Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1883-12-06
THURSDAY. DECEMBER, 8, 1883.
The MiddIeman's Conquest
the Democracy.

III anNUHluS I'LL 90
mit' the democracy to any settled
policy we might safely say thai
the election of Mr.. Carlisle to the
Speakers chair and the ignomln-
ious defeat of Mr.. Randall IN
caucus had committed that party
to the Kentucky Idea of hostility
to the protection of American
labor and manufacture.
But the trouble about the great
democratic party is that the
rickety old concern wont be COM
mitted by anything. Like the
brilliant but unlettered Forest It
damns the rules of war and oc-
casionally wins a brilliant victory
by falling on a point which the
opposing generals regarded as
sufficiently protected by its en-
vironment of danger to dispense
with a really adequate defensive
force.
Brilliant victories so won are
only the preludes to eventual dis
aster, as the crowded volumes of
war and politics attest. They yield
spoils which demoralize the foIs
ees and impede the march. 1t
makes a freebooter of the soldier
and a mere spokesman of the poli>
tician. and overwhelming defeat
must surely follow on the first en-
gagement with Q disciplined force.
1t would beya very hard mat
ter. indeed to 'scommit" a party
which affirmed its belief of the in
validity, of the amendments IN
1868, and nominated poor, hons,
est old Horace Greeley in 1872;
which claimed to have elected Mr..
Tilden in 1876, temporized for ex>
pediency and then permitted the
Inauguration of the man whose
election they denied; and, righting
face in 1880, nominated a new
man and "condoned the great
fraud" of 1875.
But while it is true that this
.party's course this year can not
be looked to to give any reliable
augury of its position on the next
change of the political moon yet it
does commit itself thro' the elec>
ton of Mr.. Carlyle in the judge
ment of the people. 1t is not i'm
possible that they will realize the
commission of a b!uuder within a
month and next year thank
Heaven that they committed that
.blunder in December, 1883, in>
stead of in January, 1884. But
thew will realize in sackcloth and
ashes before 1854 expires that the
memories of the people are a
many-paged ledger whose col
umns contain all their faults and
bIunders to more than Offset any
possible credit which they may
nroye themselves entitled to either
for their own merits or the demer-
its of their opponents.
We have beard Mr.. Carlisle de-
nv that he was a free-trader and
in the same breath advance every
argument, good and bad, that an
able mind could invent, against
protection even in the slightest
degree. In the debates in the
House last winter he championed
avery reduction of the tariff and
openly rejoiced atevery step gained
in that directions. not as some
thing satisfactory as a medium
and aifnality, but as a move
ment in a direction toward his
own views. He is, in truth and
i'm fact. as arrant q free~trader as
can be found in America and will
really be satisfied with no reduce
aiou in the tariff which does not
convert it from protective tariff
to a revenue tariff which, by the
smallness of the duties on each
article, invites Importation of for
eign goods, encourages the con,
sumption of foreign goods to the
prejudice of American goods of
the same kind, and by larger ims
portations under a low. or revenue
tariff makes up in revenue for the
smaller importatlons under a
high, or protective tariff
In the election of Mr.. Carlisle
the democratic party through its
leaders and opponents has declared
ppep war on American labor, OH
American productions, on Amer>
dcan material, on American enter.
prise, on American industry, ON
American manufacture, on Amer
lean capital, GA the American
farmers home-market for his grain
and provisions; OH his flax: his