The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-07-07
The Republican Platform.

The more respectable of the Repub-
lican papers begin to see that the few
ofice-holders who controlled the late
Radical State Convention, have made
asses of themselves in endeavoring to
cover up and hide from the people the
true issues upon which the approach
ing campaign is to be fought. No
party platform, however ingeniously
devised, can divert the attention of
the people from the present unhealthy
condition of the financial affairs of the
country, consequent upon Radical mis-
management. The unequal tariff with
which the country is cursed, by which
almost all the raw materials which
enter SO largely into our manufactures,
are admitted almost duty free, while
the manufactured articles are taxed
to such a degree, as to amount to pro-
hibition, thereby forcing the indus
trial classes to pay tribute to a few
New England nabobs. 1t was by this
course o faction by such men as Cover
nor HAYES, while in Congress, that the
hundreds of thousands of dollars in
vested by the farmers of Ohio in the
wool business have proved almost
total loss. A few years ago wool
growing had become the most priita-
bic of our agricultural pursuits, and
would have Sc continued had not
Governor Hayes and his Radical col
leagues in Congress reduced the duty
on raw wool to a mere nominal sum,
and increased the duty on the manu-
featured article to so high a figure as
to force the wool growers Of Ohio,
and the West generally, almost into
bankruptcy. There are monuments
erected to the wisdom of Governor
Hayes and his colleagues on almost
every farm in every county on the
Western Reserve, composed of the
skeletons of the sheep slaughtered be-
cause of the policy pursued by a Rad
ical Congress in legislating for the
benefit of New England manufactur-
ers. The Cincinnati Commercial, a
leading Radical paper, in commenting
on this covering up process of the
convention, says:
This would be all very well, if in
so doing the party could control the
issue of the following I'm
fortunately this is made up by the two
parties through the press and ON the
stump. And it is common to see the
people cruelty dig up and fight yer
the obnoxious question that had been
so carefully buriedby the convention.
Thus our friends in Columbus found
the present odious tariff question:
They dug a great hole for it, and they
all solemnly tramped it down. In
less than ninety days the question will
meet them at every crossroads, and i'll
every sheet of the rural press. Our
friends forgot that the action of the
party, in creating prohibition, makes a
platform there is no escaping, and the
opposition, generally, selects the issue.
There are other questions besides
the tariff, which the managers of the
Convention dug a great hole for, and
tramped down which will rise in judy
ment against them, and meet them at
every cross-road, and which they will
have to meet, whether they desire it
or not. Two years ago the Conven-
ton which nominated Hayes, resolved
that the 500 Government bonds were
legally payable in g~reenbacks. Yet
the Convention of last week endorsed
Secretary Boutwell, in purchasing them
at a premium of fifteen or twenty per
cent, although there were five hum
dred millions past due The same
Convention of 1857, proclaimed the
doctrine of taxation of all property at
its fair valuation in money yet one
eighth of the entire value of the prop
erty of the State, looked up in untax-
ed bonds, pays not a cent of State,
county or municipal taxes. The late
Democratic Legislature, of which Gov
ernor Hayes complains so much, pas. =
ed a law taxing those bonds, against
which every Republican member Of
that body voted, and which, it is said,
the Radical authorities will refuse to
enforce. This will also meet our Re
publican friends at every c%ross-road,
and will have to be met, platform or
no platform. We might enumerate
many other matters vital to the pros
perity of fine State, that will have to
be discussed by Governor Hayes and
his friends, should he take the stump,
which the platform of his party en-
tirely ignores.-Pdn Dealer.