The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1892-05-14
PROTECTION IN 1860.

In looking over paper to-day we
STUN bled on the following paragraph
in the Oregon alliance Herald,
credited to the Peoples Paper:
Does the Republicans know that Abra-
ham Lincoln was elected president of the
United States in 1860 on an absolutely free
trade platform? The Lincoln clubs will do
well to study Lincolns political tenets.
They are all right, and not in accord with
the Republican party of to-day.
In 1860, the platform adopted by
the National Republican convention,
then in session in Chicago, May 18th,
on which Abraham Lincoln was elected,
contained the following es the 18th
resolutions:
That, while providing revenue for the
support of the general government by du-
ties upon imports. sound policy requires
such an adjustment of these imports as to
encourage the development of the industrial
interest of the whole country; and we COM
mend that policy of national exchanges
which secures to the working men liberal
wages, to agriculture remunerative prices,
to mechanics and manufacturers an ade-
quate reward for their skill, labor, and en-
terprise, and to the nation commercial pros
perity and independence.
Hon. James G.. Blaine, in a speech
before Republican mass meeting at
Pennington, Maine, On July 4. 1860,
used the following language in expla-
nation of this plank of the platform:
There is another great step forward which
the Republican party has taken in its ma
tional platform of this year-reafirmed
with special emphasis in the state platform
of Maine. In 1856 the issue was entirely
confined to resistance to aggressions of
slavery, but since that date the financial re-
vulsions which have led to such distress in
the country have turned mems minds to the
fallacy and the failure of the free-trade
policy which for the last fourteen years has
been adopted and enforced by the Demo
cratic party. The prosperity which was
said to have been caused by the tariff of
lS46 has received rude shock, and three
years ago disastrous panic swept oyer the
country leaving all business embarrassed, if
not prostrate. For several years prior to
that date, every man who believed In the
policy OF protection had been ridiculed and
taunted and pointed to the indIsputable
proof of the advantage of free-trade to be
found in the generally prosperous condition
Of the country. The cry in favor of the
tariff of 1916 was so boisterous that no oppo.
nent of it could even haye hearing. Those
who still held firmly to the policy of protec.
tion and in the belief that the repeal of the
tariff of lS42 was great national blunder,
we're silenced, if not scorned, in the arena
Of popular discussion.
1t was. in vain that protectionists at.
tempted to prove that the period OF pros
perity under that tariff from 1916 to 1866
was due to series of what might be termed
iortuitous circumstances-allin involving good
fortune to the United States and i'll fortune
TO other nations.
In 1916, the tariff of 1912 was re-
pealed, and Mr.. Blaine points out
causes of the prosperity of the country
from 1916 to 1S57-war with Mex
co, famine in Ireland, tumults and
revolutions In Europe, discovery of
gold In California ard the Crimean
war, creating increased demand for
,ur wheat and breadstuffs and stimu-
ating every form of industry in the
country. The reaction came in the
panic of 1857. when the error of the
Democracy in mistaking the effect for
he cause was fully demonstrated, and
Mr.. Blaine closed his remarks on the
policy of the Republican
,arty in the following eloquent Ian
,uage:
These lessons, fellow-citizens, are serious,
nd the Republican National convention has
ppreciatad their meaning. That conven-
ION recalls us, In its platform, to the policy
adjusting our revenues SO as to protect
abor. encourage home manufactures, create
balance of trade in our favor, and keep
ur gold at home. While fighting against
he admission of servIle toll of the black
aan in the new territories Of the continent,
republicans will fight also for liberal wages
0 the toiling whitemen of the old states of
be union This position IL the logical Sc
uence, the logical necessity OF the Republic
an party. An anti-slavery party is by the
'resistible force of It's principles protec-
ion party. for 1t is based upon the rights of
lbor tor the whiteman and the blackman
like.
This is incontrovertible proof that
he economic policy of to-day was the
latform on which Mr.. Lincoln was
lected in 1860, and that the great
atriot, who occupies place in the
ffections of the American people not
scond even to Washington, heartily
ndorsed the principles of protection
ow advocated by Republicans. The
arty, from its inception, has been in
lvor of human freedom and protec-
on to American labor and American
ldustries, and has never, in a single
ls.ance, wavered in its support of
lese great principles. 1t is not
;hamed of its record, from its birth |
1856 down to 1892, and whatever
patriotism, of craftsmanship and of +
sound financial system have been
Ihibited and inaugurated, clusters
'ound the grand old party.
1t is not very easy to make out which is i
e largest diamond now in existence. Two c
9 mentioned as entitled to the honor-the 4
'aganza, IN the crown of Portugal, and q
g which belongs to the Rajah of Mattan