'
< Cbe Conservative. 11
TRUJ3 DKMOCJJACY.
[ Extracts from the rccont inaugural nddre.ss
of Judge Win. G. Ewing , president of the
Iroquois Ghib , Chicago. ]
I believe in loynlty to the clenth to
political principle ; but I never have
been , and never will be , a slave to convention -
vention dictation. No political organi
zation has a right to dictate to yon , or
to mo , what our convictions shall bo
upon any principle of government ; and
American independence and manhood
will bo sacrificed in exact ratio with our
concession to any claim of such piratical
power. I will sacrifice much for the
unity and harmony of my party , but
when it comes to a question of sustain
ing party at the cost of my conviction of
what is right , I will , at whatever hazard
of personal loss , hold on to my man
hood , and keep company with my own
self-respect , resting in the serene and
abiding assurance that what is morally
wrong cannot , by any human possibility ,
be politically right.
I have no new doctrines to suggest to
this club , no now gods to enthrone. The
principles of American democracy are
as old as the government and as immut
able as the inherent rights of man ; we
have but to comprehend them and apply
them to the conditions that confront us
today to find the path of wisdom and
duty.
The fame of Thomas Jefferson , the
father of American democracy , abides in
the fact that he devoted his marvelous
talents to the sacred rights of men and
evolved and announced to the world
great practical political principles appli
cable to every time and place where man
struggles for man , or human liberty has
a votary.
What is called the Jeffersouian doc
trine is found in his first inaugural ad
dress and is couched in a few axiomatic
declarations.
"Eqxial and exact justice to all men of
whatever state or persuasion , religious or
political creed. "
"Commerce and honest friendship
with all nations ; entangling alliances
with none. "
"Economy in the public expenses ,
that labor may bo lightly burdened. "
"The encouragement , of agriculture
and of commerce as its handmaid. "
True democracy does not consist in
simply professing belief in these political
truisms as theories of government , but
in day by day applying them to our con
stantly varying political environment.
To this solemn duty I invoke your seri
ous thought. Now issues are not to besought
sought while old wrongs remain un-
righted. If a protective tariff was false
in theory , false in principle and vicious
in practice four , eight , twelve , sixteen
or forty years ago , it is a moral and
political outcast yet. "The trail of the
serper is over it still , " and the wage o :
battle should never bo withdrawn unti
- this bold and defiant legal license to. the
rich , to rob the poor , is remorselessly
blotted from the statute books of the
mtion.
lu 1870 , 1880 , 1884 , 1888 and 1892 the
democratic party staked its all in an
open , manly , heroic struggle against this
u'otectivo abomination ; because demo
crats believed that the doctrine of pro-
ection is a delusion and a snare ; is "a
promise to the ear to bo broken to the
lope ; " is a false light upon a tempestu
ous sea , that lures to deceive , invites to
betray , shines to destroy ; believed that
equal and exact justice to all men"
could never bo attained under a system
of government that imposes burdens
ipon one class of citizens for the benefit
of another class ; believed that a protec-
ivo tariff renders impossible "commerce
and friendship with all nations ; " bo-
ieved that a protective tariff fosters ex-
; ravagance and oppresses labor ; believed
; hat a protective tariff discourages agri
culture and makes commerce a crime.
Until some better way is provided ,
democrats do not object to such reason
able imposition of duties upon imports
as is required to meet the necessary ex
penses of the government.
A tariff for revenue is a tax , but it is
an equal tax , paid by every citizen ac
cording to the benefits received by him ,
for the support of the government ,
whose flag protects him in every land
and on every sea ; while a tariff for pro
tection is an unequal and an unjust
tax ; is a burden laid upon the weak for
the benefit of the strong ; upon the poor
for the benefit of the rich ; upon the un
fortunate for the benefit of the favored ;
upon labor for the benefit of wealth ;
a protective tariff is a stigma upon
American justice , n reproach to our civ
ilization ; it is the devil's reward to the
sir knights of public plunder.
Tell me who can , if "tariff reform"
was in reason and justice the watch
word of the democratic party in 1892 ,
and worse tariff conditions confront the
country now than over before , why
should not the democratic party , with as
great confidence in. the intelligence and
justice of the people now as then , make
equal and exact justice to all men" the
shibboleth of their march to a heroic
combat in which they would at least deserve -
servo success ? And jf the democratic
party is right upon the tariff question ,
what can bo said of a proposition , under
its sanction , to emphasize the McKiuley
tariff and out-ding Dingley , by giving to
the silver mine owners , out of the pock
ets of the toiling musses , a clear gratuity
of one hundred per cent upon the pro
duct of their mines ?
The democratic party should , not as a
question of policy ( I have no patience
with the word policy , it is a dishonest
word , a subterfuge , a hiding place , ai
apology for duplicity ) but as a matter
of principle , of immutable right , main
tain its hitherto unfaltering position , as
the friend and advocate of the rights o
the toiling masses ; should set its face as
lint against monopolies and trusts , the
egitiinato offspring of that other abom-
nation , protective tariff ; should hold
'ast to the conviction that honor and
abor are the true badges of manhood ;
hould remember that labor , and labor
only , produces everything of intrinsic
value in the world ; should remember
hat labor is not a mendicant or a beg
gar , asking for the crumbs that fall
Tom the rich man's table ; that all that
abor asks is an open field and a fair
fight ; give these to labor ; give to it the
n-otectiou the Almighty gave to it ; an
open market , a free sail , untaxed food to
eat , untaxed clothing to wear , untaxed
: eels to work with and untaxed material
: o work upon , and these will shiver to
atoms the cruel gigantic trusts , destroy
nonopoly and fill the whole land with
) eaco and plenty as the love of God fills
; he world.
The recent annexation of Hawaii and
lie acquisition by conquest of the Phil-
ppine islands and Porto Rico , and the
exodus by war's relentless decree of
Spaniards from Cuba , present questions
of solemn import to the American peo-
ilo. This serious condition demands
ho honest , patriotic thought and action
of every true American who presiames
; o think and has the courage to express
lis thought.
* # # * * *
In my judgment , the only defensible
course for the United States in this mater -
; or , is to say to the world and say
quickly , "A war commenced for liberty
and humanity shall not end in a mere
change of masters or increased oppres
sion ; " is to say , with the simplicity of
truth , to the Filipinos , the Porto Ricans
and Cubans , "Organize governments of
your own choice , and the United States ,
with its love and benediction , will
promptly give you unclouded title to
your territory and defend your juris
diction. "
This is the only line of conduct that
honor points and justice approves ; and
in this way only will our boasted pat
riotism , love of country , be expanded
into the sublimor virtue of homoism , the
love of man.
The highest honor of a nation is but
the reflex of the individual honor of its
citizens ; whei eforo , the manhood of
America should find voice before it is
soiled with shame. The lips of the
president and his official advisers seem
to be sealed , and the purpose of the ad
ministration involved in profound mys
tery respecting the conquered Spanish
territory ; but there should be no uncer
tainty or room for doubt as to the posi
tion of the democratic party upon that
subject ; we must absolutely and wholly
abandon all thought of the acquisition
of remote foreign territory and right of
sovereignty over it , or we must sur
render the vitality of democracy , re
nounce the Monroe doctrine and pro
claim as pernicious every shining splen
dor that distinguishes the American
01
. Id * .
