Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-08-25
Hon. james G. Blaines Speech
DELIVERED AT REPUBLICAN MASS
MEETING AT SEBAGo LAKE. TUESDAY,
AEG 24TH.

MEETING AT SEBAGo LAKE, TUESDAY
AUG. PATH.
| Fellow Citizens:
new Administration of the National gov
eminent is usually unvexed in It's nrst veal
except by the opportunities and the dIsap
pontments of its own supporters. TIT
people at large give small heed for the tint
| to public affairs and the discussion OF politi
| cal issues is left as a somewhat perfunctor,
task to opposing partisans in Congress Thi
season of apparent indifference is caused II
part by the natural ebb of the tide which
flowed go high in the preceding national cleo
ton and 10 part also by the American ln'
stinct of fair play which demands tina
the party freshly installed may have free
opportunity and full time to lay out its groun'
and mature its measures. This period
popular inaction is thus not only ADVANTAGE
| GUS for rest, but il prepares those who are TN
ultimate arbiters in all matters of public con
Germ TO give patient hearing to fair argumen
when the time arrives for popular discussion
| The approaching election of a governor, o.
four representatives to a new Congress
and a legislature that shall choose
a senator of the United States
revives the interest in political top
les in Maine and subjects to inquiry
the various issues which separate our people
into distinct political parties. Have the Ole
differences between the Republican and Dem
ocratic organizations been adjusted, or have
they grown more palpable and more pro-
nounced! Are the questions over which the
Republicans and the Democrats have waged
. long contest to be now abandoned! Is lltiga
ton in the court of public opinion to be dis
continued and a settlement effected by enter
ing ''neIiher party" on the Peoples docket
Or, on the other hand, do the American people
just now begin to see with clearer vision the
aims and intentions, the methods and the meas
ures OF each party and are they waking to new
and more earnest struggle over policies that
are irreconcilable, over measures that are in
herenty and inevitably in conflict? Let US
inquire of these things in q spirit of candor !!
THE TARIFF POLICY.
1t is in the first place especially worthy of
observation that in the history of industrial
questions no party in time of peace has ever
been more united in support of policy than
is the Republican in support of Protective
Tariff to day. At the late session of Congress
a measure known as the Morrison Tariff Bill,
designed to first weaken and ultimately des-
troy the Protective policy, was resisted by so
members that single vote from New York
and two or three votes from Minnesota were all
that broke the absolute unanimity Of the Party.
And this was rendered still more striking by
the fact that the organs of Republican opin-
ion in New York and Minnesota declare that
these exceptional votes were adverse to the
wishes of a large majority of those who
elected the dissenting members.
On the other hand, the vast majority OF the
Democratic members supported the Free
Trade side of the question; but a small mi
nority, uniting with the Republicans, found
them selves able to defeat the measure. There
upon the Democratic papers quite generally
throughout the country denounced the recu-
SAINTS AS unfaithful to the creed OF their party,
and the journal in New York which is said to
reflect the views of the National AdminisIra-
ton gave formal notice to all Democrats
North and South, who lean towards the policy
of Protection, that they must revise their
opinions or leave the party, because with
their views they can find no sympathy il
Democratic ranks and no standing room on
Democratic platforms.
The sc leading facts indicate that the policy
of Protection versus Free trade, is an ISSUE
shaped and determined no longer by sectional
pretereace- but has become general anC
line of division between the Republican anC
Dem. cratic parties. | do not recall thes.
facts as preparatory to an analytic discussion
of the Protective system, but with the view o
| applying them to certain current movements
| and current events.
| The hostility of the Democratic party
to Protection has entailed upon thu
country a vast loss and has in many ways OBJ
structed the progress and development of Ger
tain sections. Since the financial panic .
| 1878 and the contemporaneous qualification o
the Southern vote, the Democratic part,
| has with the exception of single Congress
| held control of the House of Representatives
| The power to originate Revenue Bills ha
been exclusively IN their hands and the,
| have used it to the confusion, the detriment
| in many instances to the destruction o.
new enterprises throughout the Union
| Confidence once shaken is hard to restore
| and the schemes of improvement which
have been abandoned within the past tel
years on account of the uncertant,
| of our Revenue Laws constantly menaced b,
| the Democratic party in Congress would have
caused prosperity and happiness in man,
communities which have felt the discouragins
influence of dull times.
The Democratic party is constantly using
the comparative dullness in business, which
their own course in Congress for twelve
years has largely developed, as an argument
against the Policy of Protection. But it i.
worth while to compare the condition of the
| country in this year of grace with its condi
ton the year before the Republicans succeed
ed in enacting their first Protective Tariff
| In the nine States which still do the larger
amount of manufacturing for the country ,an(
| which did it nearly all a quarter of a centur,
| ago, it is interesting and instructive to com
pare their financial conditions at the begin
ming of 1861 and at the beginning of 1856. TIL,
States referred to are the six of New England
with New York, New Jersey and Penn
| sylvania. In 1861 the country pre-
seated condition brought about by nearl,
an entire generation of Free Trade, and tn,
aggregate amount which the people had &C
cumulsted in their Savings Banks during
that long period was less than one hundred
and sixty millions of dollars In the sam
States on the first day of January, 1886, tn
aggregate amount in the Savings Banks wa,
over one thousand and twenty millions o
dollars. The difference in the amount o
savings in Maine for the two periods sho,
that in January, 1861, the people had les
than a million and a halt in bank, while il
January, 1886, the people had over thirty
six millions in bank.
During this period it must be remembers,
that the increase of population in the min
States has been about thirty-five per cent
while the increase of deposits in Saving
Banks has been at the rate of eight hun
bred per cent.
Ii must be remembered that seventy-fve
| nor cant of this vast sun, helnnus m tho M q 1