The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-02-06
Glimpses of the Career ofVance
E y; r. H. hNGHTnl


f. 1882. Senator Vance made a
honorable speech in the T.. :. Senate.
Ire Democratic members OF the i've
|Etpu-es were highly pleased, and gave
Gustintcd praise, ana said that il
.- beyond question the campaign
-.~.ch OF the session. In some re-
alts it was indeed Il remarkable eI-
..#E. 1t reminded me when l read il
-gduey Smiths Peter PlyI4ly' ana
-rs OF his once famous political
nGs more than Of anything else,
..a happy blending Of strong com
. sense, Il clear perception Of the
. ..ulOus and the vulnerable, q ready
apprehension Of his theme III its wide
..a manifold bearings, and q humor
r.-l. is irTeDTessibIe and irresistible,
..u d ridicule and sarcasm both tell
e md penetrating. This speech de
.nurr- n better fate than to be for
at.teu ana neglected, and 10 be hid
..a. in de archives Of gravity as
'.toc Mayo, q negro representative
.Gosu Granville county IN the internal
reconstruction Legislature, phrased il.
hen he wished to get ria Of some.
...H-jTe proposed. Vance's speech
...uid be preserved and read generally
J. viii educate. 1t viii serve at any
as q capital short manual for
campaign purposes. 1t exposes in q,
u.#at.rly way the absurdities, the pre-
..ssiOns, the sOphisims, the preSump-l
-...s. the gross contradictions OF pro-
lection. that dogma Of robbery and OPT
precision. based on immortality and
theft. whilst Vance does not spare the
aggressive, insOlcnt, OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
a#j ignorance Of the prOtectiOHist him
..... That speech at the time
..-uty-Jhree years agO-added to nisi
u.u|tation as d gifted and WatchfuI and
SINFUL Senator. 1t did good service
u the campaign, and will always be a
strong V Of help in any subsequent
r slK.t ar. ~. r. ia, ~ Ar,. no II.4r4 |
/ u..lI tax when used. Vance hoWed
finely in his speech his remarkable
0fIr and versatility Of resource. In it
... iii find clear, vigorous argument,
04'rough mastery Of details, Il firm
l.su Of a subject Wide-reaching and
.,u pIcX-mOre grim and devouring in
1906. than in 1882, for the presents
tariff tax is the monster Of the ages
.r|i & wit Of unmiStakable flavor, as
we'll as ridicule, humor, ~eloquence, eX-
uuiHite irony, argument, facts and UNI
tagging interest from first to last.
Read it now, and you will be richly en-
t~artained, aroused, even instructed.
Not many speeches of its kind havei
been heard in the Senate Chamber in
forty years. 1t even suggests what
nat Upton said of his resemblance
to the great Tom CorWin in the struc-
ture of mis- mind and manifold gifts. 1
WAS indeed greatly charmed With il,
and to me ii appeared to require i
strong descriptive title--a great
speech. l recall that one Radical
PAPER sreered at it, and referred to
Nance's poor, unambitiouS, ~undeVel-
adelphia American. That is the only
way q p~retentiOus, ignorant, prOtec-
ton press ear anSWe such Il speech.
THE people are ground in the hoppers
Of protection because forsooth they
arr poor and ignorant, while the
cGatftaIfs,1e yE-Ih tl9,., tln Tn-,1aAIc nl1.1 /
rob ana Cypress thereby, are the Solo
mons in the North, with whom all
dWeIIs II dies. Nance's
speech has not been answered yet, 1t
is logical, built on Il solid foundation
of facts, statistics, reaSOn and common
sense. 5
Let me mention q fact. In 1875, 1 ;;
learned in reading a work by a politi-
economist, that i'll the British
Museum, in London, the vast library :
cl Great Britain, that there We're :
eighty different volumes there in that :
library on Political Economy, and that !
.nare were but two of the eighty au- :
t4ors who favored the immoral, viii ,
famous doctrine of protection free :
1ootinE. The plethOric North grown e
rich mainly by a system Of deliberate, :
pe~rtjnaciOus robbery, has been all =
along laughing at and sneering at the l
South for its ignorance n submission
To wrong. It has simply grown rich
upon the SpOilS gathered from n OPP L
pressed South, and through genera |
lions it has pampered and followed [
the chief opponents II faVOriteS of t
the vile system known as a prOtec- I
tive tariff. Sneers and inuendoes count /
little non men of sense, and Il
ever answer arguments based on a
logic. knowledge and facts. Read o
Vance carefully, thoroughly, and You !
Will know much more OF Frankcn- 8
Lfa - - ,A14A+Aa-f1-, +TN+ III
WAS constructed and worked into G
by The cunning art of greedy, insat- +
ruonopolists who wish to tax '
millions Of people for the a
exclusive benefit of four or five mill "
l.oa4. I wish [ had g copy at hand g
of Nance's powerful a~rraignment in "
which he 50 vigorously shows up the s.
wonderful blessings to oppressed and '
fiIIaged humanity by the gigantic, 4
s~Iasping tariff tax, that l might repro Il
luce u sample or two of the admirable I.
way in which he did it," The constant u
triumph of the Protection Grabbers p
-eminds me here Of a passage l more O
nam once quoted from the great Eng-i 4
~n poet Wordsworth, when l was II
constant ~Occupier of the tripod. 1t Z
lis the robbers of all time under the Il
.nIms of law: a
'4ecause the good old rule ;
~-tIceth thtm,-the simple plan, /
That they should tai who have the q
power, 81
And they should keep who can" o
Vance is in his grave, and the Rob c,
}".s are still at work more actively G
s1d g~Iaspingiy than eVer whom he so Il
r5Ia.Iy and nightly denounced. But n
Z IS with the opposite of Protection 9
it is with the great principles for \
Inch the South fought so heroically, y
hey. live a although in lpfpat- =
BE it so, though Right Trampled be h
counted as wrong, U
md that be called Right which is cC
EVIL Victorious. h;
ne where Virtue is feeble and Vii u
lainy strong a
"Tis the Cause, not the fate Of the tc
Cause that is gloriOus." te
Vance was set upon by the grafters b.
robbers. ahd their newspaper or is
jumped u"On hin because Of his n
Il