The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-07-25
BLAINB'S ACCEPTANCE,
Letter OF the Republican Nominee for
President.

ceDllllR iOluilo SSihN
mences by saying:
'In accepting the nomination for the Presl-
hency rendered me by the Republican nation
al convention, beg to express deep sense OF
the honor which is conferred and the duty
which is imposed. | venture to accompany
The acceptance with some observations upon
the questions involved in the contest-ques-
lions whose settlement may affect the future
of the nation favorably or unfavorably for
long series of years.
lin enumerating the issues upon which the
Republican party appeals for popular sup
port, the convention has been singularly ex-
plicit and felicitous. 1t has properly given
The leading position TO the industrial interests
of the country as affected by the tariff on inn
ports On that question the two political
parties are radically in conflict. Almost the
irst act of the Republicans, when they
came into power in 1861, was the es-
Enlistment of the principle of protection
to American labor and American capital.
This principle the Republican party has ever
since steadily maintained, while on the other
hand the Democratic party in Congress has
for fifty years persistently warred upon 1t.
Twice within that period our opponents have
destroyed tariffs arranged for protection, and
since the close of the civil war, whenever
they have controlled the House of Represen
tatives, hostile legislation has been attempted
never more conspicuously than in their
principal measure at the late session of Con-
gressn
Mr. Blaine next enters into a long deus
zion of the tariff question, in which he vigor-
ously defends the policy of protection The
material policy of the country, he declares, is
the best argument that can be made in favor
of high tariff. He denies that the tariff
has injured our foreign commerce The
commercial cities of the Union" he says,
.'never had any such growth as they have en-
toyed since 1860. Our chief emporium, the city
of New York, with its dependencies, Las with
In that period doubled her population and
Increased her wealth five-fold During the
sam, period the imports and exports which
have emit red and left her harbor are more
than double in bulk and value the whole
amount exported by her between the settle
ment of the first Dutch colony on the island
oftManhatt IN and the outbreak of the civil
war in 1SC0n
Mr. Blaine next tou hes upon the agricul-
tural interests, maintaining that protective
toiCy is in the direct interest of the farmers,
because Gin the homs market The farmers
see that in the increasing competition from
tn grain fields of Russia and the distant
plains o. India the growth of the home mar
ket becom IS daily of greater concern to the m
and that its inn u rment would deprecate the
value of every acre of tilab.e land in the
Union"
"a policy of this kind would be disastrous
to the mechanics and workingmen of the
United States. Wages are unjustly reduced
when an industrious man is not able by his
earnings to live in comfort educate his chill
dren, and lay by a sufficient amount for the
necessities of age. The reduction Of wages,
inevitably consequent upon throwing our
home market open to the world, would de-
prive them of the power to do this. 1t would
prove great calamity to our country. 1t
would produce n conflict between the poor
and the rich and in the sorrowful degrade
ton of labor would plant the seeds of public
1angern Continuing Mr.. Blaine says that
the Republican party has always protected
the free labor of America, and has guarded
our people against the unfair competition of
contract labor from China.
Concerning a foreign policy Mr.. Blaine
says ''our foreign relations favor domestic
development; that we should cultivate closer
relations with the nations of the Western
Hemisphere. and that all international
troubles in North and South America should
be adjusted by impartial arbitration and not
by arms Concluding this subject, he says:
The name of American which belongs to us
in our national capacity must always exalt
the just pride of patriotism. Citizenship of
the republic must be the panoply and safe
guard of him who wears it. The American
citizen, rich or poor, native or naturaliZed,
white or colored, must everywhere walk
cure in his personal and civil rights The re-
public should never accept lesser duty-it can
never assume nobler one than the protec
ton of the humblest man who owes it royalty
protection at home, and protection which
shall follow him abroad, into whatever land
he may go upon lawful Grand"
Regarding the Southern States, the letter
saws that the elements which separated the
two sections are fast disappearing; that the
South needs capital and occupation, not con-
troversy," that ANY effort to unite the
Southern States upon issues that grow out of
the memories of the war, will summon the
Northern States to combine in the assertion
of that nationality which was their inspira
ton in the civil struggle" and charges that
the Democratic party ''shows itself foe to
Southern prosperity always invoking. and
urging Southern political consolidation"
The letter next discusses the civil service,
the writer saying: "Impartiality in the mode
of appointment to be based on qualification,
and security of tenure to be based on faithful
discharge of duty are the two ends to be ac-
complished The public business will be aided
by separating the legislative branch Of the
government from all control of appointments
and the executive department will be re-
lieved by subjecting appointments to fixed
rules and thus removing them from the ca
price of favoritsm. But there should be
rigid observance of the law which gives in all
cases of equal competency the preference to
the soldiers who rsked their lives in defense
of the Union.n Continuing on the subject of
the civil service, Mr. Blaine adds: "My obser-
Walton in the department Of state confirmed
the conclusions of my legislative experience,
and impressed me with the conviction that
the rule of impartial appointment might with
advantage be carried beyond any existing
provision of the civil service law 1t should
be applied to appointments, in the
mercial sentinels- encircling the globe
try's interests Their intelligence AMI
competency become, Therefore, matters Of
great public concern. No man sloIld be
appointed to an American consulate who is
not well instructed in the history and re-
sources of his own country, and in the re-
quirements and language of commerce in the
country to which he IS sent. The same Iule
should be applied even more rigidly to Q re
taries Of legation in our diplomatic service.
The people have the right to the most efficient
agents in the discharge of public business,
and the appointing power should regard this
as the prior and Interior consideration"
On the Mormon question the letter says
that while "religious liberty is the right of
every citizen of the republic Fit "must not be
perverted to the justification Of offenses against
the law, )" and further that "as citizens the Nor
mons are entitled to the same civil rights as
others, and to these they must be confined.
Polygamy can never receive national sanction
Or liberation by admitting the community
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