The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-18

country. MI. Sunner hTt" We'll iio'.
to p a speech. and he bestowed
exceeding care in arranging it for the
press. He was a very able man, anu
his ten or twelve volumes OF speeches.
and addresses Will long keep ms mem
DRY green, when the contests Which
provoked them Will have perhaps
faded from the memory.
add here that it is my decided M
preston that there has been no
greater speech made in the Senate OF
the United States. in perhaps thirty
years, than the speech of Mr.. sum
ner in 1872. 1t is 4 grand display OF
independence. power and elOquence-
That one speech compelled me to tor
give the enemy of my people for much
that he had done. He made other
Very rich and impressive speeches, but
possibly the one considered above was
his greatest effort.
The tariff is now to the front and
should be kept to the front so long as
such a vile, thieving, oppressive sys-
tenn Of robbery shall be authorized by
the Congress-. favored by the powers
that be-" c~ountenanced by fairly m
telligent men regarding themselves as
men of character and not AS rascals
~and thieves, and by a long suffering,
ignorant, timely submissive people. II
is the most y~illainous. outrageous sys-
tenn of taxation and oppression that
vile mer Yer planned to carry out
successfully their ~outraSeously m
famous plan of pillase and persecu-
ton. THAI great English poet, Viii
liam Wordsworth, in his we'll known
poem he called Rob Roy's Grave"
wrote this:
"The good old rule
Sufticeth them. the simple plain,
That they should take who have the
power,
And they should keep who can"
That fits precisely the modern rob
Der system called q tariff-the biggest
thief and most oppressive system of
Ia xation ever devised by the cruel
imposition of man in any e Of the
world. And yet the American people
not only use this stupendous engineer
inG~of down right robbery, but glory
in it. and strive all the time to en-
large its boundaries and intensity it's
curses upon the oppressed people.
And think of it. that this system SO
vile and SO unsatisfying is mostly
modern. In the great British library
in London, called the British Museum,
in the year 1876, it a in it so works
on Political Economy. These en-
braced all of the more famous au-
thors up to that time on that great
Sltoj0N All AiiC toilS WI
represented by their foremost authors
on Political Economy. A careful exam
inatiOn OF hat asst library revealed
the fact that there We're eighty emil
nent political economists represented,
and of all of these there We're but two
of the entire eighty who favored a
protective tariff, the now unseemly
popular system of robbery and OPP
preston of the people, the hungry
bread-Winners. Think of that and mar
vel at the rapacious cruelty and re-
morselcSS greed of manufacturers and
their fellow OppresSOrS.
All this reminds me that the great
battle against high robber tariff was
fought in 1876, under the superb
leadership Of that manager, Samuel j.
Tilden. of New York. who was elect
ed President of the United States, and
had it deliberately stolen from him by
the then base and fellonious Republi-
can leaders having the management at
that time. | am further reminded
hat the fight against the tariff rob
berries and expressions continued from
ear to year, and that amOng the most
earnest. gifted, daring enemies Of tina
deyiliSh system was our own great
Democratic leader, Zebulon b. Vance,
then one of the comm m m leaders
in the United States Senate. In the
year 1884, I received a short telegram
from my personal friend, headed Sen
ate Chamber. Jan. 81. "a" / came
across it recently non some Of my
papers. l use q part now as it re-
minds one Of the great battle that was
still raging after the splendid victory
of Tilden eight years before. Senator
Vance wrote of a certain editor say
ing flatly-'he is an ass as we'll as a
traitor-has written 4 circular to the
cotton manufacturers asking their
opinion about the tariff, what would
become of them if the duty on cotton
was repealed, &c. Get it. and keep it
by you for replies. Ee states, among
other queries, Why is it that your pro
ducts are not protected at all? Is it
because your of Congress
are not practical Ter That was the
way an alleged Democratic editor
maintained the criteO Of his party and