Arizona weekly citizen., 1884-07-26

IELEGkAPH H AUGUSTA, Maine, July l5-To the Hon. John Is. Henderson and others of the Committee: Gentlemen-In accepting the nomination for the presidency, tend- cred me by the Republican National Convention, l beg to express a deep sense of the honor winch is conferred, and ot the duty which Is imposed.
 l venture to accompany the acceptance With some observations of the questions involved in the contest; questions whose settlement may effect the future of the natIon fsvOrably or unfsyorably for a long series of years. In enumer- ating the issues upon which the Republican party appeals for pubic support, the convention has bean singularly explicit and felicitous. It has properly gwen the leading posi- ton to the industrial interests of the country, as affected by the tariff on ex- ports. On that question. the two poIti- cal parties are radically in conflict. AL most the first act of the republicans when they came into power in 1861, was the establishment of the principle of protection to American labor and to 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 consistently warred upon 1t 1t. Twice within that period our oppo- nents have destroyed tariffs arranged for protection and since the close of the late civil war whenever they have controlled the house of representatives, hostile legislation has been attempted never more conspicuously than in their principal measure in the late session of congress.
 THE TARIFF QUESTION.
 Il Revenue laws are, in their very nature, subject to frequent revision in order that they may be adapted to changes and notifications of trade. The Repub- hcan party is not contending for the permanency of any particular statute. The issue between the two parties does not have reference to specific law; 1t is far broader and far deeper. 1t in- wolves a principle of wide application and bensticent influence against a the
 ory which We believe to be unsound in conception and inevitably hurtful In practice.
 Continuing he says: The Republican p rty has maintained, and will maintain, the polIcy of protection to American industry, while our opponents insist upon a revision which practically de- stroys that policy. The value of the pres.nt revenue system to the people of the United States Is not matter of the Ory, and l shall submit no argument to sustain it, but only invite attention to certain facts of official record which seem to constitute demonstration. In the census of 1850, an effort was made for the first time m our history to obtaIn a valuation of all the property Tn the United States. The attempt was m
 large degree unsuccessful partly from a lack of time, partly from pre!udIce among many who thought the inquiries fOreshadowed a new scheme of taxa
 tion; the returns were incomplete and unsatisfactory. Little more was done than to consolidate the local valuation
 used in the States for purposes of as sessment and ss every one knows, differs widely from a complete exhibit of all the property. In the census of lo6O, however. the work was done with great
 thoroughness. The distinction be-
 tween assessed value and true value.
 being carefully observed. The grand
 result was that the true value of all the
 property in the States and Territories 1excludlng slaves) amounted to fourteen
 thousand miliil ns of dollars. This ag-
 gregate was the net result of the labor and the savings of all the people within
 the area of the United States from the
 time the first British eOlOnist landed in
 l607. down to the year lo6O. It repre- scented the fruIt of the toll of two hun dred and fifty years. After 1860 the
 business ot the country was encouraged : and developed by a protective tarlii. At the end of the twenty years the total property of the United States as re- turned by the census of lSSO, amounted
 to the enormous Bggregaie of forty-tOur
 thousand millions of dollars. This
 great result was attained, notwithstand- Ing the fact that countless millions had,
 in the interval, been wasted Tn the pro-
 gress of bloody war. The results are
 regarded by the older nations of the world as phenomenal; that our country
 should surmount the peril and the costs of a gigantic war and for an entire per iod of twenty years make an average ' galn to the wealth of oue hundred and twenty-five million dollars per month, surpasses the experience of all other na-
 tions, ancient or modern.
 Even the opponents of the present
 revenue system don't pretend that m the whole history of civilization any
 parallel can be found to the material progress of the United States since the , accession of the Republican party to mower. Our opponents find fault that
 our revenue system produces surplus but they should not forget that the law has given a specific purpose to which all , of the surplus is proftably applied , , the reduction of the public debt-and
 the consequent relief of the burden oi taxation. Not dollar has been wasted
 and the only extravagRDce with which
 the party stands charged with, IS the generous pensioning Ot soldiers, sailors , | and their families. an action which em bodies the highest form of justice m the l recognition and payment of sacred . debt. When reduction of taxation IS C : be made, the Republican party can b' , trusted to accomplish it in ouch fOrn . as will most effectively and the industrle' l of the nation.
 - COMMERCE.
 { Referring to foreign commerce, b. ! says our carrying trade has, from obvi ous causes, suffered many discourage ments since 1860, but our foreign com ' merce has in the same period steadIl. . and prodigiously increased-increase' z indeed at rate and to an amour ! winch absolutely dwarts all previous de | velopmsnts of our trade beyond the sea From 1880 tO the present time the for ]. eign commerce of the United States divided with approximate equality be
 tween exports and imports. reached th
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