The Cecil Whig., 1875-03-06

hours exist only in remembrance. History
will not, / fear, in reference to a protective
tariff, and certainly cannot in regard to a
squandered public domain, "repeat itself. "
And unhappily the statesmen to whose
wisdom, industry and patriotism the conn.
try was then indebted for it's wholesome
laws, have passed either from earth or into
private life. Much as desire, and greatly
as we need, wisely adjusted tariff, l see
no way of obtaining it until successors in
the Administrative and Congressional De-
partments of the Government equal to the
crisis and the emergency are found.
STATESMEN OF PURE CHARACTER NEEDED.
Nor dare anticipate such happy changes
until the fearful decentralization occasioned
by war of unprecedented magnitude has
worked out its evil mission, nor until suf-
frage, now cheapened and degraded, rising
to the intelligence, discrimination, and dig
nifty of earlier and better days, asserts its
prerogative in the elevation of Representa-.
tives. For, let it be widely proclaimed,
that the experience and teachings of re
.
ing so alarmingly suggestive of and preg,
nant with danger as that cheap suffrage
involves and entails cheap representation.
But for the "good time +" which it is to be
hoped is " coming we must wait patiently
for generation that will return to Con-
gress such men as Henry Clay and John j.
Crttenden from Kentucky; Daniel Web
ster and John Davis from Massachusetts,;
Timothy Pitkin and Truman Smith from
Connecticut; George Evans from Maine;
Horace Everett from Vermont; Albert H.
Tracy, Francis Granger, Millard Fillmore,
and Thomas c. Love from New York;
Samuel L. Southland and Theodore Freling-
huysen from New Jersey; John Sargent
and Horace Binney from Pennsylvania;
John w. Clayton from Delaware; Willie
p. Maugum and Edward Stanley from
North Carolina; John Bell and Baile Pey-
ton from Tennessee; Elisha Whittlesey,
Thomas Ewing, Joseph Vance, Thomas
Corwin, and Samuel F. Vinton from Ohio,
and Edward Bates frem Missouri.
While | agree and sympathize with you
in all possible efforts to promote the well
fare of the laboring classes, by securing to
them steady employment with remunera-
tive wages l am quite sure that you will
agree with me in reprobating the combina-
tions and influences which seek to extort
through trades unions the largest possible
amount of money for the smallest possible
{ IN, Lob ;-hk
systems, and the "strikes" consequent
upon them, have been a most prolific source
of mischief and evil, pecuniary and social,
to the laboring classes. The despotism of
these "unions =" has become uncomfortable.
Master mechanics are not permitted to
labor in their own workshops. Less than
half the number of bricks formerly laid by
journeymen are now arbitrarily held to be
a days work. And the number of appren-
tces by whom trades are to be learned is
limited and fixed, not by master mechanics,
but by the "unions." In few years,
therefore. we shall be wholly dependent
upon foreigners, subject to the control of
trades unions, for our mechanical labor.
and, but for the evil influences just referred
to, would have been learning trades by
means of which they would become useful
citizens are either variously seeking pre-
carious support from temporary employ
nents, or 10y unavoidable idleness acquir-
ing habits which consign them to our
houses of refuge and penitentiaries. There
are at this moment hundreds of fathers
and other hundreds of widowed mothers
looking in anguish and despair upon the
fate which awaits their sens-a fate which
but for the tyranny of Unions in preventing
boys from becoming apprentices might be
ayerted. Heretofore the intelligence, enter
prise, public spirit, patriotism, and virtue,
personal, political, social, and moral of
the mechanical classes have been our boast
and pride. Through these agencies villages
have grown into cities, and our cities devel-
oped into wealth and power. | knew
nothing in early life of these miserable
eight and ten hour systems, and 1 owe
whatever l have since enjoyed of success
and consideration to the habit, as an ap.
prentice, journey man, and a small be-
ginner on my own account, OF devoting
from eleven to twelve hours day diligently
and cheerfully to active and healthful physi-
cal labor.
What We want first is a governmental
policy, State and National, which will place
the necessaries of life within the reach of
the laboring classes at prices that ranged
through the forty years preceding the
breaking out of the Rebellion. Conse
quent upon such change, labor would lie
in free demand at rates which could not be
injuriously affected by the exactions of
capital on the one hand, or by pcrnicious
rades-union despotism on the other. Let
it be remembered always that the real pur-
pose of these combinations-for which we
are unhappily indebted to the worst speci-
mems of English, French, and German
Radicalism-is, first as Socialists ~ and
then as Communists" to sow the seeds
of agrarianism and infdelity among us.
These insidous enemies to all that is good
and virtuous and hopeful affect the welfare
Of the laboring classes. And yet not one
of these agitators is found laboring him.
self or seeking employment for others
except through agencies that derange and
embarrass the industries upon which the
mechanical and laboring classes must ever
rely for employment and support.
DIFFICULTY OF RECONSTRUCTION.
Reconstruction, from the beginning a
most difficult problem, has been embar-
rassed by want of wisdom at Washington
and by embittered memories in the South.
The disorganized condition of the Southern
States attracted thence bold and unscrupu
lous Northern adventures, who, associated
with disbanded soldiers, "the cankers of a
long war;" remained to devastate con,
quered country. These wretches have in
hicted upon South Carolina, Florida, Louis.
lana, &c, &c, the worst possible speci-
mems of State government, At the infa-
mics rerpetrated in these and other Rebel
. States civ yilization blushes nd vat fbose