Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-03-04
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The Republican party has, from its
very inception. endeavored assiduously
to make labor honorable. The Demo-
cratic party, on the other hand, has been
led generally by southern shareholders.
who have systematically sought TO de-
grade toll. At the very time when the
baser demagogues of that party ut the
north were deluding many of the oper-
atives of this section by appeals to class
and race prejudices, the southern leaders
of the same faction were terming our
lsborers "the mudsills of society" Here
in Independence Square, Howell Cobb,
addressed an immense Democratic rati-
fication meeting, before the war. said To
his hearers that the difference between
the north and south was simply this:
"You hire your labor, We own it.
That era has passed away. This land
ed oligarch, no longer owns its labor
The slave is emancipated. He is not
driven to the cetton fieldsin chain gangs.
His wife and children are not sold AZ
auction block. He is not beaten into
desperation and then hunted to death
with blood hounds. He has shoes to
his feet, hat en- his head. His vile
and children are gathered around ms
own hearth. He is paid for his work.
read! Men and women are not impris-
oned for teaching him. His evidence u
in courts of Justice. He stands before
the law possessed of equal rights with
his oppressOr. His children go to schoel
The chattel has become citizen. The
wings of the national eagle cover and
protect him. His freedom. his citizen
ship and his civil rights are alike guar
anteed by the Constisution, and now he
has vste to enable him to protect HIM
self!
So much the Republican party has
done fer the most oppressed and degrsd-
ed Of our American laborers So much
1t was bound to do by its principles
But has net the free white operative Of
the north been cared for? The Repub-
lican party found MIN poorly paid and
often idle, because the productions Of
his industry were subjected to ruinous
csmpetition from the immense masses
of foreign goods poured into the country
by the pauper labor of Europe. To keep
up with such an opposition we must
either vigorously protect our own manu-
factures or we must reduce the wages OF
industry to mere song. The Demecrs-
tic party, true to its southern instincts,
supported the British free trade system,
because the slsveholding leaders were
accustomed to pay nothing for their Ia
Dor, and therefore regarded the reduction
Of the wages of northern operatives as .
matter of no consequence in its effects
upon the laberers themselves.
The Republicans, firmly sdhearing to
their principle of making work honera-
BILE, preferred protection, because under
that system, while the American manu-
facturers could successfully keep the
field, theiI workmen would be we'll paid,
constantly employed, and able to live
like civilized human beings The whole
record of the two parties is Of piece
with this. The Democrats gave the
people the most villainous paper cur
rency ever inflicted upon nation, and
this was an incessant means Of loss to
the laboring classes who were obliged to
uss it. The Republicans have given
them q sound well secured national cur
reney, with which there is no possible
ity OF loss 10 the people. The Demo-
cratic land policy fostered land monopo-
ly and the building up of great landed
estates. The Republican policy has of
fered homestead on the public lands to
actual settlers. and so elevated the con'
dition- of the American poorer classes.
Let the people judge of the two parties
by these.things. -af ---, .,i'>t7a ri