to power.
this administration had been in every way
preparing itself, by the collection of informa-
tion on the subject, and by the full PRESENT.
ment of its own views. to discharge it's con-
stitutional duty to Congress and the country
in relation to this tariff. The democratic party
in Congress, giving place in the first instance
to the necessary action on the Oregon contro-
versy, has been waiting patiently for the day
when the whole tariff question should be reg
ularly laid before it. The principles upon
which that question shall! be settled when it
comes up, are not doubtful. They form lead
defined in the Baltimore resolutions. They
are in substance reiterated and enforced in the
message and in the treasury report. They are
quite independent of the action of England.
They are, in the judgment of tho democracy,
true and selfsustained in themselves. They
are to be carried out prudeLtly, firmly, effec
tually. SO to carry them out, the present
democratic Congress was sent to Washington
by the people. All this is known, just as we
state it, to every wing journal in the country.
And yet, mark the result Because the
democrats will not apostatize from their old
they will not falsify their
pledges as public men-because, being elect
ed as democrats to vote down the tariff Of
1912, they now propose to continue democrat
ic in SO voting it down-they are charged by
all the wing press aUiM trucking to England,
and buying Oregon by the sacrifice Of .4merican
industry! and this charge is made because the
democratic party cannot see the justice or
wisdom of law which makes square yard
Of cotton cloth, which costs five cents in Man
chester, to be valued here at twenty cents, and
then taxed thirty per cent. on that value be-
fore the poor man can have it made into clo-
thing.
This is jnst the case. The democracy have
come together in Congress to modify the tar
if, because the tariff is unjust, unwise, un-
popular, and anti democratic. Events have
just transpired which make the modification
of the tariff measure of peace. These events
have come opportunity. Providence, in Wis
ting one great nation with calamity, has Civ
en- to another new motive to just legislation,
and new power which may be welded to
extend and strengthen the commercial relations
IF fh0 fyxyoo L,v &c
tice to ourselves, to preserve the peace of the
world.
And now the self-styled peace party by en-
inence-the party whose journals in their
trucking for the sake of peace have been will
ling to forget patriotism, and pervert truth,
and make "the worse appear the better rea-
son'-whose journals have exhausted every
resource of vituperation against the admins
traticn would not give up American soil to
England, nor permit foreign power to con-
troll the possession of that soil-this party, for
sooth, is now. in those same journals, getting
up clamor against the administration, be-
cause its tariff policy turns out to be the policy
Of peace. TO rouse the ire of the whig press,
1t is not enough that the present tariff has !ong
been foredoomed because Of its injustice and
is not enough that the demo-
cratic party nave long since protested against
it, and resolved that it must not stand. More
is wanted to whet the edge of whig hostility.
The wing journals cannot rest till they throw
in the face of,the administration the fact, that
its tariff policy will prevent war if war can be
prevented. To prevent war, these journals
will get up any day a fit of horrors in view of
British armaments-theyw will cringe and shake
as with ague, and speak for American rights
in "a bondsman's key, with bated breath
and whispering utterance." But when the
question is, shall we do great right to the
agricultural masses of our own country, now
taxed by an unjust law, and by so doing pre-
serve peace with England, by interlacing the
commercial interests of the two Countries
when that is the question, then the wings be-
come ferocious halers. of England, all of a
sudden, and will have it that we truckle to