The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-13
SPEECH OFOLIYER 7. MORTON
Delivered Before the Morton Club and
Young Men on Saturday Night.
How England Tried to Conquer America by
Destroying Its Manufactures-The DEM
ocratic Record and Mr.. Hendricks.

Mr. President and Gentlemen OF the Morton
Club: 1t is with deep sense of my insudlclency
that, in response to your invitation, rise to ad
dress this audience tonight We are assembled
as young men to emphasize our initial political
allegiance We believe our fathers to have been
right in their time; we will try to be right IN our
own. In the past instinct has led US. To-day
reason must teach, evidence must be sifted, and
an irrational belief strengthened or wholly cast
aside. great army of young men swells the
ranks of the political parties every four years,
infusing fresh blood into old channels, imparting
enthusiasm, and atonine for the absence OF
znaturer Judgment by complete disinterested-
ness and nobility of purpose that, as yet, know
not the warp of time. They represent the genius
of the new age and its ideal aspirations that can
be neither ignored nor frowned down.
The relation which young man forms with
a political organization is generally permanent
although such may not be his intention The
man of maturity seldom breaks away from the
party of his youth, unless some great national
crisis dssolves party Ii mes. Political association
custom and the obloquy following detection all
tend to keep man within the pale. The
choice of party is therefore momentous
The great contest this year lies between two po-
litical parties and no more Those who, gov
erDed by conscientious scruple, intend voting
the Prohibition ticket, and those who, misled
by sophstry, intend voting the Greenback tick
et absolutely throw their votes away, so far as
the election of their candidate is concerned
But every Republican who votes the Greenback
or Prohibition ticket, indirectly casts a vote for
MIR. Cleveland There are some men in the Re
publican and Democratic parties whe are dis
satisfied with the nominees OF those parties.
Let me say to them, that by no possibility can
they prevent the election of either Mr. Blaine or
Mr.. Cleveland to the presidency. If they regard
both as evils, they should choose what they re
gard as the lesser of those evils and vote direct
" This is the logic and common sense of the
situation. There is another class self-styled in
dependent Republicans, who use the name part
ly because they can stab the Republican party
more effeetually under that shield, and partly
because the history of the Democratic party is
so disreputabe that they care not to adopt the
title. They are trying to elect Democratic
President and as they favor free trade, desire
Democratic Congress; therefore, their position
seems to me to be extremely dishonest
THE TARIFF QUESTION
The overshadowing issue of this campaign is
the abolition retention of the tariff. This
question has been so thoroughly discussed and
my time is so limited tonight that l can only
briefly outline the history of foreign and home
protective legislation and the attitude OF the
Democratic party The interest which the
people of this country take in preserving the
tariff is only exceeded by that of England in
seeking to abolish it. To be sure we are gov
erned, they say by low and sordid motives and
they by ethereal principles of ineffable beauty.
The solctude of Englshmen generally concern
ing our customs duties is to me one of the most
touching incidents of our international inter
course. They do not yearn for our trade-oh.
no, but it makes them sad to see how we have
V1ahc y.nipq iTlln m Az
be some of you who so frivolous and cynical
as to think that the reason why Great Britain
annexed by bloody conquest India and the other
colonies which girdle the globe was to obtain a
monopoly of their trade. This cannot be- Their
primary object was to civilize the heather, even
If it took the whole British army to do it, and
incidentally to take their products at minimum
price, not necessarily for publication, but as
guarantee of good faith.
And you know how the English love the Irish
But somehow that affection has never been
ciproeated. After suffering from five famines in
the eighteenth century, and after having their
land parceled out to English landlords three
times the Irish grew tired of the advantages of
union, and, choosing opportuue moment, de
manded and obtained freedom They immedi-
atey instituted tariff, and the whole island
sprang into industrial life. We have the testi-
mony of distinguished Englishmen that no coun-
try ever prospered so much in the same length OF
time as did ireland under protection. But Eng
land, deprived of her Irish market, by treachery
and corruption induced the Irish Parliament in
1900 to agree to an act of union, and one Of the
stipulations of that union was the abolition Of
the tariff within twenty years Twenty-six out
of the thirtytwo Irish colonies protested in vain
against the betrayal of their country. The
union became an accomplished fact and the
tariff disappeared. Out of 2O0,0 900 men in the
Irish factories less than 2500 remained. Eng
land feared that factory life would deteriorate
the Irshman physically, and with that great
hearted benevolence which always distinguishes
4boto dot aptfp glxr
took the burden of manufacturing on herself.
One hundred and seventy-fye thousand men
were thrown out upon the land, which.
under competition, rose to ruinous
price. The result was that in 1881 and
l845 a blight and famine swept over the
country Emigration aud starvation reduced
the population two millions and a half, and this
on the fairest island of western Europe;
island within stones throw Of opulent Eng
land; an island capable of maintaining four times
its present population. The mbecility of Eng
lands government over Ireland was never more
strkingly illustrated than during last year when
the Irish poor houses were depleted and the in
mates sent to America by the ship-load Could
there be more abject confession of incompe-
tency than thisa
But what have been the relations of England
to this countryl As early as 100 the following
Christian-lik and benignant document issued
from the English Parliament: From and after
sSne, 1850. no mill other engine for Sitting
rolling bar iron, or any plating forge to work
with a tilt hammer. shall be erected, or contin-
ned after erection, in any of his Majestys colo
MES in America" Another act declared colonial
manufactures to be a nuisance. Well. you
know the story. By unjust taxation, and by
crushing out our local industries, the war of the
Revolution was brought on. The end of that
conflict left us in weak and demorazed condi
tion-scarcely Nation; our credit gone, and de-
pendent on the mother country for our com
modites William Pitt boosted that he had re,
conquered the colonies as commercial dependen-
cies, and treated us with contempt The consti-
nationality of American protection was
settled by the second bill that
passed the First Congress. Many members
of that Congress had sat in the constitutional
convention and George Washington, who signed
the bill, had been president of that convention.
This measure was economical in that it gave an
immediate revenue and political in that it made
us independent, in degree, of foreign countries.