Huntsville gazette., 1891-12-26
DEMOCRATIC SELF DECEPTION.
R3cIasions which the Democrats Are
Building Upon.

E,cIssions which the Democrats Are
Building Upon.
The cool assumption that the extraor-
sainary democratic victory last year
was secured mainly by the tariff ques-
ti1n has been so often repeated by free
traders that they begin to believe 1T
themselves That is one of the penal
tics of such falSehood The man who
uses the untruth finally gets to believe
Tn il, and to base his own calculations
on it, and to lay all his plans as if it
xsere true. Then he receives well
earned thrashing, though, if he had not
cheated himself, he might possibly have
alta ined success.
This particular falsehood is now
szaade the basis of all calculation by
free traders respecting the next presi-
<tentiaI election. Because they won in
Is90, on the tariff question in certain
states according to their idea, if that
I>sue can be made substantially the
only one victory must come in 1892. 1t
~ highly gratifying to find men cheat
ing themselves in this way, because
their chances of success might be much
II AuCI ohOulh stuO1O
tactics from those which untruth in
cIines them to prefer. Mr.. Cleveland
went down in 1888 largely because he
ard his friends had cheated themselves
In the same way regarding the popu-
lxrity of his tariff crusade. If the free
traders have their way the same ex-
pertinent will be repeated in 1892, again
based ON belief in falsehoods which
have been told SO often that the falsi-
ficrs themselves believe them.
The truth about the matter seems to
year The tariff issue was carefully
avoided in New York and the demo-
Gratis Won 1t was pcrsistcntly made
bv both parties in Ohio. and the demo
Gratis lost. If there has been in any
state, at any time since the presiden-
tial election in 1888, a clearly defined
and distinct issue on the tariff question.
ii was in Ohio. and the majority there
for Maj. Mckinley was greater than
the majority in 1883 for President Har-
rison- The nomination of Mfr. McKin-
ley made the tariff the one question
which overshadowed all others, and it
OfUuuHL MN al llTgcf NOtt Jidu lHt
state had ever given TO any other cam
siliate. 1t would be strange. indeed.
III something of the same tendency of
public opinion should not appear in the
.adiacent states, Indiana and Michigan,
while in other western states except
Fowa- where the liquor question turned
the scale, the republican party APP
gears TO have assured majorities. The
story that the farmers of the west
were going by the thousand in every
state for tariff reform" was told so
often previous to the contest of 1888
that Mr.. Cleveland himself was prob
ably more amazed than anybody else
20 see the overwhelming majorities
cast in western states against him.
The tariff policy of the republican
yarty was adopted with dcliberation
y,rior to the election of Abraham Lin
coin in 1860, and secured his success.
Ne. nc did not receive a majority on
she popular vote. In 1864, when he
was reelected, the civil war absorbed
attention, and in 1868 and 1872 the
memories of the war and problems of
reconstruction insured the election of
tafstNJ III IotO 1Hc bdriiI IuCSptoH " 40
ssdroitly handled by Mr. Tilden in con-
nsctiou with the question of resump-
1ion, the latter being the more promi-
raeus. and he was barely beaten. In
1850, for the first time in twenty years,
che e:.riff became the more prominent
ISSUE, and a scanty plurality of the
popular vote for Gen. Grant was the
result In 1884 personal antagonisms
10 Dir Blaine affected the verdict to
some extent, and yet. after allowance
for the larger fraudulent majorites for
Mr. Cleveland in southern states, the
popular vote for protection appeared
relatively greater than in 1880. In the
election of 1885, allowing for the sup
PRECISION of freedom at the south, the
plurality for President Harrison and
protection was larger than had ever
been given for that cause. ,,
Local issues, ahe diversion of the
Mariners Alliance, and the neglect of
republicans to vote, gave democrats
fhclr victory in 1890, and there was not
a single state in which the tariff issue
xvas as distinctly made as it has been
in Ohio this year Down 10 the year
$50, the protective policy had been
growing in popular strength for thirty
wars Ohio would Indicate that it is
still growing. If democrats prefer to
hin their faith to elections of last year
shry are welcome.-N Y. Tribune.