" "What about the tariff?" "Say
yourselves." "Shall our rivers and harbors be improved?" "Just as you
please. If you desire a bank, an alteration of the tariff, internal
improvements, any or all, I will not hinder you. If you do not desire
them, I will not attempt to force them on you. Send up your members of
Congress from the various districts, with opinions according to your own,
and if they are for these measures, or any of them, I shall have nothing
to oppose; if they are not for them, I shall not, by any appliances
whatever, attempt to dragoon them into their adoption."
Now can there be any difficulty in understanding this? To you Democrats
it may not seem like principle; but surely you cannot fail to perceive
the position plainly enough. The distinction between it and the position
of your candidate is broad and obvious, and I admit you have a clear
right to show it is wrong if you can; but you have no right to pretend
you cannot see it at all. We see it, and to us it appears like principle,
and the best sort of principle at that--the principle of allowing the
people to do as they please with their own business. My friend from
Indiana (C. B. Smith) has aptly asked, "Are you willing to trust the
people?" Some of you answered substantially, "We are willing to trust the
people; but the President is as much the representative of the people as
Congress.
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