Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-06-27

,rbe Political Platforms.


THO politicnI Platforms.
,7,ho conference. in New York, of Free
taders. presents in the form OF a resolu-
II another platform, differing some
hat from the Cincinnati platform. 1t
Is been apparent for some time that
be strongest wing of the Liberals, like
David A. Wells, Atkinson, Brinkerhoff
bnd Company, men whose free trade Is
<the only political principle they have
enthusiasm in fighting for-could not
DONG refrain from withdrawing the luke
" warm and reluctant support they had
M promised the hybrid Cincinnati ticket.
'rhe paltry subterfuge of the tariff plank
DIN the platform disgusts the straighttor-
zS Ayard men who subscribed to it, without
NJ thinking how frall plank it was. The
|# first sentence of the Greeley platform is
M i cleverly cloaked free-tradism. 1t de
81 mands system of taxation (which
III shall not unnecessarily interfere with
M the industry of the people" In other
81 words. which should allow them to trade
Nhera and with whom they choose, with
out let or hinderance-which is free
ira 10 condensed. What miserable sub
tsriuge is the definition of this phrase
10 Greeley it will not mean free trade,
anl TO ninety-nine one-hundreths of
Greelcys supporters it cannot mean
aay ching else.
Tive more anonymously absurd than
all else is the last and Saving clause of
the tariff plank in the Cincinnati plat
form-that which pledges the President
in no wise to interfere with the tariff
question, as it shall be settled by the
people, in their Congressional districts.
Probably every quibbler, who had a
hand in framing this anomoly, saw, the
moment it was too late, how absurdly it
butted itself against the constitution.
Every school boy knows that it is there
in made one of the executive duties to
recommend to Congress such legislation
as may, from time to time, seem to the
President wise and needful. The Gin
cinnati candidate is thus pledged to VIC
late one Injunction of that constitution,
Of which this platform speaks in terms
Of such gushing endearment. But the
constitution further provides for an eX-
ecutivc yetoin all cases where the Presis
dent does not deem a measure wise. The
plank pledges him not to use that discre-
ton in relation to the most important
measures-the revenue measures-upOn
which Congress is called to act. In re-
latioD to every word of this platform
prodigy, Horace Greeley was telegraphed,
and to every word he gave his assent
It is patchwork and chamaleOn-all
colors to all men. 1t was a humiliating
thing for Liberal Republicans and tariff
men to accept at first, and it will be
harder still to stand by through a long,
hard canvass.
All the strong men in the liberal
movement. it should be understood, are
revenue reformers or, in other words,
Free Traders, and the recent conference
IN New York is an indication that they
are ashamed Of standing On platform
which, on the face, means tariff, when
it actually means free trade. Senator
Schurz is substantially a free trader.
S ,nator Trumbull falls little short of it,
aud worked all the last session of Con-
gress to get salt, coal and wool ON the
free list, with a determination that
would have led Greeley to have abused
him like d pickpocket before the nomi-
nation at Cincinnati. Gratz Brown is
rabid free trader, so that the ticket itself
IS its own antipodes. No man can say q
good word,for one-half of it, without
tactly abusing the other half. 1t is
more paradoxcal in this than was the
Democratic ticket of four years ago
in some others.
There is amusement in studying these
incongruities of the situation, their num-
Der is legion Perhaps the most re-
markable one of all Is that which exists
between the centralization plank of the
platform and the candidates. Greeley's
record is well known. The KE-Klux
bill. the enforcement election law, the
cjyii rights bill of 1866 and the new
civil rights bill advocated by Senator
against whose questionable constitution
atty the greatest outcry has been made,
have found no more unquestioning de-
fender than Horace Greeley, IS for
Graft Brown, unfortunately for him
now, he was in the Senate during the
Andrew johnson days His record Is
curious reading. Everyone of the re-
construction acts which Johnson vetoed
on the ground of unconstitutionality
Brown voted for in the beginning and
voted afterwards to pass over the Prcsi-
dents veto The farce and mockery of
setting up two such men to be standard
bearers in States rights campaign, has
done much to bring the convention down
TO the plane of burlesque. Greeley and
Brown are the incarnation of centraliza-
ton.
Vermonter's Impressions OF The
Jubilee.