There is not a shadow of doubt, and even the most prejudiced slave of political “bossism” will be forced to admit, that President Harrison has filled his high office with dignity; that he is an honest, patriotic, representative American. He has kept faith with the American public, as far as was possible for him to do so, in the execution of the laws enacted by the legislative bodies of the nation. His renomination was but the natural consequence of his administration.
The Republican party certainly entered the campaign of 1892 opposed by a divided Democratic press, a divided Democratic party, upon the supposed and alleged great issue of the campaign—that is, Protection and Free Trade.
To illustrate that point, compare the New York Sun, believing in Protection, with the New York World, believing in Free Trade.
The American people for intelligence will average as highly as the people of any other nation, but they are not all political economists. They had not, even during the four years and with all “the campaign of education,” become sufficiently instructed to form a decided opinion upon the information acquired by them with regard to the questions of political economy involved in the discussion of Protection and Free Trade.
It is perfectly ridiculous to hear it asserted that the people of the United States voted against the Republican party in sufficient numbers to create a political revolution by reason of the fact that they had learned sufficient to become convinced, founding their conviction upon information and reason, that Free Trade was preferable to Protection.
The average American voter would be as lost in an argument upon the subject of political economy as would a disputant regarding a legal proposition who had never heard of Blackstone or Kent, because the average American citizen has never read one line of Adam Smith, John Stewart Mill, or, in fact, any of the hand-books of political economy.
The conclusion to be drawn from the assertion that the people of the United States had become convinced that it was beneficial to them to have Free Trade is groundless. The Republican party had certainly the advantage in the argument, because, under the existing state of our tariff laws, the country is and was prosperous, wages were higher, a greater sum of money was deposited in the savings banks by the laboring classes than ever before in the history of our country. Now, these good things, representing a prosperous condition, actually existed and do exist under the Protection policy of the Republican party. It is hard to believe that the mass of our fellow-citizens would be led away by the simple desire for an “experimental change.” It is hard to convince any man (when you select an individual) that he shall forsake a business or occupation which he knows furnishes him with a competency, to embark into some new and untried venture, forsaking that which he already knows furnishes him with a sufficiency, for that which is speculative.
Now, this is exactly what the Republican party, as represented by the Republican newspapers, is trying to preach as the cause of the defeat of the Republican party last November. In other words, the press of the Republican party assumes that, collectively, the people of the Union are more utterly ignorant, stupid, and absurd than they would be when acting as individuals, which, of course, is ridiculous.