The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-08-17
GEN. EWING ON THE SITUATION.

speech recently delivered by Gen. Ewing,
ut Columbus, Ohio. Considering that it is
70 certain extent partisan speech, deliv-
cred during heated campaign, this gem
tleman deserves the special thanks of the
Labor Reform Party, for his timely refer
ence to the sins Of commission and omis-
sion Of the trainers of the Cincinnati plat
form
:" Fellow-citizsns, do not affect to feel
entirely satisfied with the platform Of prin-
ciples made at Cincinnati and adopted
whole at Baltimore. Ii, i'm my judgement,
does not announce amy admissible primer
pie respecting the tariff question, but only
post pones it to another canvass and for
one | distinctly reject its declaration that
we must speedily return to specie payments
We have less specie in the country now and
less power tO bring or keep it here than We
had before the war. We, therefore, could
not maintain with specie payments a. large
y circulation US We then had. But our
business is twice as large now as then, and
needs and has more than twice the volume
of currency to transact it. An attempt at
specie payments without reduction OF the
currency were idle, for it would inevitably
fail. And to reduce the currency 10 its
dimensions before the war would he disas-
truus to every business interest. We
might rs well require this growing boy be-
fore me to wear his boots of ten years ago,
as to craIAp the expanded commerce Of
this country 20 the small measure Of cur
rency we had before the war, which is the
largest we could maintain for a week under
amy system Of specie payment. But this
talk Of returning to specie payments is the
mere placebo Of both political platforms,
and a. such is comparatively harmless. No
statesman is rash enough to treat the decla-
ration as serious, and Mr.. Greeley, in his
letter If acceptance, senslbly omlts to no
tlce It.
And the Cincinnati platform has no word
u sympathy with the labor "rs.....@atiOns
Of the country Ill their Efforts to get hear
my in American politics. This, | think, is
q grave omission. The capital Of this
country has ruled its finances since the war
in its own interests, and against the rights
and interests Of the masses The organiz-
cd trades unions undertook to carry their
complaints against the finance policies Of
the Republican party into National politics
where, by the genius VI our Government,
those complaints belong. But the Clncin-
natl Convention had no word or encourage
ment or even notice Of them-no word Of
objection to that system Of financial meas
ures which Jay Cooke 4 Co., have invent
ed and fastened on the country-not even
against the National Bank currency, the
most obviously indefensible Of all their
schemes Of plumber.
But while do not affect to feel that all
the great questions Of the day are satisfac-
torily treated III the Liberal platform, yet
there is nothing in it materially objection
able. | take it for its good on the three
great questions ! have briefly discussed.
Settle these, and all other surviving ques-
tlons of former canvasses on which the Lib
eral platform is silent, as well as those
which now only loom on the horizon, will
be met and settled in the same wise and
patti lotto spirit if not by this combination
of parties, then by some other, which will
represent the peoples will. 1t is enough
to satisfy our reasonable expectations, to
secure by one campaign peace and good
will between North and South, white man
and black, honest government in the South,
restoration of the autonomy Of the States,
and National Administration undis-
graced by nepotism.
AS to all the questions which lie beyond,
let the masses recollect that the personal
and political life Of Horace Greeley run in
the right direction. He is one Of the PEG
ple-rose from the common level to his
great height Of usefulness and fame by his
own unaided energies In the contest
which is fast approaching between the
rights Of labor and the veteran but unjust
advantages of capital, his heart, and i'll the
main, his influence will be with the masses
for whatever his political eFors, no man
can question his resolute devotion to what
he conceives to be the interests Of the PEG
pie, and his thorough hatred of all privi-
lege and monopoly.
1t is the fact that he IS a thorough Dem
ocrat which made him specially intolerable
to the starched gentlemen, who helped to
get up, and then signally failed to control
or break down the Cincinnati Convention.
His plebeianism Of tastes habits and af-
fections, shocks and disgusts them He is
not polished or . hlgh-toned, but an awk-
ward plain man who believes in govern
ment by the people and for the people, and
who is not, thank God, an adorer of Brit
ish aristocracy or British Government. He
is as true type Of the American Republi-
can statesman as was Jefferson, jackson or
Lincoln. Hence his Judgment in the hearts
Of the people Hence his selection BY that
popular instinct which 80 confOunded the
wise men Of the political temples which
made HIM the nominee Of the Free Trade
Convention Of Cincinnati, and the Demo
cratic Convention Is Raltim,ra II anti nf
all the politicians and which will send him
to the White House next November by a
two-thirds vote Of the electoral college"