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Logan's Serced*General John A. Logan's letter of acceptance, coming from the man who is supposed to be a leading He publican statesman, is a remarkable document. It. is a 1 timbering. awkward, cumher-somo affair, reminding one of a freighter bumping on cross-tics, and weighing at the least calculation twenty pounds to the inch. Its ideas are the j at.tudcs that have been oozing from the country papers of the West for twenty years, and its style is 4hat of a scuool-bqy who has never discovered the diffe cnee between sound and sense. Hence, we nave the spectacle of a candidate for Vice President put forth by the party of culture talking of those who “have been wolcomed to a homo in our midst,” and of a “stroke of finesse.''The Logan letter is a diluted paraphrase of the Republican platform, and the dilution is weakened by a promiscuous use of words. From beginning to end there is not a spark of individuality in it. Wo merely havo a glimpse of a tangle haired man wandering in a bewildered way through a maze of words. One can imagine the beads of perspiration standingout on Logan’s upper lip a he v.vnlv attempted to address himself to the’ understanding of those who.?e support he covets. The fact that be had completed his letter several weeks ago was telegraphed at Hie time, and on3 can well believe it aftex reading the document. We have no doubt that a kitchen edition of this curious epistle was in circulation a a faw days a ler the adjournment of the Hepublican Convention; indeed the fiavor of the letter suggests that it was composed somewhere between tha kitchen and the horse-stable. It is crude, coarse and rank, but theseyjual* itics do not redeem its essential weakness. Mr. Blaine's letter is feeble because the policy of those who stood at his elbow placed him under restraint, but Logan is feeble liecau.se Logan is feeble in his intellectual equipment.A feeble man intellectually is-generally a rash man. and Lo:an's reputation, such as it is, is based 011 his rashness. • He declares, among other things (to take an example at random), that polygamy is a Democratic institution; l»ut so serene a philosopher as Emerson claims it as an offshoot of Puritan. It is almost sacrilegious t* couple the name of Emerson with that of the coarse-grain-id political freebooter Logan. and we have hardly the excuse of necessity in this instance; for Logan's fuluiinations are of no more importance than ihose of a cowboy on the W este.n border.His description of the condition of affairs in the South is amusing, though it Is strictly on the line of argument em-S-loved by M. Halstead, of Cincinnati.Vc judge from Logan's terrilic remarks that there arc States in the South — Commonwealths in fac‘ —where the negroes arc so numerous that they are hanging over the edge*, clinging by their eye brows and holding on with their teeih. Logan is doubtless of the opinion that he is the inventor of the theory that all tho negroes vote the Republican ticket at every election, and he is inclined to lift the bloody shirt on high on that issue; but the theory was invented by Eli Porkins to pad out a summer almanac. If Logan desire® to get the negroes interested iu votrng, as they were when freedom was a novelty, he should come down and lcctmc them. We know of no other method.—Atlanta Constitution.A Republican Campaign Document.Mr. Blaine's letter accepting tho Republican nomination for the Presidency will be a disappointment to those of his Republican admirers who expected an admixture of dash and brilliancy in the composition, for there 19 nothing in it that is especially or ginal or strking.It is evidently designed as a Republican campaign document, and to the protectionist clement who constitute much the larger portion of the party, will on the whole be satisfactory. The tariff reformers who still linger in tho Republican camp can not, however, fail to feel uncomfortable at the prominence given it and stress laid npon the doctrine of protection, which the Presidential candidate seems to regard as the great issue of the campa:gn.The views of Mr. BlRine on the tariff arc set forth at great length, but an examination of his utterances shows that on this groat question he has merely strung together a lot of cheap protection platitudes. He states in the course of his letter many facts, the existence of which he attributes to tho beneficial influence of the policy of protection; although there are many better reasons to account for the condition of things than that wh’ch he holds up as the true one. In this respect, however, he but Adopts the protectionist line of argument. He talks of free-trade sophistries, yet uses all of the protection sophistries—sophistries which there will be mnpie time to expose and explode during the campaign.Mr. Blaine speaks of the Republican method of tariff reduction, and contrasts it with the Democratic, after the manner of the Republican resolution on the tariff. The party and the candidate abke forgot the Republican method of tariff reform a dozen years ago. when the scheme of a horizontal reduction of ten per cent, was adopted as the best available means of reducing the then surplus and lightening the burdem of the people.There are other features of Mr. Blaine's letter which will re eivo attention from time to time. For the present it will be sofficent to say that the Democracy are quite willing to accept the gage of battle on the tariff question, though they will not permit their position to be misstated by their adversaries. They will show that the condition of labor is not as depicted by Mr. Blaine; and lhat tho so-called protective system has led to the starvation wages in many parts of the country. They will Bhow not merely one, but scores of tariff abuses whose effect has been to pamper and protect monopolists and to crush labor. They will show how millions are uone essarily wrung from the people in taxes—milli ons which only go to pile up an immense surplus in the Treasury and are available for no public purpose, for there are ample resources without them. They will show la short that the so-called protectivesystem i« a pretentious fraud.—Detroit1 POLITICAL ITEM*... Blaine's letter may have fallenlike a wet blanket, but Logan's they say, resembled a crazy quilt.—Indiana Sentinel. There is more personal magnetism in a straight-forward, old-fashiooed honest man than there is iu an entire regiment of “plumed knights.” Unless Mr. Blaine vio’ates goodtaste by taking an active part in the present campaign, his letter may be regarded in the light of a Farewell Address —Baltimore Day. The Mulligan letters show thatMr. Blnine marketed hi« ruling* as Speaker at a valuation of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a wild-cat railway company—and got tho money.— Abiny Argus. Blaine was active in turning theRepublican party orer to the Know Nothiugs when the cry of down with the foreigner was raised. Still we are informed by certain fools that the Irish will vote for Blaine. There have been two or threeprominent Republican officials in the past twelve years who have proposed to turn the rascals out, but in tho end tho rascals have turned them out. For further information inquire of B. U. Bristow. Nothing in this campaign hasbeen more amusing than Elkin's voucher. •• Mr. Blaine knows all about tho proprieties.” Belknay should match it w.th a lertilicate about the “equities,’* and Kellogg with one about the “veracities. ’ *—tixch anqc. The New York Tribunet underits present editor, iu the winter of 18/3, denounced Maine “as a bribe-taker and a bully.” The change wrought in it since was not a change of heart, and William Walter Rhelps, who made the change, knows just what did It. As poor Logan reads tho comments on his letter of acceptance he must not fail to rememl er that It was tho New York Tribune which drew attention to his eminent claim to the Irish vole, based on the allegation that he was not oven on speaking terms with the English language. — The Arqu*. By setting up a veto shop in theWhite lio.ise Mr. Blaino could treble his salary every month Congress was in session, and he is just the man to do it But the approvals that can be bought and the vetoes that can be sold are not the kind the honest men of the United States desire. —Exchtmge. Mr. Blaine’s long-delayed andmuch-labored letter of acceptance is at last before the public. The length of the document is Inordinate, and if it is an example of what ho will be capable, in tl.e way of elaborate composition, when he becomes I'resident. we are a raid the newspapers will at once cool toward him.—I tic* Press. Black Jack Logan a«ldre aed aCL of the Grand Army of the Kepub-at Minneapolis, Minn., last week, and having inadvertently delivered himself of a grammatical seuteuce, an enthusiastic admirer was so struck by the fact that he could not wait till the speaker was done to congratulate him on his success, but blurted the fact right out in meeting. —Richmond Fa., State. Mr. Blaine declares that “he isnot one who proves a deadhead in any enterprise;*’ in other words, he is “on the make,** The Presidency could be made the source of more entirely’ infamous wealth to a man who could venat-ixe it than any other place in the country. A man who will administer it honestly, not one who would market the patronage and its powers over legislation. is desired by the people.—A* Y. World.The Independents.The Independents have gone to work like a very earnest, sincere and practical body of men, and show a disposition not to pursue one candidate with any venom born of disappointment or bestow upon tho other superlative pra so to justify their own course, but simply to treat both sides and their pretentions strictly upon their merits. The Independents aro in a position to emphasize, even more than the Democrats, the glaring unfitness of the Republican candidate on tho po’nt of character alone for the high position to which he aspires. The objections that these men pre-ent to the gratification of Blame's ambition, can not be whisked aside aa “Democratic lies.*’ They are not manufactured as campaign capital, but have existed so long and so definitely that these men are for the time being, at least, driven from the party with which they have almost always acted. There is one issue, that Blaine, his organs and defenders try to avoid, and that is the very issue which the Independents will pros* home. Moreover, it is the issue that must be settled before the self-respecting citizens of this country can consider anything else. He may be smart; he may brilliant; he may be magnetio; but is he honest? The overwhelming testimony of what has already been made public concerning his transactions is to the contrary. He has used high official trust for private gam. He has solic ted the recognition that attaches to valuable consideration for certain official acts in the intereste of corporations or individuals. He has carried his country to the verge of a broil with a friendly republic in order tp advance private claims. As in the case of the Northern Pacific, He has ** kept his eye skinned*' for opportunities that he could make speoial use of as a high official with large authority. All this is not only popularly beteved of Blaine, but it is believed by men of the keenest intelli-Kace and the most careful methods inth political parties, and upon the strength of extensive evidence. Thie belief is strengthened by the pains that he and his supporters are taking, not to demolish it with stronger counter-evidence, but to laugh it down or ignore Is—at all event* to dodge it That is the condition of things'that Is at the bottom of the Independent movement, and no-ft becomes more particularly the Independent issue. It U large enough of iteelf to conduct the campaign to Blaine*a defeat. If he is a pure and honest man. then be is one of the most unfortunate, but, in that event, he should not run away from the issue, for It will pursue and have it out withi?
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The Colfax Chronicle
Colfax, Louisiana, US
Sat, Nov 01, 1884
Page 2
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USA 07 Jul 2022
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