New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-09-10
PHYSICALLY AND MORALLY WEAK.

1t will hardly be said now by any intelligent
Democrat that the Republicans were wrong in
pronouncing the nomination of Mr. Thurman
mistake because Of his age and physical in
trinity. If it was the express object of the
President to get an associate who would be too
frail and feeble, bodily and mentally, to have
any influence in public affairs if elected, then
the selection Of Mr.. Thurman can be under
stood. 1t was a blunder of tactics to take him
alb out the country for exhibition, because the
melancholy spectacle forces men to consider
how desperate Mr.. Cleveands condition must
be, If he has to rely upon the running qualities
of so helpless an old man to pull him through
The Confederacy robbed both the cradle and
the grave In its last struggle; what is the
Democracy doing?
Mr.. Thurman did not strengthen his party
by his tour of exhibition in Michigan, partly
because his physical weakness was the reverse
of exhilarating, but more because his Bourbon
free-trade ideas were bluntly uttered and were
not such as to help his party in any Northern
State. Allen G.. Thurman represents day be-
fore yesterday. He belongs to the era of the
snuff-box and the bandanna, in information
and in beliefs, as in other respects. But 1t Is
pitiable that, at the very sunset Of his life
he should be tempted to throw away his best
claim to the respect of his fellow-ctizens. In
times gone by, when his body was strong and
his mind clear, he was known for integrity Of
character and Of intellect. Now, in his years
of decrepitude he is dragged before the coun-
try to make arguments which are neither sin
cere, truthful nor intellectually honest. In
more ways than one he has deteriorated since
he filed a seat in the Senate-and was thrown
out of it by the very men Of whose ambitious
schemes he now stoOps to become the tool.
There would be more sympathy for this poor
old man, in his weakness and his humiliating
position, If he had not attempted to deceive
The people in his Newark speech. A genuine
Free Trader himself who used to be proud Of
his convictions, he was brought to New-Jersey
to tell workngmen that the Mills bill was not
free-trade measure. lie began by delini
ton conspcuously incorrect, which, unless one
supposes that he has lost the mind he once had,
one must call palpably insincere. Mr. Thur
man knows, and his speeches by tho score prove
that he knows, that the phrase free trade"
is never used in this country or in Great Britain
to denote an abolition of custom houses-the
condition of trade which exists between the
different States Of the Union, as he asserted.
He knows, and his speeches by the score could
be cited to prove that he knows the principle
Of distinction between a free-trade or revenue
tariff and tariff for protection.
So when Mr.. Thurman affirms that the re
ducton in rate of duty by the Mills bill is but
per cent he stoops to deception which can
hardly be other than deliberate. That swndling
pretence has been completely exposed repeat
edly, and in documents, speeches and papers
which must have met Mr. Humans eyes, I'M
less he has become too decrepit to read any
thing. He ought to know perfectly well that
the official document issued but few days ago
by the clerk of the House Committee on Ways
and Means proves his statement untrue for it
shows that the average rate Of duty on duti-
able articles would be reduced from "a to
1928 per cent, besides the great change re-
sulhng from the addition Of several hundred
articles to the free list That, it has been
shown cuts down the average rate on articles
now dutiable from 54.4 to 3i6 per cent, or
more than third. The best that can now be
said Of Mr.. Thurman is that he was honest once