Morning journal and courier., 1880-10-21
GENERAL HANCOCK BLOOM

| To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 1 We have carefully examined what General l Hancock says to Senator Randolph, on the l subject of the tariff and if we. are right | in attributing to General Hancock
 an attitude which we think there is no doubt 1 he holds, his election to the Presidency would 1 be an event fraught with much greater per il l to the country than we have yet conceived. General Hancock remarked to the Patter- 1 son editor that ''the tariff question is local question: and Ia matter that the general government seldom cares to interfere with' There is but one sensible interpretation to this, and, with the letter to Senator Randolph
 placed by the side of it, the meaning is won derfully suggestive. It is that in the opin- ion of General Hancock and the Democratic party, the tariff question is matter to be determined by each State of the Union ac- cording to it's own interest. This is the local character which General Hancock finds in the tariff. The general government is not to in terfere with matter which under Demo- cratic control would be left to the legislation of each State for itself. If Connecticut finds 1t necessary for the intBrest of her manufac- turing industries to impose rigid protective tariff, either the Connecticut Legislature in its sovereign capacity, or Congress in the in terest of Connecticut at the suggestion of this sovereign State should enact it. In the southern States regard 1t to their advantage to establish free trade the question should be left with them to de- eide and regulate. The audacity of this po- sition of the Democratic candidate is con cealed beneath the most artful management of words. It may be that General Hancock's own views are rather favorable to the pro- lection of American industry. ''As far as are concerned" he says to Senator Ran do ph, the talk of free trade is ''folly.'' Who he means by i've" it is difficult to say, but we presume he means the northern tail of the Democratic party, But the southern body which wags this tail and who form the controlling voice of the Democratic party, will naturally chuckle a little when they ask how it is Gs .tgr Gs Mey are concerned? To this, General Hancock's reply must be, that it is local question and the South must decide 1t according to their interests. For instance, 1t is to the advan- tage of some of the Southern States which grow rice and sugar that rice and sugar should be protected. But 1t Is to the advan- tage of the entire South, which grows cotton, tobacco and whiskey that they should not be dependent on Connecticut Yankees for their manufactures, when they can exchange their crops for goods made in England, France and Germany at half the cost of pro- ductlon in the North, because labor in Flu rope is underpaid. This is what General Hancock appears to mean by favoring meas ures that shall be. :'just judicious, harmonious and incidentally protect i've" The upshot of General Han cocks position is, that the doctrine of State Sovereignty rears its dragon head with bolder front than it has ever attempted since 1860, and General Hancock bids for the leadership the most ultra grounds ever assumed since John c. Calhoun. If we never before realized the perilous importance of the coming election, we realize it now.
 The Shibboleth so popular with many honest people, that General Hancock is better than his party vanishes into thin air. Think ing men were never influenced by this con- 5ideration, but many careless people have been caught by the jingle of the idea. The whole theory of our institutions is opposed to it. Human nature is opposed to it. The history of our politics affords no illustration of public man impressing himself upon the heterogeneous elements of his party. MT. gave way to the pressure. An drew Johnson vainly contended. Even Gen eral Grant modified his ideas of adnlinistra- tive conduct till he came into full accord with his party. President Hayes finally found that he no better than his party. And even now, it appears that General Han cock has destroyed the gauzy film of superior virtue through which so many have delighted to behold him.
 F. A. D.