Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-10-20

| pttOHttS Hc p"OtttuH, uftt H bt
| ./ollocing letter gjres has reasous 70,
supporting Garfield
New CASTLE, PA, Sept 81, 1850
Among the acquisitions to the Repub-
licans ranks in Pennsylvania this fall,
there are not many men of wider repu-
tation that General r. B. McComb, of
this city, who has up to this time lent
his influence to the Greenbackers, and
was at one time the Congressional can
didate of that party in this district
General McComb is one of the leading
members Of the bar in this county, and
has very many friends among the work
ing men here and all over the State
Following is the full text of letter
written by him, passing the Republi-
can and Democratic parties in review,
and showing why he deems it wise to
act this fall with the Republicans. The
letter was private one to Rev. G. II.
Close of Beaver county, Greenback
candidate for Congress, in this district,
but we have the authors consent to
its publication.
New CASTLE, Pa, Sept Is, 1880
| My DEAR SIR: | intended writing
to you several weeks since, and frankly
state my views in relation to the pres
ent political canvass, but have delayed
simply because l did not want to in
terfere in any way with the plans or
discourage the hopes of our friends in
the National Greenback Labor party.
| have in no way changed my convic-
tions on the questions of the currency
and protection, but ! have abandoned
all idea that anything can be accomp-
lished by means of third party or
ganization The truth is, no party
competing for the control of the Gov
ernment can be maintained and sue
ceed having but single idea. The
government of Nation comprehends
too many questions of policy to toler-
ate an administration riding a hobby or
brace of hobbies. Public opinion di-
vides on other questions, and, although
a large majority of the people may be-
lieve just as we do on the questions of
the currency, yet but very few would
be willing to subordinate all other
questions to this one, and it is unrea-
sonable to ask or expect 1t.
We are not now, as we were a few
years ago, when the decentralization Of
silver and the enforced resumption of
specie payments were threatening our
industries and our commerce with
ruin. That storm has passed, and-our
I,1t fpIn hn ft1ll Of
prosperity, owing, | admit, to the in
| fluence of the greenback party acting as
breakers to the car that was so swiftly
carrying the business and industry Of
OF the country to ruin. The advocates
of the greenback currency unquestion
ably put stop to the further destruc-
tion of this kind of money, and the
same influence caused the remonetiZa-
tion and increased coinage of silver.
To these measures more than to all
others is the country indebted for the
revival of trade and our present pros
perity. But our business is with the
future.
The whole fabric of a Republican
State rests upon the independence and
intelligence Of its producing classes.
The policy and measures of party
should be to protect and promote the
living power of the nation that is the
productive industry, and the virtue, in
telligence and independence Of the pro-
ducing class. To insure and main
tain such policy and measure the pro-
ducer must be protected from being
brought into competition with enforced
or slave labor By the abolition of sla-
very in this country the whole produc-
ing class was made to occupy the same
plane With slavery, free labor was,
by the force Of competition, more or
less degraded and dragged down to the
condition of the slaves
The same thing is true of labor in
despotic governments. The whole ten
dency of imperial power is to degrade
labor, and this fact is in full view
wherever despotism rules. To make
our own industries independent of this
competition with the uebased labor of
despotic countries, we require a pro-
tective tariff. Our productive labor
has a right to this protection. The
mechanics, operatives and laborers of
the United States occupy a higher
plane, both socially and intellectually,
than in any other country on earth.
| With US the workingman is the gov
erning power. In war he is our
strength, in peace our wealth, and no
good citizen will approve measures
which, from their nature, must reduce.
him to the low, ignorant and degraded
element that supports and maintains
| the despotisms of other countries 1t
was perfectly natural for the defenders
of slavery to advocate free trade, but
most inconsistent in the friend of free
| labor.
The present political contest is be-
tween two great political forces-the
one progressive and the other tradition
ally retrogressive. The Republican
party came into existence as an antag-
onistic force, resisting the policy of the
Democratic party on the question of
slavery. The Democratic party by
taking into it's keeping the institution
of slavery made free labor an opposing
element in politics. Slavery demand
ed concessions from the free States.
Free labor demanded the abolition of
slavery. Slavery demanded free trade.
Free labor demanded protection. Here
was the gulf which divided the two
great principles upon which the two
parties-the Democratic and Republ-
can-were built. and it was the most
natural thing that all whose instincts
or convictions were foreign to a gov
ernment of equal rights should ally
themselves to the Democratic party,
and that the workingmen of the coun-
try should become Republicans.
In the interest of slavery, the Demo-
i L L