The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-09-04
Old Times.
BY s. F. wETMoRE.

=
To the Editor of the Standard:
1 have never been a resident of your
county, but have been a constant reader
of your paper several years, and am
always interested in your Random
Thoughts" and Personal Recollections.'
In your issue of the 2lst of August your
Personal Recollections" are very inter-
esting to me. You are two years older
than l am, so your recollections of politi-
cal matters are fully four years before
mine But do well recollect the cam
paign of 1928 I then resided in the
staid State of Vermont, which boasts
was free. She was also sober State, COM
paratively speaking, and while she did
not have so much drunkenness within
her borders, she had some. And so of
other criminals, some of which she was
forced to confine in her State prison
for reform, and to keep them from COM
mitting further mischief. And l well re-
member the characteristics of the Jack
son" party in that State. That party was
almost always in a minority of from TO-,
900 to 10000 up to the time of the death
of the Whig party, when it came so nearly
into power as to be able to elect its nomi-
nee for Governor-Dillingh But as
soon as things got settled after the organ
ization of the Republican party, the old
majority against the Democracy returned,
I.
the Republicans.
And so of New Hampshire, Maine,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Con-
necticut. OF the drunkard's in those
States thirty-nine in every forty were
"Dimocrats,' and belonged to the Dino
crat" party. In some. of those States, if
not all. at their town elections questions
were decided by polling the house, that
is, by those in favor of the affirmative
going on the right and those of the mega
tive on the left of the moderator. A
Greenlander just coming into the coun-
try would at once have been impressed
with the difference in politics by this ex-
hibition, though it might not have been
as striking as you describe by taking the
drunken ruffian as an example. l have
always noticed, from Maine to Texas,
these differences and characteristics in
the two parties, and yet, there have al
ways been some sober men, good men, as
the world defines good, in the Democratic
party. l have noticed that that party
has been headed-lead, perhaps should
say-by the very wealthiest men in the
country, with a respectable following
sufficient to fill the various offices-town,
judicial. But quite enough of this
/, too, am a tariff advocate, and have
been ever since was boy. And where
do you suppose l got my first ideas of a
tariff and it's benefits to this country :?
Why, of Thomas Jefferson, to be sure 1
lived in apart of the country where books
were more plenty, fifty years ago, than
they were in Ohio. And had free access
to a good library. And how greedily I
Tead the books onits shelves! One of those
books was the life of Thomas Jefferson.
While reading it l came upon this propo-
sition of The author of the Declaration of
Independence:
He proposed that the government of
the United States should abstain from
general Intercourse with the monarchial
and despotic governments of the Old
World And why? Because he was
afraid of their contamination. He said
that the re were latent treasures in the
soil of this country sufficient to feed,
clothe, warm, and in every way
sustain our people, and all who
would come after, if we would only apply
ourselves industriously and produce from
the crude metals, wood and soil such ar
ticles of necessity and comfort as we
might require. He would induce the
best artisans to immigrate from the old
world and teach us how to form these
crudities into articles of use, through the
influence of our own hands and ma
chinery.
Well, now, while neither the govern
ment nor the people of the United States
have followed out Mr. Jeffersons extreme
views, they have so far as tariff is con-
cerned. And it was through tariff that
he intended to prohibit the importation
of manufactured articles.
| we'll remember that in lS42 the only
Wing Congress we ever had enacted a
most excellent tariff, which enabled our
country to arise, Phoenix like, out of the
ashes of destruction left to us by the pol
icy pursued by jackson and Van Buren,
We were prospering highly, when through
the influence of slavery and the false pre-
lenses of northern Democrats, such as
Vice President Dallas of Pennsylvania
that tariff was overthrown and a Demo
cratic, free trade one was substituted by