Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-09-14
The Jewel of Consistency
Personified in Politics.

A IcSG POLITICAL CAREER AS UNDEVIA- |
TING AS THE MAGNETIC YEEDLE-THE
LONG PAST AND THE IMMEDIATE
PRESENT. STIRRING LETTER
FROM AN OLD TIMER.
SIX PoINrs. ALLEGHENY TP., BUTLER
Co., PA, Sept. ., 1883.
Ed. CITIZEN:-I observe that, in your
Muster Roll of Harrison Veterans, my
name does not appear. l don't feel slight
ed in consequence thereof, but, on the con-
trary, censure my own dereliction.
l would not have you infer from my
tardiness in reporting myself that | am
ashamed of voting for William Henry Hsr-
rison in 1886 and in 1910, or that | will not
vote for General Benjamin Harrison at the
ensuing election, for am proud of having
supported the former and glad of the OPP
portunity to support the latter.
If, after voting for the gallant and pa
triotic General Harrison in 1886, when he,
with White, Webster, and Mangum was
defeated by the consummate trickster, Van
Buren, and in 1S40 when he overwhelm-
ingly defeated Van Buren, I should be so
unstable, so erratic, and so inconsistent as
to now support Cleveland and Thurman,
or even their tender, their decoy-ducks,
their man Friday, so to speak,-by the
which | mean the Prohibition ticket
would feel most heartily ashamed OF that.
If all wrong politically, Fisk is all
right personally; but we can't brook that
Brooks, his associate on the Prohibition
ticket. who is an ex-slave- driver, ex-slave-
holder, ex-rebel, ex-secessionist, eX-hre-
eating Democrat, and ex-the-devil gener-
ally.
am now Sc years old. Ivoted for John
Quincy Adams in 1924; for Adams again III
1923; for Henry Clay in 1882; for General
William Henry Harrison in 1886; for Har-
rison again in 1910; for Henry Clay again
in 1874; for General Zachariah Taylor III
1S4S: for General Winfield Scott in 1852;
for General John C. Fremont in 1896; for
Abraham Lincoln in 1860; for Abraham
Lincoln again in 1864; for General Ulysses
S. Grant in 1868; for General Grant again
in 1872; for General Rutherford B. Hayes
in 1876: for General James A. Garfield III
1880; and for James &. Blaine in 1oo4;-l6
Presdents-and, so help me God, will not
now, nor hereafter, vote for any man, be
he an alleged Christian, or avowed devil,
who, for four long years, did all he could
to strike down my country, or who even
sympathized with, or in any way aided or
abetted those who were engaged in that
unholy and diabolical attempt to disrupt
and dismember this glorious Union of Free
and Independent States-the greatest and
grandest. the farest and brightest ever the
sun shown upon.
General Harrison, our present standard
bearer. has well said in one of his noble,
public utterances that, "The man who lived
through the War OF the Rebellion and did
not make some sacrifice for the success OF
the Union armies-who did not say one
brave word. nor do one brave thing, when,
with bare and bleeding breasts our sol
diers looked into the very face of death for
their country-can never be enshrined as
the soldiers friend" Well said; but /
move to amend by adding the words: ''and
IL unworthy W Dt an huitiiNhh Ni''NN+'f
much less to hold high and exalted posi-
ton in our government"
| voted for one General Harrison in 1886
and 1s40 in order to obtain protective
tariff; | will now vote in thisyearof of grace,
1888. for the other General Harrison in
order to maintain a protective tariff.
will not vote that was a fool then, or give
grounds for suspicion that | am one nor.
| firmly believe in, not only the right, but
the duty of our government to protect
American industries and American labor
against the well known cheap labor OF Eu-
rope. and | will not stultiiy myself i'll this
belief by going to the polls and voting Tor
Cleveland, Fisk Belva Lockwood, or any
other oM lady and thus convince myself,
and demonstrate TO the rest Of mankind
that don't know exactly what ! am III
favor Of | will not believe, rs do, III the
governmental policy Of protection, and
then go to the polls and vote that | am
wrong in that belief; but | will vote for
General Harrison, feeling assured, the
while, that my ballot will carry with 1T
some weight, some force, and my belief III
protection tariff be thereby rendered
efficacious, or, ut least, tend in that direc-
ton The tariff question, ! am constrain-
ed to believe is the great one i'll the pend
ing campaign. Until it shall have been
put upon an irrcvocable basis, ! for one
will subordinate every other issue to it. !
will not bite off more than / can properly
| masticatc.
In looking back along the long line OF
my political history, / congratulate myself
that have made as few mistakes as tn
ordinary enfranchised citizen usually makes.
| arrive ut this conclusion, not through
ego:ism, but in the light of subsequent
events and impartial American history
The record of my political career is lega-
cy which | bequeath to my posterty with
feelings of pride and satisfaction, enjoinng
upon them to keep pace, in their political
| affiliations, as | believe my record viii
show have done, with the progress and
development of this great Nation.
GEORGE q. FOWLER