Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-12

of Secretary Of the Treasury, If II has been
offered him, which is currently reported. In
the first place the contest for the vacant
Seuatorship will distract the Legislature, to
The exclusion Of valuable legislation, if there
is any to be done. There is faction inside
the Republican party, which represents no
principle but hostility TO the rest and which
will use every possible means to thwart the ,
choice of the majority Of that party. The
Democrats have no hope of electing a Dem
ocrat; but by acting with the so-cslled Con-
servatives, they can prolopg the contest, for
the fun of the thing. The Radicals, as they
are called, would be reduced to the choice
of electing bitter enemy, or of preventing
a choice if they could. The election of Mr..
Chase had a narrow escape from deadlock
of this kind. Some of the Conservatives
voted against meeting in joint convention,
after agreeing to it and appointing the time.
Some others of them claimed great credit
for strict honor, for yielding to az election
in joint convention, after they had voted
against going into one, to the last although
they had agreed upon the time.
in voting saved the election from being
postponed at that time; and if it had been,
the contest might have been continued
through that session and the present one.
What principles these terms represent, when
radicals and conservatives all swear by the
Chicago Platform, and when the conserva-
tives were enthusiastic for Lincoln, whose
radicalism suits the strsightest sect of the
irrepressibles, is perfectly incomprehensible.
No man can define them. But the actuali-
ties are hostility of the conservatives to-
ward the majority faction, considerably
more bitter than that of the Democrats; and
a determination to thwsrt them in every
possible way.
If the Democrats in the Legislature held
manly and patriotic attitude, for sustaining
the honor of the State, and the enforcement
of the Constitution and laws of the General
Government, a contest that would distract
the other party, might be beneficial; but so
far their efforts have been to humiliste and
degrade their own State, with the hope of
humiliatiug the Republican party; and to
give open countenance to Secession by de-
claring through the Legislature of Ohio that
there is no power in the General Govern
ment to suppress rebellion, but it must be
bibed by concession.
With this policy there is no prospect of
the defeat of the Republican Party in Ohio,
and the only way is to try TO make the best
of that. The contest for the Senatorship
would be unwholesome, and had better be
avoided. If the Legislature has any import
ant legislation to do, let it, like the pupils at
Dotheboys Hall, go and do it.
Secondly there is no fame to be won by
Mr.. Chase in the Treasury. The whole
financial policy of the Government is uu-
sound, and has got to be reconstructed. 1t
will fall on Mr.. Chase to point out the way.
Can he, with his views, advise such a tariff
as will raise the necessary revenue? 1t will
regnire rate of duty that will make pro-
tective tariff seem almost like free trade. 1t
is doubtful if a tariff can be adjusted to raise
the necessary revenue. Possibly it may be
done by abolishing the free list. But if the
same duty were levied on the raw materials
of manufactures, as on the foreign manufac-
lures, the protection would neutralize ITSELF
and the manufacturer would be worse off
than with free trade for the additional cost
of the raw materials would put him on an
equality with foreign manufacturers, in the
home market, and exclude him from COM
peting in foreign markets with manufactures
from free materials.
1t has been supposed that people believed
in protection. But certainly the mauufac-
turers do not; for if you touch with duties
the materials or the provisions they use, they
cry worse than when free trade is proposed.
There is no such theory as protection, and
never was.
The manufacturers free-list must be left
untouched. A tariff sufficient for the rev.
enue that We need would be an unequal and
oppressive taxation. 1t is doubtful if it can
be so adjusted as to raise the necessary rev.
enue. Even then, our whole revenue is an
initiated at a breath. Financial panic col
lapses it regularly. At the rumor of war
the Government becomes bankrupt. An
actual war would disgrace the nation, from
this weakness. Such means of revenue is
regarded as unequal by the South, and has
already threatened the dissolution of the
Union once, and will threaten it constantly,
now that Secession has come to be one OF
the means of carrying on our Admirable in
stitutions.
If Mr.. Chase could expose the inherent
rottenness Of the system, and show that the
only sound financial policy for this Govern.
ment is to require of the States the means
for carrying on the General Government
with view to its gradual and total with.
drawal from dependence on the present falla.
cious and enormously costly system; and i
he could do this with even the beginning o
success, he could make a reputation thai
would reach poSterity. But we doubt tha
, such consummation is hopeless in his party
And as for the Democratic Party, since
t tied the negro milestone about the Northern
Democracy, it has been constantly graspin:
: at straws to save itself from drowning; anC
it has been driven to recruit its declining
fortunes from protectionists, internal i'm
, provementschemers, and paper-money bank
ers, until the aggregate is like the content
of the great sheet which was let down to en-
| large st. Peters regimen. So there is n
: hope from that quarter. But there is N
financial fame to be won under our rottel
T financial system.