South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1888-05-04
RATTIINc Speech
OF Senator Biaokburn-The
First Gun OF the Cam
paign Fired at Keyser

iigencer, SeLators JOHN L. KrssA. Of
this State. and JOSEPH 8. BLACK.
BURN. of Kentucky. addressed the
de mocracy of Mineral county in the
Court House at Keyser. on the eve.
ming OF Tuesday. the 24.h ult. The
distinguished speakers drew an mr.
usually large and spprecia,ive audi.
erc". among whom were Judge ARM
strong. Senator Fionrnoy, Sla'e's Al.
tornsy Dailev. and Squire Gibson. of
This piece. Rennf's speech was very
good, but We have teen no report of
It that nakes It appear especisil,
worthy OF being published. B.lo~
we give the speech Of Senator Black.
hurD. He IS the man that souelcbed
ingalls,. and has national reputation
ns an orator.
| As soon ~ Mr.. Blackburn rose after the
applause had died away, hush Tell over the
room, but not for lang The distinguished
gentleman bad not spoken one minute before
there was roar o. laughter over the aliu ion
10 the love West Virginia and Kentucky had
| Tor each other. which was being shown by
hen,uckJ's anxiety to k-ep the West Virginia
porter OF the Hatfield-McCoy people with
them, and throughout the hour that he spike
sno"er OF oratoriral b,illiancy sparkled in.
to the ears Of all who listened His 81, casm
was AZ keen and whitening ss his ridicuIe " as
pointed AND bis power OF iuveciive made the
eyes OF his audience glitter with tie excite.
ment they felt and could only express by re-
peated bursts Of Applause.
III am party man." he said, 'and a par
'isan. Why? Because I believe that the
succt IS OF my party depends upon her mem.
bers being such, and looks to them 20 sup.
port 1er And | 60 further than that. /
believe that IL Peter should undertake the re-
dempiion OF the Republican party as a whole,
with the intention Of permitting them 10 Sip
through the yearly gates and associate with
the 'erIs beyond. he would have big lob
on his HANDS. Laughter. want to talk
as PLAIN, prac,icsl MAE, in q plain, practi-
cal fashion, to plain, practical people and
II went into detail on a question of Tariff,
TO ieht would pass, dawn would break and
day come and go, and night once more would
be here, and would not be halfway through.
Laughter No; don't think i'll talk TO
you TO any great extent on the tariff question
Tonight Laughter. But ! HAVE a few
| words TO say about protection. lfprotectiou
is a good thing for The laboring man, then
| tht laboring man ought to be the happiest
man on this earth, for he is better projected
than any other person iI the whole world.
Laughter.
lis the laboring man protected in this
country u he is III take my oath il is
not in The food he eats nor the clothing he
wears. The repub licans assert that he is
projected In his labor. ssy he is noti If
you give the American laborer twenty per
cent more waR IS than they do in Eng
land, Germany or France, they have taxed
him forty six per cent. moe than any other
country in the world on what he eats and
wears. And if the poor, overburdened fel.
low strikes, pauper labor is brought in duty
free to compete with the American labor they
swear they are protecting. Laughter.
From infancy to old age, f.om cradle 10
cofhnJ yor are taxed and there is nothing
under the blue vault OF heaven, between
paradise snd perdition. that IS free from the
clutch OF this damnable tariff. and the only
Thing poor fellow can do TO avoid il is 10
go eff aud die, and then that monster dips it's
long. lean, lank, Shiny fingers down deep in.
to your grave alter you are gone back to the
earth from which you spIang, reaching after
the twen,y-eight per cent. that the coffin
owes the tariff Roars of laughter.1
The only thing that the republicans don't
10 because as party, they don't like il, or
because they don't want to, | cannot assume
to say Air is another thing they don't tax,
and let me tell you the only reason they do
not is because they have not vet discovered
microscope strong enough to 6nd a point
upon which they can sti;k stamp. r. ro-
longed laughter. There Is one thing else
that they have left untouched, and that is
Gods blessed sunlight; but bear that tney
have discovered natural gas over in Penn.
sJlvania. and. II before ten years have gone
by some Pennsylvania Congressman don't
frame bill asking for tariff upon IL, be
cause II 10 an unwarranted intru sion Of the
Lord upon their rights S discoveries of nat.
ural gas, ] shall he very much surprised.
For the nex' few moments the audience
laughed and shouted themselves hoarse. af-
ter which upon resuming Mr.. Blackburn re-
| terred To The condition { the laboring man
twenty five years ago, and contrasted il with
that OF to-day. He stated that the republi-
can administrations policy hid bred mil
ionaires in one section of the country and
strikes and tramps in another, and asked if
six men worth $3.50 OoO, 900 argued heal.
thy condition of politics
| lie then referred to the surplus and the
causes Of its accumulation; stated there were
$4,000 people drawing pensions aud 396-
goo more who wanted TO draw them, all Of
them survivors of the late war Last wear
some OF The veterans OF the Mexican war
were placed upon the roll, but not until last
year There were no Mexican war soldiers
drawing pensions previous to that. Why2
Because the soldiers OF the Mexican war all
lived South. Laughter. He was not op.
posed TO pensions; he wanted every Federal
soldier to get pension, and it granfed him
mat there are so many of them because II
proved what excellent fighters the Confeder-
ates we're
lie referred to the land grab Of the Pacific
ralIroady and then 10 The republican admin
istrations OF the past ing: II charge that
from the day the republican party came into
power they uever passed single law that
benefited the laboring mao aud never failed
to pass bill that helped capital
his sweeping denunc iation Of the bank Ing
system OF the country opened the eyes Of the
many who did not quite understand the
question, and summed up by saying that
they had no more right to the money given
them by that law than the devil had 10 the
real estate which be tried to barter OF 10
by
tie then referred 70 the condition Of tho
South at the close Of the war and what the
people bad been obliged TO undergo. He
mentioned carpei-bsRgers as one Of the chief
blessings conferred upon the South by The
North. aad said: To give YOU an ADEQUATE
idea or what the South suffered from these
petty iyrants surpasses my powers, but will
say this: believe firmly that If the Lord
when { ying TO make The Egyptians let his
children go, iubsd OF plaguing the laud with
loousts. frogs, lice and such things, bad on.
W happened to think Of sending swarm Of
csrPet-6sggers down there, Phsiaoh never
would have been droE ned in the Red Sea
| Iaeme ndOua anftIauoo