The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-10-29
A False Issue

- = &AoS 4ASAE
As long as the managers Of the Re-
publican canvass hoped and believed
that it was possible to secure electoral
votes from the South and especially
from West Virginia, but little was
talked of by them except the tariff.
The country was told of the wonderful
increase in wealth under Republican
administration of the government, and
that this increase was attributable solely
10 a high protective tariff 1t was con-
fidently asserted that the American doc
trine of protection commended itself to
the voters by reason Of the great bless
ings that had flowed from it and that
BLAINE and LOGAN would sweep the
country as the champions Of that doc
trine. Certain twas that they would car
~ all of the Northern States aud perhaps
West Virginia, Louisiana and Tennessee.
Ia the States named, the material IN
terests involved were counted on to
sever the ties which bound the great
mass of the intelligent voters to the
Democratic party. Since the elections
in Ohio and West Virginia, however,
the tariff has been pushed TO the rear
and the so-called American doctrine of
protection is no longer relied on. 1t has
lost its potentiality, so it seems, and is
no longer to be trusted.
At Fort Wayne, Ind, on the 10th
inst, Mr. BLAINE delivered the most
remarkable speech of the canvass, in
which he endeayored to excite sectional
prejudice and to bring to the aid of the
Republican party the passions which
controlled during the civil war. He
alluded to the Democratic hope that
with the sixteen Southern States and
New York and Indiana a Democratic
President you'd be elected, and said, i
do not believe that the soldiers Of Indiana
can be put to that use. do not believe
that the men who added lustre and re-
nown to the name of your State through
four years Of bloody war can be used to
call to the administration Of the govern
ment the men who organized the great
rebellion" He spoke of the effort to
elect Democratic President as an
attempt TO seize the government of the
nation, and expressed the belief that the
people of Indiana would stand where
they stood during the war.
We can only account for Mr.. BLAINE's
unpatriotic utteranceson the theory that
his cause is desperate. We have never
doubted that he would resort to all the
arts Of the trickster and the rascal to
get himself comfortably seated in the
White House, but we thought that he
was too smart to detract from the digni |
ty of his candidacy by INDUCING in a
spiteful assault upon the South. If he
were to be profted by such a speech
there might be excuse for it, but since
it will do him no earthly good, we look
in vain for a motive.
1t may be that there are persons in
the North who will vote for Mr.. BLAINE
mainly because the candidate whom the
South prefers is Governor CLEVELAND,
out all such persons have long ago de-
sided how they will vote. They are
and need no argument to
,o,,,-;,oa 4I,o,,, tI,of 4Ia,y eIoulI vote o. |
hey shot. But the number of these is
getting less every year. In New York
md Indiana they are so largely in the
majority that they do not appreciably I
fleet the elections, and, taking the recent
.ote of Ohio as an Indication, it is doubt
ul if the sectional argument is as po- {
ent there now as it was before the war.
But what will our Southern friends !
Tho had concluded to vote with the Re- +
ublican party ON the tariff do, now !
hat Mr.. BLAINE has unfurled the I
bloody shirt" viii they further aid S
a the effort to elect a South-hater to be b
resident? How can they excuse them .
elves for voting for an enemy to the h
outh and its people? Mr.. BLAINE is v
ne only candidate for the Presidency !
no has ever spoken of the election of q
democratic President as if it were = h
rime against the government, and this, b
ecause q Democratic President would :
e mainly indebted to the South for n
is election. Ought Southern men to a
ote for him? Should they differ about
of finance and separate in the
pproaching election? Or should they c
OF rather stand together more solidly
nan ever, determined that until sec +,
onalism has been obliterated they will a
OF discuss other questions? .
Mr. BLAISE's speech put into the \
anyaSs a false issue, but one not likely
cut very important figure, for the q
JASON, if for no other, that the voters '
lost likely to be affected by it-those a
the South-are already ''solid." If +
ley were not, few speeches like that :;
Fort Wayne would make them n
,olid." We give Mr.. BLAINE the ben
it of our columns and elsewhere print :
: s,,aaeb IN f,II