The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-10-02
Senator sherman's Speech.
Erom tie Baltimore Sun.


The force of habit, especially bad habit, is
admirably illustrated in all of Senator Sher-
mans recent speeches, and in none more fully
than his last speech, delivered at Portsmouth,
Ohio, on Tuesday last. The Senator cannot
be done with the past and to turn to the future
His mind tends constantly to revert with de-
light to the period after the civil war, during
which his party, ignoring the letter and spirit
of the constitution, committed its long list OF
outrages upon civil liberty in the South, en-
acted protective tariff, gave away the pub
lie lands by millions of acres to railway cor
porations, established monopolies, corrupted
the civil service, and converted its leading
men, nominally in the receipt of moderate
salaries, from needy politicians into flourish
ing millionaires. There is much, no doubt, in
that past to regret, especially for individuals
whose moral constitution fitted them to profit
by its peculiar opportunities. But to the
country at large the so-ealled reconstruction
period and the political crime of 1876, in
which Mr. Sherman bore so prominent part
are not subjects for pleasant "reminiscences.
They make page of history our people
would gladly forget. Yet Senator Sherman,
with singular want of Judgment, insists in
his last speech in recalling attention to it.
For him the war is not yet over, and it would
be a glorious thing again to place the
Southern people under political disabilities.
Entertaining the view, apparently, that South
ern electoral votes are somehow less to be
considered in the choice of a President than
Northern votes, the Senator contends that it
is all wrong for Democratic President to be
in power at Washington. The majority OBJ
tanned by Cleveland, both in the electoral
college and in the popular vote, makes no
difference; Southern Democratic votes, for
xuho1a NJ looc 0u0hf IN fail
he contends, no matter how numerous, to
carry an election. "The administration" he
says, sin its appointments, surroundings and
sympathies, represents the triumph of the
rebel cause. The restoration to power of the
Democratic party is the restoration to power
of all that were disloyal North or South
during the war; This is very dreadful, and
a remedy is required. 81 do not know how
you feel about this NATTER" says the Senator
with touching pathos, shut, aside from all
differences about minor questions, | feel
that, for this generation at least, the loyal
people of the country, and not the disloyal,
should be trusted with power in the govern
ment, should represent it abroad, guide
its policy and write its history" The
programme of discrimination here suggested
could be carried out, of course, only by dis
franchising the majority of legal voters, a
proceeding in comparison with which the al
legged disfranchisement of Southern colored
Republicans by white Democrats would be a
mere trife. Still, as it would establish for
his party the principle of perpetuity in Office,
such a programme, in the Ohio Senator s
opinion, is worth the attention of Ohio poll
ticians. Passing from the sectional issue
proper, Senator Sherman finds much to con-
denim in the actual conduct of affairs by the
Democratic administration. Mr.. Bayard' s
s'gentle dalliance with Great Britain in re-
gard to the Canadian fisheries question is
contrasted with ''the clustering demand made
upon neighboring republic" and both incl
dents are contrasted with Stewards manage
ment of foreign affairs -alluding, presume
bly,, to the Trent matter. Mr.. Manning's f.
nancial policy is bad because he has increas-
ed the reserve and changed the form of debt
statement. The Democratic majority in the
House of Representatives is trounced both
because it wished to reform the tariff and be-
cause it failed to do it. The existing grinding
protective tariff Mr.. Sherman thinks one
of the great feats of the Republican party, and
the doctrine of protection, he declares, is its
chief cornerstone. The Union soldier and
his title to unlimited pensions, sick or well,
is congenial theme to demagogue, and Mr..
Sherman treats it very fully, complaining
bitterly of President Cleveland's vetoes of un-
founded pension claims. The usual fallacies
as to the blessings heaped upon labor by the
existing tariff are put forward to sustain the
claim that the Republican party is ''the friend
of the laboring man," and this, too, despite
the defeat by the Senate of the arbitration bill
passed by the House. As respects the silver
question, Mr.. Sherman thinks the silver dol
lar should be coined of a weight to make it
intrinsically as valuable as the gold dollar.
With this bit of sanity he closes speech un-
usually lacking in the breadth of view, can
dor, accuracy and commons sense that ought
to be accompanying the exercise of senatorial
functions.