The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1884-10-10
BLAINE IN WEST VIRGINIA.
AN ELOQUENT APPEAL TO BREAK
THE SOLID SOUTH.
Look to the Front. and the Future"


Look TO the Front: and the Future"
PAKKERsBuRG, w. Va, October Cat
Grafton there was a very large and remark.
ably enthusiastic meeting. The little noun
tain town was packed full OF people from the
surrounding country. Blaine was escorted
TO the stand, and when the demonstration
with which he was received subsidized, he
said:
Citizens Of West Virginia:
As your distinguished chairman has inti-
mated, l am no stranger in your State. /
have known it personally for more than forty
years, and l have known this section of 1t
we'll. i was born on the banks of yonder
river few miles below the point where it
enters Pennsylvania. and you do not need to
be told by me that there was always q unity
of feeling among the inhabitants of Monon-
gahela valley. (Cheers). But do not see
before me the West Virginia which knew
in my boyhood. The West Virginia of forty
-
the West Virginia Of to-day is q posperous,
industrial State. (Applause). West Vir-
ginia, as an independent commonwea lth, be-
gan her existence during the civil war, and
at that day the most liberal estimate Of her
total property, according to the enumeration
Of the United States census, did not exceed
500, 900 900; while in 1880 it showed that
you possessed . capitalized wealth to the
amount of $40, 100000. From the close OF
the war 10 the year 1880, West Virginia has
therefore gained in wealth the enormous
sum of $3.50, 100000. You have Jared pretty
well, therefore, under Republican admin
istration. daughter and chsets). Probably
some political opponent does me the honor
to listen to me, and would ask him, as a
candid man, to say with all respect that there
is not Democratic statesman on the stump
in West Virginia conspicuous enough to be
known to the nation. speak only OF those
know. Who advocates protective tariff
Not one. | 60 further. / do not know a
Democratic statesman who will acknowledge
that tariff for protection is constitutional ;
and therefore as honest men they are bound
to oppose it. The Morrison tariff bill owe
won't have it.'') would have struck at the
interests of West Virginia in many vital re-
spects, and 1t Is amazing tina, the representa-
tiyes In Congress from West Virginia voted
for that bill. There is a good old adage,
which | beg to recall 10 your minds, 'thst
God helps those who help themselves" and
If West Virginia is not willing to sustain a
protective tariff by her vote and her influence
she must lot expect II TO be sustained for
her by others. If she wants the benefit of a
protective tariff, she must give TO the protec-
tive tariff the benefit of her support. cloud
cheers.)
am glad that am addressing Southern
people; a community that were slave hold.
ere; q community made of up those who
were masters and those who were slaves.
But am addressing a slave State no longer;
(great cheers). am appealing to the New
south; (renewed cheerlng). am appealing
to West Virginia not TO vote upon tradi-
ton or prejudice not to keep her eyes to
the rear, but to look to the front and to the
future. owen do it; we'll do it," aud
wild cheering.) And If / could he heard, l
would make the same appeal to other South
ern States-to old Virginia, TO North Caro-
lima, to Georgia, to Alabama, to Tennessee,
to Louisiana. They are all interested In =
protective tariff, and the question is which
do they prefer to gratify9 A prejudice,or to
promote the general prosperity?
West Virginia can lead the way; she can
break the seemingly impregnable barrier of
the Solid South. (Cries of "we'll do it, we'll
do itw) Solid on what? Solid on q prsju-
dice Solid on q tradition! Solid upon
doctrines that separate the different portions
of the unionl Whereas invite you to join
In union not merely in form but a union In
fact, and take your portion Of the solution Of
the Industrial and financial problems Of the
times. (Great cheering).
If West Virginia takes that course on the
18th of October, she will do much to settle
the controversies that now agitate us. "a
voice, "Shs will.") A repeal of the protect
i've tariff, according to the terms of the NJ Or
rison bill, would cost West Virginia vast
sum Of money. Between 1870 and 1880 you
gained in this State $l60,00e,0 900; between
1880 and 1890 you will gain much more with
q tariff for your protection. But 1 ask any
business man If he can do it with free trade ?
(Cries of "No, no, no.D
Here close my words of counsel, leaving
the action to you. leave you, not as COM
muni:y Influenced by sectional feeling, but
as q community broadly national. leave
you a. q State allied on the one side to Penn
sylvania and on the other to OHIO (cheers)
as much as you are to Virginia and Ken
lucky. l leave you as State that stands in
the van of the New South, inviting the whole
South to join In the great national movement
which shall, In fact and in feeling, as well as
In form, make us people with one union,
one destiny. (Great aud long continued
cheering.)