The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-08-18
THE CAMPAIGN IN HANCoCK.

of the question.
Mr.. Walker, Editor ofthe Wheeling
Register, who is nominated as the COM
petitor of our gallant Duval, made the
opening speech, and filed his hour in
ldenouncfng the radicals. The grand
charge was that 'scarpet baggers and
scalawags" in the West Va. Legislature
had created horde of office holders,
and enacted the odious registry law.
Please refer him to D. Lamb now of the
Conservative party for explanation OF
these questions, as / believe he had as
much TO do in the enactment OF these
laws as any member of the Legislature.
The great objection to the registry
law was that IL excluded honest men
from yoting-their friends. ~
In Hancock the law excludes, I believe,
not more than one or two men, but out
along the border and in the interior it
is hard on their party. Rebels who
were in arms, who burned the houses
of Union men, who stole their horses
and done all that they could to destroy
the Union, are excluded from the ballot
to the great loss of the Democratic party.
He gave the reconstruction laws OF
Congress an excoriation, and howled
terribly over the freedmen's bureau.
Made piteous appeals for their South
ern brethren alias the rebels, but not
one word of sympathy for the Southern
white man who has stood by the Union,
and whose very life depends upon the
success OF the Union party and the
maintenance Of these reconstruction
laws.
Then followed the champion of the
day, ar. Robert Gibson, in an hours
speech which was expected todemolish
the radical party. This Is the gentle
man who, four years ago in this county,
proved to the satisfaction of the rank
and file that greenbacks and bonds
1 n
failure. Well, what do you suppose
was the theme of his story to-day ?
The Debt. The Debt. You can never
pay IL; who can enumerate it? who
| can comprehend it? To illustrate and
bring IL down 10 the comprehension OF
even a Democrat, he loaded a wagon
train with silver, and the train Fesched
from l6O miles West of Chicago along
| the prairies and over the hills to West
| Virginia, and was 20 days in passing a
given point. You will hear this silver
tale doubt not, as he threatens to in
dict upon us West Virginians a series
OF discourses in the interest of his
friend Walker.
With all the adroituess of lawyer
versed in all the tricks by which a
criminal may be shielded from the law,
he spent his hour In covering up the
real issues before us, as raised by Sey-
mour and Blair and in their Democrat
Ic platform, and switching of his hear
ers upon the old question of the tariff.
He stated that Inc Radicals had col
lected by the tariff during the last
three years some $50 millions of dol
lars, thus supporting the New England
Yankees and impOverishing the farm
eTs of West Virginia, who were COM
PEELED 10 sell their wool for IL cents
that the manufacturers might grow
rich. But he forgot 10 tell the farmers
how much they would have got for
| their wool without tariff or under a
Democratic tariff.
Next he stated that the Radicals had
ruined the country by exporting, within
the same period, $3.50, 0OO, GOO In gold.
Mr.. Gibson may comprehend the
Democratic understanding better than
do, but surely he cannot hope to i'm
pose such stuff upon the Republicans
| of this county. Does not every school
boy know that we only export gold to
| pay the balance OF trade, and that we
would keep our gold we must buy less
| abroad and manufacture more at home
And how is this to be brought about
Certainly by such tariff as will give
the market to our own labor in prefer
ence to the work men of other countries
He labored hard to show how the tariff
oppressed the poor man, and no doub
convinced some of them that they werI
paying about S35 tax upon the sui
upon their backs, (yOur correspondent
dresses about like his neighbOrs, anC
foot up more than $50, all told, SO cam
exactly see the argument)
As he was talking 10 Hancock au
dience, let me illustrate this question
by an example in our county familiar
TO all his listeners, and which can bt
repeated to your people upon every ar.
/ ticIe manufactured in your midst.
Our people manufacture largely in
| fire brick, and many ofthese manufac'
turers, strange as it may appear, are
| democrats. So far as our home trade
is concerned, we are independent of all
tariff, and competition regulates the
| prices to the consumer, but prior to the
| rebellion we had a market Tor small
number OF brick in the Souths We sold
at about twenty dollars per 1000, and
were satisfied with that price II we
could have n permanent trade. The En-.
| glish brought over brick as ballast and
drove us out of the market, and thus
taking advantage of the planter put up
brick to $50 and $50 per 1000 and
thus the market tluCtuated, until
Congress, upon petition signed by al
most every voter in this section, Whig
and Democrat, gave us small tariff
for protection. The result was that
although bricks remained at about the
old price, We had a market for tenfold
more bricks In Louisiana, thus giving
the manufacture of one million oil
bricks more per annum to labor In
West Virginia instead of TO workmen
in England.
| Now, Mr.. Gibson may raise as much
dust as he can, but even his Democratic
| friends here understand this particular
branch of trade as l have stated 1t,
And so should the laborer and the cap.
italist in your mills and foundries and
I HI NO
sophistry.
His attack upon the protective policy
of the country may show what is to be
expected should they attain to power;
but what has this subject to do with
the great issues before the people at this
election?
| Let us remember what we have 10 do
is 10 see that "loyalty Is made honor
able and disloyalty dishonorable."
THAT the soldier who fought for us,
and his widow and his orphan children
shall be cared for" "Thnt every man
who marched to the music OF the Union
shall be protected" "That the thou
sands of Union white men in the South
ern States who stood by us in the strug.
gle shall not be crushed beneath the
heel of rebelR when the Democratic
party would return to power"
Neither ofthe speakers named MesSrs.
Seymour or Blair; not cheer was
given for candidate, speaker, or princi-
pie. And had they but heard the en-
thustastic cheering for Grant and Col
fax and our State ticket, and the hurrah
i OF the boys in blue as they welcomed
their old commander the gallant Gen.
Duval to our Union meeting on Tues
day, they would have certainly imag-
J ined that it was a Democratic funeral
they were attending instead of grand
Democratic rally OF Olden times.
HANCOCK.