The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-05-03
THE REPUBLIC.
TUESDAY MORNING, MAY ;, 1883.


Obsolete Issues.
We observe that the Tribune continues III
avowal that "the Wing party is hopelessl
prostrate.o
we shall not transfer the argument to prov
that this result has been caused by the in
terpolation OF ''pro-slavery tenets" upon tn
Wing creed. But the Tribune cites the Mort
.4merican Rspie,c as authority for its assertion
and We to-day republsh the article referred t
from that sterling and standard periodical.
The declaration of the Republic that i
would sustain the measures of the Administra
ton 80 far as they may conform to the inaugu
raj message, was received by our Democratic
censors with suspicion and surprise. Some o
them even manifested hatterlng apprehen
sion at the acquisition Of such an ally.
| We take this occasion, however, to relieve
them, by saying that we do not design becom-
ing candidate for the post of organ to tn,
Administration, although that appears just now
to be vacant. There is no danger on iha
score. We have no expectation Of any reward
nor do We desire to share in scramble where
success is no compensation for the humiliation
Of obtaining it.
But we can by no means admit that we
abandon the principles of the Wing party
in giving an impartial support to the mea-
sures of Democratic administration, if they
should deserve it. The Wing party was
founded in hostility to arbitrary power, and
to political corruption. Many of its members
abandoning office and the hopes of office, went
isto the wilderness of political prescription
with no other resource than the inspiration OF
duty. From these standard principles no Wing
can ever depart, and, whenever an issue shall
be presented, the Wing party will be found
united In maintaining them.
Certain measures of fiscal and revenue policy
have at different times constituted issues upon
which the American people have divided.
In the discussion of these issues politicians
have sometimes predicted results that ought to
have followed but the resources of the coun-
try and the energies of its people have propel-
led 1t upon the track of progress, in spite of
obstacles apparently sufficient to have arrested
it. The advocates of the United States Bank
were of opinion that the Government could not
get along without its agency. The Govern
ment was much perplexed by its prostration,
but employed other agents, and the public bust
ness went on. 1t was thought that domestic
and foreign exchanges would be irregular,
without an immense fiscal fly wheel to steady
the momentum of the monetary movement.
But it was discovered that exchanges, like
other merchandise, regulated themselves.
A patriotic school of statesm en-, headed by
Mr.. CALHOUN, Mr.. CLAY, Mr.. WEBSTER,
Mr.. LowNpEs, and Mr.. BUCHANAN, advocated
the encouragement of manufactures by employ
ing revenue protection.
During the protracted warfare upon this sub
ject, the poor manufacturers were the object of
public odium or of political effect; their ease or
liar feeling to that with which demonstration
of anatomy pursues his experiments upon ami
NAL endurance.
Under the prejudces engendered by this
conflict, a man who drove shoe-pegs or ham
mered riyets for living, became bloated arts
tocrat, living upon the earnings Of agricul-
tursl gentleman whose sons were at college,
and whose wine was in cool; who rode over his
extended fields or walked bis piazza to look out
for his invited guests. The mechanic natu
rally grew tired of stalking his bread and
breeches upon every political contest; and the
great iron interest, alarmed at the consequences
of being made the anvil upon which translu-
cent distractions were to be hammered, be-
sought its friends, as the lad did Don Quixotre,
not to protect it any more just then.
In the mean time, manufacturers betook
themselves to the study of mechanical rather
than legislative combinations. The immense
growth Of the country provided an adequate
home market to the consumption of all their
products. So it happened that when Philo
Tariff had, in his 85th chapter, demonstrated
''that without protection manufactures mus.
perish" and Anti-tariff had, with equal clear
ness, shown that the difference between duty
OF twenty and twenty per cent, if levied
TOR The purpose Of protection, must cover the
paving stones of Southern cities with crab grass
and ''build up an arrogant plutocracy, mean
ing money power, beneath whose heartles
exactions the honest tiler of the toil-worn sol
must abandon the graves of his ancestors 70
the terors of an bowling Wilderness" SOM
acute benefactor of his species, who prefers EN-
ploying gravity or galvanism to slave labor, o
his own, patents some fortuitous wheel or ma
gcal spring, or, as Mr.. Skimpole would say
somebody discovers something" which re
duces the cost of production. and thus pre-
serves some sinking interest which had bee
| nurtured at the breast of protection, and coul
not, it was supposed, subsist upon any othe
aliment; or some patriotic philosopher pub
fishes an essay upon calcareous manures, toge
ther with series of successful experiments
whereupon the grass begins to grow upon tn
heids, and, as natural consequence. quit
growing IN the streets; and it begins to