Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-11-22
la1lcaster frltellleerrer.
MONDAY EVENING, NOV. a.. 1880.
Only Did Not DO 1t.

MONDAY EVENING, NOV. "a. 1880.
Only Did Not DO 1t.
The Philadelphia Times and Louis.
vile Comier-yournal are manifesting a
difference of opinion as to the effect on
the Democratic fortune of the declara.
tion in the Cincinnati platform in favor
Of " tariff for revenue only" The ed
itor of the Jrurnal, who was the chair
man of the committee, has been charg-
ed with the responsibility for the inser-
tion of that word Only,' which is cred
tied by the Times and good many peo-
pie beside as main cause Of Our undoing.
Mr.. Watterson seems to deny the i'm
parchment and to insist that he was not
more responsible for the resolution as it
stands than was any other member Of
the committee before which it was fully
considered; and he very pertinently asks
Col. Mcclure, of the Times, what reason
he has to charge the Democratic defeat
this year to the declaration in favor of a
tariff for revenue only when the same
appears i'm the platforms of 1876 and
1856, which were years of Democratic
victory. That is strong retOrt, which
the Times does not find itself able to
meet, though it declares, upon the ques-
tion of the consideration that was given
this resolution in the committee, that
Mr.. Cassidy, the Pennsylvania member,
asserts that the word "only" was not
in the platform when it was adopted.
That would seem to he an interesting
question for discussion between Messrs.
Cassidy and Watterson, but is not of
much consequence to the party, which
has to take the platform AS the conven-
tiOn sent il out, taking it upon trust
from its committee and without consid-
Grafton.
The ground taken by the Times
that this resolution was the cause of our
disaster is. we think, entirely untena-
able though the argment that the same
declaration did not defeat us in other
campaigns might have been fairly met
with the assertion, which is true, that it
was not handled against us then as vc-
hemently and skilfully as in this. The
fact is that the Republican party was in
this campaign SO very vulnerable
and the Democratic party SO
invulnerable, especially in the matter
Of the candidates, that the Republican
leaders were at their wits end to find
matter for illumination against us. They
could not assail our candidate with
any hopefulness and were thus cut
out of large part of their customary
ammunition. No one will forget how
Indignantly Mr.. Tilden was assailed
in lS7G and Mr.. Buchanan in 1856.
In their eager search this year for
causes of attack against us. the buried
issue of the tariff was resurrected and
so successfully that men who but Il few
months ago had declared that the tariff
question should not be drawn into poll
tics, and manufacturers who had peti-
toned for the Eaton bill as way of set
tling the controversy without partisan
action, seemed yet to be acted upon by
the tariff cry in this CAM
paign rs a bull is by a red flag
and there was not a Republican manu.
facturer who did not burn rs hOtly to
defeat the Democracy rs he could have
done if he had really believed what he pre-
tended to believe, that Hancock's cleo
tion would ruin the business interests of
the country. His party prejudice was
too strong for his good sense. The tariff
issue was only his excuse for his partisan
favor but it was just as efficatious as
if it had got its potency from his reason
No doubt we suffered great damage in
this way, but we do not conceive that to
this cause can be attributed our defeat I:
for we were beaten in New York, and by
deficiency in the expected and usual
majority of the free trade metropolis.
Thence certainly our defeat came and
there must its cause be sought. Oh
viously it was not there caused by decla-
ration in favor of tariff for revenue only.
1t is easy enough now to know what did
cause it. The Republican managers,
having the fact plainly before them that
they must carry New York to win, put
their effort and their money there,
after carrying Indiana with similarly
sustained energy. Their money was
supplied by millions and the millions
did it. In New York they were assail-
ing Democratic fortress whose defend
ers were not thoroughly united and in
tent upon the common defence. The
eternal vigilance which was the price of
their preservation against an enemy so
equipped was lacking. We need not
charge anything to Democratic treach-
cry; Democratic negligence and Repub-
lican money sufficiently account for the
result.
THE grand jury which has just con-
cluded its labors finds a lack of co opera
tion between the prison keeper and un-
derstrappers to he a cause of some defici-
ency in the discipline and management
of our Lancaster county Jail, prison, pen
itentiary, or whatever it claims to he
and is not. Under the present sys-
tenn the prison keeper is elected every
three years by the people and the subor-
dinates yearly by the inspectors. When
A. ~