The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-10-21
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HON. WAYNE RYEAGRs SPEECH

HUI. wayne MetC v SdSh, VIII was
President Garlield's Attorney Gene
raj, followed up his admirable letter
announcing that he would vote for
Cleveland, by an incisive speech de-
livered in Philadelphia. last Saturd ~
night. In beginning he said he had
never been anything but Republi-
can and never felt until now at liber-
ty to vote for anyone but a Republi-
can for political Office.
Referring to the campaign of 1876,
Mr.. MacVeagh says he found himself
entitled to the electoral vote of Louis
lana but reconciled himself to Mr..
Hayes assumption of the Presidency
after the decision of the electoral COM
mission and the action of Congress,
but he believes still as he said then,
that it was the duty of the Republi-
can party to accept the result as de-
clared by the ballot-boxes.
On the subject of the corrupt use of
money in politics and the high tariff
Mr. MacVeagh said:
have watched with pain and alarm the
steady growth of the corrupt use of money in
our politics, and | have been constantly
hoping that the Republican party would at
least turn its face toward lower duties upon
imports and against other forms of congress
sional bounties, in accordance witt the teach
ings of so many of its greatest and wisest
leaders, and thus gradually diminish the temp
tations to that awful traffic, hateful alike to
God and all good men, the buying and selling
of votes.
1t was because of that hope and of the very
strong reluctance l felt to sever my connec-
ton with the party which had conferred upon
me SO many and so undeserved honors, and
because of my cordial regard and respect for
President Harrison and of my absolute faith
in the pledge of the platform and in his
pledge respecting reform of the civil service,
that continued to vote the Republican ticket
in 1888. All my hopes, however, were disap-
pointed and from that day to this the convic-
ton has been steadily growing upon my mind
that the general tendency of the Republican
party was not only inimical to the best inter-
ests of the country, but unless checked was
sure to result not only in making the poor
poorer but in making the rich more selfish
and more corrupt, and therefore less patriotic.
Mr. MacVeagh says Harrison's cleo
ton in 1888 was bought.
Almost as soon as the canvass of 1888 was
over rumors began to circulate that the cleo
tion had been bought and that the gentlemen
who collected the money, as well as those who
paid it, were determined to exact such rec
ompenses as had been promised them, and
the revelations which have occurred from
time to time have strengthened the convic-
ton in my mind that unhappily there was
only too much truth in these rumors. A prom
inent manufacturer of this city, a lifelong
has ta
signature, spoken of the Mckinley bill as
''our bill, because we bought and paid for it."
In speaking of the increasing pow
erty of the farmers Mr. MacVeagh
said:
While great fortunes are being made in so
many other departments of American bust
ness, the hard-working American farmer has
each year found himself poorer at the end of
it than at the beginning, until now In Sena-
tor Sherman's State of Ohio and in this State
of Pennsylvania his land is worth in many
cases less than half what it was twenty years
ago.
The total depreciation in the value of farm
lands in this country since 1870 is greater, in
my judgment, than the cost of any manu-
factory in it, and yet when the farmer of to-
day comes'to bind his wheat which he must
sell for the price fixed in Liverpool and less
than 1t costs him, he is confronted by the fact
that the Mckinley billsputs an artificial price
upon the Irvine he must use In order to give
a bounty to the wealthy cordage manufactu-
rers who contributed to the election of Presi-
dent Harrison in 1888, and as il this was not
enough, he finds his poverty further increased
by having to pay an additional and illegal
bounty in consequence OF the formation OF
the cordage trust and of the monopoly it en-
Joys and so 1t is of almost every article he
now buys.
The sugar trust is another illustration ap
plicable 10 workingmen. The laboring man,
whether farmer or artisan or day Iaborer, is
Obliged to use sugar for himself and his fam
ily every day in his life, and when he comes to
buy it he finds that an artificial price has been
placed upon it by the Mckinley bill as rec
ompense to its manufacturers for the money
they contributed to assist in the election OF
President Harrison four years ago.
On the subject of reckless pension
legislation Mr.. MacVeagh spoke as fol-
lows:
Now, do not let us have the slightest mis-
understanding upon this subject. Everybody
is in accord upon the granting OF pensions to
every man, woman and child who can estab-
lish any Just claim upon the national graft
tude, but it is as dishonorable to the true sol
diers and sailors OF the nation as II Is oppres-
sive to those who earn livelihood by labor,
to thrust the public moneys upon undeserv-
ing persons in order to swell the profits OF the
pension agents at Washington, so that they
in their turn may support the Mckinley Dill
and the trusts to which it has given birth.
Dir. MacVeagh condemned the leg
islation of the Republican party on
the silver question. Vast quantities
of silver, he said, were mined at a
cost of 30 cents per ounce and sold to
the government at over 20 cents per
ounce, so that it is certainly probable
that our silver dollar is not now fairly
worth more than so cents. The leg