Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-11-09
Tariff the Great Issue

Permit me, Mr.. Editor, in reply to
questions that frequently come to
me, to say in your columns a few
words about the two great parties,
which ever since the formation Of
the Govern ment have been contend~
ing Tor supremacy, and something
more (trite as it may be regarded)
upon the subject which more than
anything else now divides them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked
some years ago that 1.-THE Wings had
the best men, the Democrats the best
principles" Since then changes have
taken place in both parties upon
financial and enconomic questions.
Then the Democrats were in favor of
gold and silver (hard money! and
specie-paying bank notes as a cur
rency, while some of the most ultra
were opposed to paper money of all
kinds. They also were the advo-
Gates of tariff for revenue only.
Now a large majority of its members
are in favor of direct issues by the
Government of greenbacks, as they
are called, whether convertible or
not, and some of its leading men "a
few only, to their credit be it said,)
are the advocates of a protective
tariff.
Then the Wings favored a banks
note currency the value of which de-
pended upon its relations to specie,
and which was not to be tolerated
when it ceased to be convertible.
Now their descendants, the Republi~
cans, unite with Democrats in favor
ing Government notes, and have be-
come converts to the doctrine, which
Mr.. Webster pronounced a "danger-
Gus if not fatal delusion," that the
Government, in the exercise of its
legitimate discretion, can not only
issue its notes for a circulating
medium, but can make them lawful
money and a legal tender-a doc
trine which, to the utter amazement
of most of the best legal minds of the
cauntry, has been sustained by the
Supreme Court. ...
Then the Wings supported tariff
for revenue, with incidental protec,
ton. Now the Republicans are the
supporters of tariff of which pro-
lection is the object and revenue the
incident. There were, of course
other subjects of public interest before
the country upon which the parties
were more or less divided, but cur
rency and taxation were by far TIT
most interesting, except the ques
ton of State rights, which was pu
to rest upon the battle field. During
the civil war the Republican Part.
received large accessions from tn
Democrats. Since the war the Demo
cratic Party has been able to numbe
in its ranks a good many recen
: Republicans. The two parties ar
now, as they have been for most @
} the time since the Government wa
established, nearly equal innumerica
strength, and neither in its full mem
bership is quite sound according t
its old standards.
The Democratic Party, however j
may have changed in principles, ha
chung tenaciously to its time-honore,
!. name. Its great opponent has no
been so fortunate. At the start j
was the Federal Party, then (som
Of its unpopular Federal doctrine
e having been discarded) it became tn
Wing Party, and then the Republi
can Party, under which name it wo
its highest renown by the hearty an
. united support which it gave to tn
Government in its desperate struggl
for the mainte nance of its existence
For a brief intermediate period
$ was known as the National Republ
l. can Party.
e Most of the questions other tina
e those that have been named, upO
which the parties have heretofol
been divided, have either becom
n obsolete or have been consigned
S the background. The question upo
!; which the party lines are now mo-
II strictly drawn, and upon which tt
parties have never been in accord,
s the tariff. Both are in favor Of
!, tariff, but there are very importal
" differences between them in regar
to its character. There are men
both parties iCtO fdcOr free b'dCIe, b
- there is no free-bdde party in the Unit
Il States, nor 1ojH there be for gears
J. come, if ecer.
It The journals (and strangely enoug