, 1890-05-01
PRINCIPLES AND PR OFES-
SIONN

NIONS
1t was a Republican who invented the
political catch phrase, CLAIM every
thing 1t was the capitalization OF a
robust sentiment in the ranks of that
party which before that time had never
received expression. 1t finds expression
now in the party organs, in the halls OF
congress and on the party stump when
the claim Is set up fur the Republican
party that it is the party Of progress in
the face of the fact that it is fighting tooth
and nail to maint in a war tariff with an
overfowirg treasurv on one hand and i'm
povsrishei farmers on the other, and
upon a basis which even the more honest
of its own party papers acknowledge to be
mere madness. 1t was this claim every
thing p~rerorative OF the party which
led the San In It's issue of yesterday to
approach the utmost limit of the privilege
when in enumerating the virtues Of the
party it said. The Republican party is
the party for the protection OF the laborer,
white or black. bound or free. 1t is OPP
posed TO bringing the workingmen Of
America into competition withlthe pauper
labor of Europe, or the rice-eaters of
China"
Let US se,. The original Republican
party of which Abraham Lincoln was the
forefront, with Horace Greeley. Charles
Sumner, Lyman Trumbull, Carl Schurtz,
Andrew Curtin, Governor Palmer and
others, as its great apostles. freed the ne
groes, aud did a great work, but from
that time forward the history Of the party
has been unbroken and consistent as the
enemy of all wag, workers, and mont
more conspicuously than of the colored
population. They have been banded
about by the &. o, .. a. useful political
allies, good enough to vote, but not to
hold Office as has been uniformly mani
tested. even here in the city of Cheyenne,
The cOlored brother went into open revolt
after Harrison's election, when he was
left outside in the distribution OF offices.
The original Republican party died in
1872. when all the list of great lights
mentioned above we're forced to abandon
it, with the statement that its principles
were dead, when its great purpose, the
preservation Of the union and the freedom
of the negro hal been accomplished, and
that the party having flleu into the
hands of base men, was being prostituted
to the purpose of pluniering the treasury
and oppressed all but the favored mouop-
olies of the East.
What is the record OF the present Re
publican party with regard TO the laborers
OF the United States2
Its first plank in the laborers' coffin was
the passage in 1864 of a law authorizing
the importation Of contract pauper labor,
which was in operation and not repealed
until 1885. during Clevelan1's administra
ton. when it wl7 repealed against the
long and determined opposition of a Re
publican senate. The contract labor act
with laborers in Europe or elsewhere,
China not excepted. and that these con
tracts were enforceable in the courts of
the United States, and that for any al
vances male for expenses of immigration
a lien SHOULD be recorded which would
operate as a mortgage on any land which
contract emigrant4 acquired by purchase
or under the homestead laws. This went
OF for twenty years and foreign pauper
labor, including contract pauper or coolie
labor OF Asia, was brought over by ship
loads up to 1885, and were used to compete
with and crowd out of employment the
American laborer, including Union soldiers
long returned from war, unless they could
work for wages satisfactory to the highly
protected m~onopolist', who had become
the leaders Of the Republican party.
Under It's infamous authority the Carnc-
Eies, the Depews and such poor mems
friends could 20 into the over crowded
labor markets OF Europe or Asia and
make such contracts as the hunger and
misery OF paupers and coolies forced
them to embrace.
10 1855 the labor organ %zl'ions of the
county began to b, powerfully ielt, and
their influence, terrifying strong Demo
cratic zeal and votes, remediel thus blot
on the civilization OF the age. As late As
April 1856, in violation of the law, Sen
ator Farwell OF Illinois brought over
under contract eighty seven foreign stone
cutters to work on a contract and was
sued by the United States for $s7, 900 as
a penalty.
What did the Republican party do for
the laborers Of this country when the
question as 70 the exclusion OF Chinese
was to be settled? When a Democratic
majority pass d an exclusion bill in 1879,
it was vetoed by Hayes, and persistent
Republican opposition prevented the ac-
eomplishment of the exclusion of Chi
nese until 1889, when an act passed by a
majority Of Democrats in both houses of
congress, and was a second time vetoed
by Arthur. who used this significant Ian
guage:
No one can say that the country has
not profted By them"
Finally a bill passed by Democratic ma
joriuCs in both houses reducing the term
OF restriction from twenty to ten years
was passed and signed by President Ar
thur. This law was not enforced until
Cleyeland's administration. On this