The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-12

party believed in both the man and the
dollar but that in case of conflict it be-
lieved in the man before the dollar. In
one of his early messages to Congress
Lincoln warned his countrymen against
the approach of monarchy, and said that
his alarm was caused by the attempt
to place capital upon an equal footing
with, if not above, labor in the structure
of government. Now the Republican
party seeks to settle every question
upon a financial basis The dollar mark
is plainly stamped upon every modern
Republican policy
Lincoln signed the bill which provided
for graded income tax in the Fifty
third Congress the Republican party
voted against an income tax.
The Republican PARTY created the
greenback; now it is planning to destroy
the greenback
When the war closed Lincoln began to
| plan to make the payment of the national
| debt easier by increasing the volume of
money available for the payment of debt.
| In Raymond's Life of Lincoln" publish
| ed in 1865, the Presidents views are set
| forth as follows:
Nothing can Indicate more clearly
the citation of mind with which the Pres
ident regarded the future of the country,
now that it's safety had been assured,
than the language he addressed in a
conversation at this interview, to Mr.
Colfax, who was at this time preparing
fer a journey overland to the Pacific
coast. Said he: Mr.. Colfax, / want you
to take a message from me to the miners
whom you visit. / have very large ideas
| CT the mineral wealth of our nation. I
| believe it practically inexhaustible 1t
| abounds all over the Western country,
| from the Rocky Mountains to the Pa
| cific, and it's development has scarcely
| commenced. During the war, when we
were adding a couple of millions of dol
| lar every day to our national debt, did
net care about encouraging the increase
| in the volume of our precious metals.
! We had the country to save first. But
| now that the rebellion is overthrow
and we know pretty nearly the amount
| CT our national debt the more gold and
| silver we mine, we make The payment
| of that debt so much the easier. Now,
| said he, speaking with more emphasis,
| / am going to encourage that in every
possible way. We shall have hundreds
| of thousands of disbanded soldiers, and
| many have feared that their return home
in such great numbers might paralyze
| industry by furnishing suddenly a greater
| supply Of labor than there would be de-
mand for. | am going to try to attract
them to the hidden wealth of our noun
| tain ranges, where there is room enough
for all. immigration, which even tho
war has not stopped, will land upon our
| shores hundreds of thousands more per
year from overcrowded Europe. l in
tend to point them to the gold and silver
that wait for them in the West. Tell the
miners for me that | shall promote their
interests to the utmost of my ability;
| because their prosperity is the prosperity
of the nation! and said he, his eye
| l0;ndling with enthusiasm, we shall
prove in a very few years that we are
indeed the treasury of the world"
The Republicans are now endeavoring
to lessen the volume of money available
for the payment of debt by limiting the
payment to gold alone
On the Philippine question the posi-
tion of the Republican party is diamet-
rically opposed to the position taken by
it in it's earlier days. The Republican
platform of 1860 copied from the Decla-
ration of Independence it's four great
principles, namely: that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed
with inalienable rights; that govern
ments are instituted among men to Sc
cure these rights, and that governments
derive their just powers from the con-
sent Of some of the governed. Lincolns
| eulcgy OF the Declaration OF Indepen-
dence, delivered in 1858, when he de-
clared that it was erected by the fore
fathers "as beacon to guide their chill
dren and their childrens children and
the countless myraids who should inhabit
the earth in other ages contrasts
strangely with the language of present
day Republicans, who declare that our
nation is too big to be bound by the
limitations imposed by the doctrine OF
self-government.
One of the main arguments advanced
in behalf of the forcible annexation OF
the Philippine Islands is that we owe il
| to the Filipinos to take them under our
protecting wings, tax them without rep
| resentation and govern them without
their consent, on the theory that they
are net capable of self government
In one of his speeches just prior to the
| war Lincoln said 'These arguments
that are made, that the inferior races
are to be treated with as much allow
ance as they are capable of enjoying;
| that as much is to be done for them as
| their condition will allow-what are
| these arguments? They are the argu-
ments that kings have made for enslav-
| ing the people in all ages of the world
You will find that all the arguments
| in favor of king-craft were of this class
they always bestrode the necks of the
pecple-not that they wanted to do it
but because the people were better of
for being ridden"
The Republicans who contend now that
any criticicm of the administration pol
! icy is unpatriotic and calculated to help
the Filipinos have either forgotten, OF
never read, the speech made by Lin
coin in the denunciation of President
Polk in the midst of the Mexican war
Those Republicans who would crush
the aspirations of the Filipinos for self
government should read Lincoln's speech
of 1883 in which he said:
What constitutes the bulwarks of oul
liberty and independence? 1t is not oul
frowning battlements, our bristling sea