River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-06-15
A TARIFF TREATISE
Gath" Interspcrses Some Political
History with Tariff Talk.

Horace Greeley was nominated for
president of the independent republi-
cans in 1872. When this regular con-
vention met its president was the Hon,
Morton McMichael of Pennsylvania.
His son was the other day nominated
for congressman at large on the indie
pendent ticket in Pennsy lvania.
Mr.. Greeley letter of acceptance in
1872 will bear reading by the son of
| Morton McMicheal today. Greeley
said "There shall be real and not
merely a simulated reform in the
Civil Service of the Republic In vain
do the drill-sergeant of decay flourish
menacingy their truncheons and an
grily insist that the files shall be closed
and Strengthened. In vain do the whip
pers-in of parties, once vital because
rooted in the vital ends of the
hour, protest against straying and bolt
| ing, denounce men nowise their inferl-
ors as traitors and renegades, and
threaten them with ipfamy and ruin.
/ am confident that the American
people have already made your cause
their own, fully resolved that their
brave hearts and strong arms shall bear
it on 10 triumph"
| Nevertheless tariff interest, more than
any other, came up to see the support
| of the abuses of that time, showered
its II oney upon the campaign, broke
Greeley's heart and gave us Grant and
four years more of that kind of govern
ment, the sequel of which is Arthur.
If the tariff interest had the ordinary
reason, prudence and conscience to
which all other interests are subjected,
it would hail an opportunity to revise
the tariff, AMI both Houses of Congress
have Just insisted that this shall be
appointm ent of the Revising Commits
sion; but the President, by all accounts,
has committed his denomination two
years hence to Don Cameron, and Don
says what care for tariff revision
or for tariff at all if the manufacturing
interest abandons my personal controli
| warn you to keep me and my will
and followers in power, or will lnvesti-
gate you as you are investigating me-"
| hold in my hand minute of the
proceedings of the Greeley Convention
of 1872, and am looking over the list
of candidates for President and Vice
President before the convention.
Charles Francis Adams, yesterday in
Court prosecuting bunko men to whom
be had given his check; Lyman Trum-
bull, late Democratic candidate for
Governor of Illinois; David Davis, a
load on both parties; Greeley dead !;
Gratz Brown, retired and reformed; ;
salmon p Chase, dead, For Vice
President, Brown aforesaid; Trumbull
aforesaid; Julian, now democrat;
Walker, presumably Ex-Governor of
| Virginia, now Democrat in New York
State; Upton, dead or obscure; Jacob
Cox, retired; Cassius NJ Clay, Democrat
Scovel, probably New Jersey scooter;
Palmer, moderate Democrat, it is mel
ancholv to think over these names and
how the defeat of that ticket in 1872
has emboldened diciplined audacity ev-
and defy independent or bolting move
ments ike that in Pennsylvania.
The President Of the United States
went through the campaign of 1872
with Conkling as his leader in New
York against the Greeley, and he prob
ably looks on the Pennsylvania move
ment as sure TO be trampled out. No
doubt the tariff question will be pushed
right into the faces of the Pennsylvania
reform ers but it unfortunately hap
pens that this year the mills are pretty
still and solemn, whereas in 1872 they
were being rushed to their fullest ener-
gy to supply iron to the railroads under
the land grant system ofjobbery which
was the twin brother of the tariff system
of jobbery. With idle mills in Penn
sylvania and great laboring strikes over
the surface of that State, the indep~n-
dent movement there may well take
into consideration the abuses of the
tariff, which are just as vicious as any