Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1893-03-16
Protesting Against Prosperity.


cred before the Capitol of the nation
resolves itself into lament over the
magnificent national advancement
which is the result of third of CEN
tury of Republican craftsmanship.
In thirty two years this nation
has crushed the mightiest rebellion in
history, paid off by far the greater part
of national debt unparalleled in it's
magnitude, and increased its own
wealth fourfold. In the decades since
Democracy handed over to Republi-
canism bankrupt Treasury, shattered
financial credit and country that was
on the verge of ruin, the edifice of ma
tionality has been rebuilt SO firmly
that none can shake it, American civil
ization has been carried to the Pacific,
and vast areas that were inhabited by
savages and wild beasts have been
transformed into peaceful and produc-
tive commonwealths.
A second Declaration of Indepen-
dence, not less momentous than that
penned by the hand of Thomas Jeffer-
son, has been carried into effect. The
factory has taken its place beside the
farm. The people of the United States
have been emancipated from the hui
initiating necessity of purchasing their
manufactured goods from foreign mo-
nopolies. The products of American
loom and forge and furnace have ex-
PEELED the wares of European manufac-
turers and the United States stands to-
day as independent in industry as in
politics. Comfort has been carried in
to the homes of labor. The wages of
industry have been increased more
than one hundred per cent. by the de-
velopment of industry through protec-
ton. The workingman and his family
have been enabled to wear better cloth
ing, eat better food and live in better
houses than their fathers ever knew.
The farmers market has been widened
beyond measure by the creation of a
vast multitude ofindustrial consumers.
Exports have enormously increased.
A most encouraging beginning has
been made through reciprocity toward
the commercial annexation of Latin
America. The American mercantile
marine, driven from the seas by the
Confederate cruisers has begun to re-
vive under the legislation of the Re-
publican Fifty FIRST Congress, and a
score of modern steamships which will
carry the American flag have been con-
tracted for in American shipyards.
The United States, a third rate power
under Democratic rule has been made
in wealth, in manufactures, in general
intelligence and political freedom the
premier nation of the world.
According to Mr.. Cleveland and the
Bourbons, this progress has all been
wrong. 1t was mistake to rebuild
the nation, to redeem its credit and to
create its industrial independence. The
most enlightened and the most sincere
believers in Republican institutions the
world over have been pointing to the
United States as glorious example of
constitutional freedom and material
prosperity. They were grievously de-
ceived. Mr.. Cleveland assures the
world that confidence in our coun-
trys greatness has been ''exaggera.
ted" He declares that the protective
system which has stimulated Ameri-
can invention, developed American in
dusuries and doubled the wages of
American workers, ''stupefies every
trait of American citizen
ship. Evidently Mr.. Grover Cleve-
land thinks it would be better for the
workingman to take lower wages, and
better for his family to return to the
privations and pinching poverty of an
te bellum days. The payment of pen
sions to the men who preserved the ma
tion is denounced by the new President
as wild and reckless expenditure, {"
and the Ocean Mail act of the Fifty
First Congress, under which GO, 900 tons
of American shipping have been con-
tracted for, is described as system of
bounties and subsidies which burden
the labor and thrift of portion of our
citizens to aid ill advised or languish.
ing enterprises in which they have no
The Democratic party has been pow
erless to stop the progress Of the nation
it has fought every measure
Of advancement that Republicans have
inaugurated. At last its opportunity
has come. Bourbonism is enthroned
at Washington. Mr.. Cleveland shows
his purpose toward American industry
when he declares that 'the verdict of
the voters has CONDEMNED protection
for protection g sake" He demon
strates his substantial sympathy with
the Calhoun plank in the Chicago plat
form when he asserts that the "neces-
sity for revenue" furnishes the sole
excuse for the taxing power. 1t is the
mission of Democracy as Mr.. Cleveland
and his fellow free traders see it, to
''tear aside the delusions and miscon-
ceptions" which have come about
through the vicious tariff laws" that
have made American labor the most
and independent on earth.
In his inaugural address Mr.. Cleveland
announces a policy which
l.