Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1856-08-02

intelligence. Heaven forbid that should dC
them wrong. OF all the countries on the
earth, We ough, to have The most consideration
for the labOring man, From the very nature
Of our institutions. the wheel Of fortune Is
constantly revolving and producing such mu'
latiOns in property lha, the wealthy man Of
to-day may become the poor laborer Of to-mor.
row. Truly wealth takes TO itself wings and
ilies away. large fortune rarely lasts be.
yond the third genefati0n, even NJ Il endure so
long. We must all know instances Of indi-
viuals obliged 10 labor for their daily bread
whose gmndialhrrs were men Of fnriune, The
regular process OF society wduld almost seem
TO consist of the efforts Of one class TO diSsi.
pate the fortunes which they have inherited,
whilst another class, BY their industry aud
economy, are regularl rising 70 wealth. We
have ALL therefore, a COMMON interest, ns IL is
sur Commo" d"ty, 10 protect tho rights of the
lnboring man; and il believed for moment
that this bill would prove injurious TO him, il
should meet my unqualified opposition.
although this bill will not have ms great
an influence as ! could desire, yet, as far as il
goes, il will benefit the lnborng man as niue
and probably more than any other class OF so.
cieiy. What is il he ought most 10 desire
Constant employment, regular wages, and
uniform, rcasOnnble prices for the necessares
and comforts of life which he requires Now,
sir, what has been his condition under our
system nj expansions mud coniructions9 lie
has suffered more lay theR than any other class
Of society. The rate of his wages is fixed and
known and they nre the last 10 rise with the
increasing expansion, and The first TO fall when
til corresponding revulsion occurs. He still
continues TO receive his dollar per dav, whilst
the price of every article which he CONSUMES
is rapidly rising. He is at length made TO feel
that, although he nominolly earns MS much, or
even more Than he did formerly, yet, from II e
increased price Of the necessaries Of life, he
cannot support his family. Hence the strikes
for higher wages, and the uneasy and excited
feelings which have at diff; rent periods existed
among the Inborng classes. But the expan.
sion at length reaches the exploding point, and
what does the nboring man now suffer? He
is for n season thrown out Of employment alto.
geIher. Oar manufactures are suspended our
public works are stopped; our private enter.
prizes of different kinds are abandoned and,
whilst Others are able to weather the storm. he
can scarcely procure the means of bure sub
sistencc.'
The reader will be surprized when we state
that whatever nf foundation there is for the
"ien cent charge is embraced in me extracts
which wc have maie from NJ. Buchanan
speech, Throughout the who of II there is
no sentence or word which gives even piausj-
bi.jry to tho charge From beginning 10 IN
abe s"anrh ah1nnis in sound, satesmanlika
sentiments, which hrye been fully illustrated
by the experience Of The last sixteen gra1s.-
Onr Chief purpose in making such liher, quo.
tatonS is to vindrate the wisdom and Grinues.
aud patriotism OF Mr.. Buchanan. We desired
TO show how noby he sustained Gen Jackson
in his struggle with the United States Bunk
how faithfully and ably he maintained the
democratic position on the independent treasr-
ry system--hnw clearly he comprehended and
how forcibIy he presented the merits of that
system--and how clearly and earnestly he
the interests of the laboring man. It
is indeed strange that the charge of a wish to
reduce the wages of Inboring men should be
based on anything in this speech. But it mus,
be recolIected that it was during tn, remarkable
'anvass OF 1910 that this charge obtained cur
fency. In the then condition of the popular
mind, nothing was so absurd or preposterous
as not TO be acceptable to the deprnved taste Of
the times. This remark is fully illustrated in
The manner in which Mr.. Buchanan's speech
was perverted, and charge deduced from i,
which was in direc; contradiction OF the speech
itself.
Amongst others who undertook to answer
Mr.. Buchanan's speech was the Hon. John
Davis of MassachuSetts--he that was usually
known as ''honest John Davis" IIe assumed
in his argument, directly in the teeth of The
fact, that Mr.. Buchanan had advocated the
treasury on the ground that it
would establish an exclusive mat,rc currency.
Starting with this erroneous assumption. he
argued 10 show that it wouId bring down the
wages of labor TO the standard of prices in
countries where the currency is exclusively
metallic. To this speech, when published,
there was an appendix in which he introduced |
4 table, showing that in 'ama of the exclusive. |
Iy metallic countries of Europe, kborers only
rec ived ten cents n dav. Putting the speech ,
md the appendix together, the hint was tnken
md n camor raised, thar the democrats were
IN favor of reducing the wages Of labor to, Ton
,en's dav.
ia subsequent speech, made on the Sd of
March, 1910, Mr.. Buchanan denounced the
haree og'In$: MIN in the strongest language
ayin.;
"Self-respect as well as the respect which
we 10 The Senate, restrains me from giving
uch contradiction to this allegation as it
deserves Ii would surely not be deemed i'm
roper, however, in me, il | were to turn to the
Senator and apply the epithet which he him
elf has applied to the proposition he imputes
0 me, and were to declare that such an impu.
alton was 'fagitious Misrepresentation Of
ny remarks"
Mr. Buchanan repeated his real position as
nd down in his original speech, as follows
"ln my remarks / stated distinctly what
'gislatioh would, thought be required to
this purpose. In the first place, /
bserved that the banks ought to be compelled
, keep in their vaults a certain fair proportion
f specie compared with their circulation and