New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-12
THE EVENING POST ON HENRY CLAY
AND PROTECTION.

AND PROTECTION.
We have taken pains to show, by ample and
careful citations, that Henry Clay, so far from
becoming Free Trader in 1888, as The Erening
Post has repeatedly asserted, was an earnest
and effective PrOtectionist in 1912 and in 1874,
as he remained to the close of his life. We
presume few of our readers needed evidence
of this well-known truth. They may not be
so familiar with the fact that The EUeRing Post
is lust as well aware of this truth as we are.
This we now proceed to demonstrate:
We have seen that Mr.. Clay fOreshadowed
and invited, in his Lexington speech, the en-
actment of the Tariff of 1912, and that he COM
mended and upheld that benefcent act through
ont its existence. Here are the terms in which
The Evening Post announced its passage by the
House:
The Tariff of 1912 passed the House Au gust
%, 1926 to 1O3. The second day after (Au-
gust 24) The Post SAID editorially:
THE TAR1FF-A Tariff, outrageously protective and
urObiOry has passed the HOuse Of Representatives. 10
is the with that on which Mr. Tyler placed his veto
emitting the clause which secures the distribution OF the
income of tho Public Lands among the states, ana
emitting also the duties on Tea and coffee. dtbeeomeS
law, ii tCiH qHnihitdte orr foreign commerce"
The next day august 25) The Post said of
" the partial and ubiquitous policy of PrOtec-
&" ton :"
"Let us take the system in pure form as we con
get it, that may know its true tase-et us have the
genuine unmixed drug; not sweetencd diluted or dis
rused; Black Tariff. like the before the Sen
ate, and We shall see how long 1t VII remain on the
peoples stomach"
On the 30th, the bill having passed the Sen
ate. The Post opened upon it afreSh, as follows:
"TnE BLACK TARIFF PAssED-The postscript in our
yesterdays sheet informed readers that the bill for
restraining mportatiOns and reducing tie revenue some
times called the Black Tariff distinguish it from the
first pale abortion, which was stranged two months
since by Mr. Tyler passed the Senate by aNOte OF ONE
And again, in the same article:
"Ths Tariff cannot stand, even IL it should become
law SO far does t transcend III the severity OF Its resle
tions erey other Tariff imposed by Congress, that it win
not be allowed to subsss single year me cqnS 81 ne
ere tc require ITS repeal The interests OF Consumers
the interests of merchants the interests OF the numer
ts repeal Repealed will be by the next Congress-the
Congress Of 1sl9as surely as IL asseGDes Looking u
provisions Of the lag one can hardly believe mat
was not framed purposey TO challenge ana provoke US
OWE abrogaton so exavagantly tyr&lmeal ana opprSS
And the next day Aug. 80, speaking in its
leader of the session of Congress just closed,
it said,
almost the only tnit Of this long session. long beyond
all exampleis the Black Tariff law extravagant in
its restrictions alarm those whom 1t was meant to
law which will not remain IN force two years"
In its issue Of July I, 1914. The Post says, in
commenting on Mr.. Clay's speech at Raleigh,
n. c., quoted in our last:
"Ths the concession he proposes 10 make TO the Pro
tecti0nst, and 1t comedies 10 nm al nc asks flrst,
Tariff as will oblge the American consumer to buy Of the
Lowell manufacturer The most jealous Protectonist
never asked than this IL the very extreme which
Mr.. Clay preends to depreeate. The principle laid down
by him. with hypOcrical profession OF fairness, ana OF
desire to reconcile the differing views OF the party OF
commercial freedom and the party OF commercial re-
stricton. is which permits the severes and most
Oppressive restrictions provided they imposed in tho
shape OF Tariff We lay aside Mr. Cays speech for the
he must have forped Of the understanding those who
listened IT, and Of the greater number who will read IT,
On the Goth of July, The Post spoke of those
who were then supporting Mr.. Clay for Presi-
dent as follows
"They are the advocates Of Protective Tariff which
plumbers the farmers de a te d oa
the olden time 1t carries of their cattle empes their
facility that marked the forays Of the Scotch borders"
Aug. 10, under the title of Taxation Of
American Industry The Post said:
"The Wings hold out to us hope Of mitigating the
severity OF the They not only for what they call
convenient FORM They for the The Tariff as it Is;
that Is their motto; the Black Tariff, without cream or
sncar II matters not in what degree it mpoverishes
the aborer Expresses the consumer and all classes
except the favored ones, IL must remain aS IT 49, UNI
touched, unmOdifed, unmitgateo, ior long years 10
come"
Again, Aug. 16, The Post says:
"some remarkable exposures have lately been made OF
Mr. Clays zgzag tho question Of Protection"
1t then gives an extract from The Mddi-
sonian of Aug. IA, charging "that MIR. Clay at
zone time made a specific proposal to abandon
"all protection on articles manufactured in the
United States" and comments upon it as fol-
lows:
at shows Mr. Webster in the light Of one who, In the
first place, attempted TO expose the faltessness OF Mr.
Clay In this matter with view OF making him odlous 10
the American people, and them guilty as he knew him TO
be OF double treachery first TO his friends the manuiae
turers, and then TO the OF Protective Tariff,
conserving TO support him candidate for the Presi-
dency."
Such were the terms in which The EUening
Post characterized and assailed Henry Clay in
1874, ten years after the date which it now
assigns for his conversion to Free Trade. In
1914, The Post called on the people TO vote
against him as the champion of Restriction
and Prohibition; in 1863, it exhorts those
who fought with and for him the battle for
Protection in 1874, to recant and forsake their
Protectionist hercsies as he did in 1888!
In 1914, Absalom ii. Chappel in Georgia and
Guian c. Verplanck in New York abandoned the
Wings and opposed Mr.. Clay because he and we
were for Protection and the Tariff of 42, and
The Post applauded their course and exulted
over the fact that Free Traders would not
vote for Mr.. Clay because of his ProtectiOnist
views. Now that same Post asserts that he
lad abandoned Protection and been converted