Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-03-22
PUBLIC LEDGER.
wArTERsON AT CHIOAGO.y
g The Democratic Press -" A
Tariff for Revenue"

On the night Of the 18th, in Chicago
at the Iroquois banquet, Hon. Henri
Watterson, editor of the Louisvill
Courier-J ournal, in answering tn
toast, 1.-THE Democratic Press. sal
in conclusion:
You will say that these are but gilt
tering generalities, and lacking il
specification. Sir, | will be specific
/ mean "a tariff for revenue only"
mean the obliteration of navigation
laws which have driven our flag fron
the high seas. | mean the divorce
ment of the civil service from part
service. | mean a careful and jus
revision of our national banking sys
tenn we have ever had, and which
with certain needful notifications
essential both to its preservation and
the equities of taxation, would rele
gate to the place in business where il
belongs, and whittier it should have
been sent long ago. | mean the re-
duction Of the national debt to 0
thousand millions, where it should be
funded and made perpetual. The
people are being taxed too much. The
debt is being paid too fast. All taxes
should be levied with an eye solely to
revenue, and no more revenue should
be collected than is required TO sup
port the government and carry the
debt.
The key to all these propositions
the pivot around which they are
grouped and about which they turn
is to be found in that simple sentence,
"a tariff for revenue only. Itis not
my sentence. | neither invented it
nor discovered it; though | would no
more dream of compiling Democratic
platform without it than | would
think of issuing an edition of the New
Testament without Christ's sermon
on the mount. 1t is automatic, and
taken bodily out of that magnificent
enunciation of the Democratic princi-
ples--on which we won a glorious
national victory-the matchless plat
form adopted at st. Louisin 1876. |
would not surrender a werd oft, nor
a syllable. 1t expresses with precision
the exact position of the party upon
the tariff, that when the government
gets its taxes, then and there the tax
shall stop Whatever incidental pro-
teotion" that afords-well, it affords
land let the proteotionists make
the most of it. In truth, they
had better; for protection, like
slavery, is doomed; only, unlike
slavery, it will not linger SO long
upon the stage to battle freemen and
stay the march of freedom. 1t cannot
become a sectionalism, as slavery did.
1t cannot get into religion, as slavery
did. Yet it is as monstrous in every
respect as slavery was. Looking back
into that far-of time, it staggers the
mind to contemplate how long the
institution of slavery did stand against
reason, common sense, humanity and
public policy. All men now admit
that there was not an argument to
support it. The present generation
Of men can but lily comprehend how
it survived the agitations OF a single
general election. It is gone, thank
God, and there is an end of ii: but its
history is full Of instruction and warn
ing. 1t tells US in thunder tones to
beware of the sophistries, the AFRO
gance and the power of oligarchism
and to behold in the jobbery and rob
berry of protection a new slavery rear.
ing its lofty head to threaten the
people and curse the land.
Fellow Democrats, the road before
US is straight, broad and open Do
not allow yourselves to be lured off
the highway. Do not give up to dem
agogues what was meant for the coun-
try. Look forward, not backward !;
or, if you must 60 back, go as far back
as the lost traditions Of Jefferson and
jackson, and return clasping them to
your heart. You have your enemy
at last, not merely divided, but occl
pying false aud untenable position
The attempted fusion in the South
the lias0n between the machine aud
the mob-is in every way agrarian and
corrupt. twill not be great while
before the intelligence of the country
realizes that it is serious menace to
the national credit. Place the old
Democratic flag ship 10 line of battle
clear the decks for action; pitch the
fools into the sea, and send the sore
heads below, and with freedoms sig
nails flying at the mast head, give her
prayerfully, confidently, to the God of
storms, the battle aud the breeze