St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-01-12
CURRENT AFFAIRS.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Dn the Great Tssue of Tariff Reform

From his Boston Address before the Reform League.
But, gentlemen, there are occasions
when higher motives than those of
party allegiance and party advantage
become imperative. We are now call
ed upon to face, and, if we can, to mas
ter, such an occasion. Never before
has Pandora's box so full of the germs
of infectious decentralization been offer
ed to any people as to us in our grow
ing surplus. Never have such gro
tesque schemes for squandering what
should be the life blood OF the nations
industrial energies been proposed by
men in public place, and, what is sad
der, by men vino have persuaded 9th
ers that they are acting from patriotic
motives. Never before have such
enormous brides been offered to self
interest, to cupidily, to dishonor, to
slOth. If unthrftiness be thus preach
ed in high places, with what face can
thrift be inculcated i'm the lower2
One certainly of the reasons which
have brought us hither, one, at least,
of those that chiefly suggested the OPP
pOrtuneness of our coming together
here, has been the presidents message
at the opening of the present Congress.
Personally, | confess that | feel myself
strongly attracted to Mr.. Cleveland, as
the best representative of the higher
type of Americanism that we have seen
since Lincoln was snatchel from u.s.
And by Americanism | mean that
which we cannot help, not that which
we haunt, that way of looking at
things and of treating men which we
derive from the soil that holds our
fathers and waits for us. 1 think we
have all recognized in him Il manly
simplicity of character and an honest
endeavor to do all that he could of
duty, when all that he would was made
impossible by difficulties to the hourly
trials and temptations to which we
have fortunately never been exposed.
But we are not here to thank him as
the head of party. We are here to
felicitate each other that the presiden
tial chair has a MAN in it, and this
means that every word he says is
weighted with what he is. We are
here to felicitate each other that this
man understands politics to mean bus
mess, not chicanery, plain speaking,
not paltering with us i'm Il double
sense ; that he has had the courage to
tell the truth to the country without
regard to personal or party consequent
ces, and thus to remind us that a cOun-
try not worth telling the truth to is not
worth living in, nay, deserves to have
lies told in it and to take the inevita-
BILE consequences in calamity. If it be
lamentable that acts of official courage
should have become so rare among us
as to be noteworthy it is consoling to
believe that they are sometimes con-
tageous. $50 shines good deed in ii
naughty world J" AS courage is pre-
eminently the virtue of men, so it is
the virtue which most powerfully chal-
lenges the respect and emulation of
men. We thank the president for
having taught most pertinent object
lesson and from platform lofty
enough to be seen of all the people.
We should be glad to think, though
we hardly dare to hope, that some of
the walters on popular providence
whom we humorously call statesmen
would profit by it. AS one of the evil
phenomena which are said to mark the
advances of democracy is the decay of
civic courage, we should be grateful to
the president for giving us reason to
think that this is rather one of its acct
dents than of its properties. Whatever
be the effect of Mr.. Cleveland's action
on his personal fortunes, let us rejoice
to think it will be stimulating thorn in
that august chair for all that may sit in
it after him. Would that all our presi-
dents might see and lay to heart that
vision which Dion saw, the silent shape
of women sweeping and ever sweeping
without pause. Our politics call loud
ly for a broom. There are rubbish
heaps of cant in every corner of them
that should be swept out for the dust
man Time to cart away and dump be-
yond sight or smell of mortal man. Mr..
Cleveland, | think, has found the
broom and begun to ply it.
But, gentlemen, the president has set
us an example not only of courage, but
of good sense and moderation. He
has kept strictly to his text and his
purpose. He has stated the facts
and marshaled the figures without
drawing further differences from them