Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-09-27
WATTERSON TALKS
kentucky's Great Editor De-
tends the South.
REPUBLICAN LEADERS DENOUNCED

Mckinley, Reed and the President Com
pared to Yancey. Toombs and Jeffsr-
son Davis-The Southern Negro and
The North Declared To BE Misled-
Some Reflections on the Tariff.
BOSTON, Sept Notwithstanding the
inclemency of the weather members Of
the Massachusetts Reform club turned
out in large numbers last night to greet
Henry Watterson, of The Louisville
Courier Journal, who was the guest OF
the club at banquet at the Hotel Bruins
wick The address of the evening was
delivered by Mr.. Watterson, who elo-
quently defended the south against the
charge of hostility to the north. He paid
his respects to Republicanism rs exem-
plified by the present leaders of the party,
and said that ever since the termination
of the war there has existed at the north
a body of public men who persist in as
cribing to the white people OF the south
purposes and a character wholly foreign
to them.
A Plea In Justification.
According to them the average south
erner is a cross between feudal lord and
a modern tough, while the poor black
man is pictured as a patient martyr,
abused and menaced in his person, cheat
ed of the fruits of his labor and deprived
of his legal right to vote. He was here,
he said, to put his foot upon the false
hood that the people of the south are do
ing anything, or have done anything, that
the people of the north would not have
done had their places been exchanged.
Some Odious Comparisons
In truth. as he saw it, the Republican
leaders of 1890 have exchanged places with
the secession leaders OF 1850. Behold"
he said. "in Mr.. Doctrinaire Mckinley.
Mr.. Doctrinaire Yancey; in Mr.. Agitator
Reed, Mr.. Agitator Toombs; in the grim
egotism of the president, the disdainful
isolation of Mr.. jefferson Davis. Behold
in the unyielding assertion of the consti
tutional right of the negro to vote and to
have his vote counted, the unyielding as
sertion of the constitutional right of the
master to call the roll of his slaves be-
meath the shadow of Bunker Hill monu
ment. Behold in the restrictive dogma of
protection, the short-sighted aims and
narrow spirit of the doctrine of secession.
NlRger VIII Be Nigger, Etc
sit is just as impossible to make south
ern negro white man as it is to make q
northern white man negro. though that
is the miracle the Republican leaders are
trying to work. I'm many parts of the
south the negro has no conception of the
meaning of a vote. II he cannot sell it,
it possesses no value to him. Left to him
self he ceases to take any interest in poll
"uts Iannnn4al e.. ss,,,
reasoning sectionalism of demagogues
who seek TO infiame one kindred people
against another" and called attention to
the fact that many of the most promi.
nent men of the south, before and since
the war, were of northern birth, most of
them from New England, while numbers
of northern leaders were of southern
origin.
Remarks on the Tariff
In the course of his speech hehan some
thing to say on the tariff question. "You
in New England cannot bring hides here
from Illinois, make them into leather. and
send the leather back to Chicago to be
sold at profit. You will not he able to
bring cotton here from Georgia, Ala
bama- Mississippi, and work it for
a profit against the mill that sits
on the edge Of the cotton patch when
the far-seeing and the skilled young fell
lows you have sent down there have made
ready for the contest. The doctrine of
protection dooms your manufactures just
as surely as the doctrine of secession
doomed slavery. You are INSTRUCTED
by the west. You are menaced by the
south. You have tariff walled yourselves
out Of Canada and the rest of the world.
Reciprocity may help you little In de-
tail, but it will not save you.
The Remedy Proposed.
@Nothing can save you short of untaxed
fibers and untaxed food, untaxed ores and
untaxed fuel, untaxed everything that
enters into living and manufacture that
enters into the development of your pc
culiar aptftudes and genius, that enters
into the liberation of your industries from
q system which is slowly but surely de-
plotting them and your people from the
rigors of geographical territory no long
er able to furnish the raw materials and
the markets necessary to their com mer
cial and bodily sustenance"
A Welcome Blaine VIII Repudiate.
He depicted the evils of protection from
his point of view and welcomed Blaine
into the ranks of the free traders, though
the secretary of state was more advanced
than he (Waterson) in that direction In
conclusion, he outlined what he said was
the ultimate danger to New England
from protection and appealed from such
politicians "a Reed, Blaine, Quay, Hoar,
Sherman and Chandler to the good women
and good men OF the Republican party
who have been honestly misied by their
CHASTITY and 1urid misrepresentation of
their fellow-citizens of the south If what
they say be true, the south ought to be
blotted out in blood and fame. 1t is not
true. nor any part of it, in the spirit in
which they urge it. How could it be,
unless the same he true of your For, as
/ said before, it is 10 to l when you
scratch a rebel that you will find a Yam
kee"
Watterson delivered his speechwith great
vigor and WAS loudly applauded. He was
followed by Sherman Hoar, Democratic
candidate for congress in Gen. Banks dis.
trict and DR. William Everett