270

WHIG CONVENTION AT PHILADELPHIA.

as to dishearten its friends, and make them turn from it with disgust. This is a thing of the deepest interest. It rests with you of Pennsylvania to decide this; for without the vote of Pennsylvania, I undertake to say, he cannot be elected President of the United States. It is for you to say. Give me your assurance that he will not get the vote of Pennsylvania, and I will give you my assurance that he will not be elected President of the United States. Any man may make the canvass, any man may go over the votes from Maine to Missouri, and he will, he must, be convinced that it is absolutely certain that Mr. Polk cannot be elected without the vote of the Keystone State! And it is equally certain, that without the vote of this State he remains at home, a private and respectable citizen of the State of Tennessee.

I wish every man in Pennsylvania to consider this, that on his vote, and the vote of his fellow-citizen, his neighbor, or his kinsman, depends the issue whether Mr. Polk be elected President or not. And I say that any man who attempts to convey the impression to another, any man of information, whether it be done in the highways or by-ways, in parlor or kitchen, in cellar or garret, -any man, who shall be found telling another that Mr. Polk is in favor of the tariff, means to cheat an honest Pennsylvanian out of the fair use of the elective franchise! And if there be not spirit enough in Pennsylvania to repel so gross a misrepresentation, then Pennsylvania is not that Pennsylvania which I have so long respected and admired.

I am admonished, my friends, by the descent of the sun, that I must bring my remarks to a close. I was desirous of saying a few words to you about Texas. (Cries of "Go on!" "Go on!" "Tell us about Texas.") Well, I will only say, in relation to Texas, that you will find in the archives of your own State that which is far more important than all I can say upon the subject. But I do say that the annexation of Texas would tend to prolong the duration and increase the extent of African slavery on this continent. I have long held that opinion, and I would not now suppress it for any consideration on earth! And because it does increase the evils of slavery, because it will increase the number of slaves and prolong the duration of their bondage, because it does all this, I oppose it without condition and without qualification, at this time and all times, now and for ever.

For that, Massachusetts came into it; for that, Pennsylvania came into it. The power of protection was in both States. It existed on all sides. The compact was made to give it identity, universality, union, and that is all we want. Now, Gentlemen, the State may do what it pleases; we may do what we please; but unless the federal government exercises its legitimate power, unless it acts in our behalf, as we, if left alone, would act for ourselves, there is no security for any interest, no promise of perpetuity.

Every

I have said Pennsylvania will pay her own debt. body expects it. I expect it. I expect it. The whole world expects it. Pennsylvania will pay her own debt. I should despair of selfgovernment, I should cease to be a defender of popular institutions, I should hold down my head as an American, if this popular and rich commonwealth should sneak away from the payment of her debt. Never, no, never, will it be done! Between this place and the Ohio River there may be a half-dozen who would repudiate. Black spots there are on the sun, but the dazzling effulgence of that bright orb hides them all. There may be a man in Pennsylvania whose principles and whose morals would lead him to cry out against or evade the payment of such a debt, but who could hear his voice amid the loud, long shouts of all honest men? I never had a doubt Pennsylvania would pay all she owes. I know what Pennsylvania always has been. I therefore know what she always will be. Her character for the past is her pledge for the future. 1 cannot be dissuaded out of my impression, while a man in Pennsylvania reads her history, or knows any thing of her character, from the time when William Penn first put his foot on her shore.

But the time is now come when the policy of a reasonable, permanent protection must be settled. (A voice in the crowd shouted, "Now or never!") I say, Now or never! It is a question that is most exciting to the whole country, and absolutely vital to the interests of the people of Pennsylvania; and it is "Now OR NEVER!"

And now it is very important that we should not be deceived in the men whom we choose for our rulers. Let us know all about them! If we do take Mr. Polk for our chief magistrate, let us take him for what he is, not for what he is not. I trust

we have too much consciousness of truth for- (Here a voice cried out, "We won't have him at all.") Well, I'm pretty much of that opinion myself. But let us take our ruler for what he really is, not for what he is not, and thereby show that we have been duped and deceived. Let us have too much consciousness of truth, too much self-respect, too much regard for the opinion of the world, to take Mr. Polk for that which he is not, and never was, and does not profess to be.

Let us, then, see what are the sentiments of Mr. Polk on the protective policy. Is he with us, or is he against us? What does he say himself on this subject? I know no reason why he should not be believed. I don't go back to the time of his boyhood. I don't go back to the days of his grandfather, Ezekiel Polk. I need not even go back to the period of his Congressional services, but I will take the Mr. Polk of last year, running for a popular office, not that of President of the United States, but that of Governor of Tennessee. You know that, in that part of the country, it is common for the candidates for popular offices to go forth, and state frankly to the people whose suffrages they solicit what their opinions are on all the great subjects, social and political, of the day. Now, what does Mr. Polk say of himself on this occasion?

"I am opposed to direct taxes, and to prohibitory and protective duties; and in favor of such moderate duties as will not cut off importations. In other words, I am in favor of reducing the duties to the rates of the Compromise Act, where the Whig Congress found them on the 29th of June, 1842."

These are his own words, his own opinions, from his own speech; and, as the lawyers say, I lay the venue, and I give the date, in order that there may be no misunderstanding. It is from his speech of the 3d of April, 1843, in reply to Milton Brown, at Jackson, and was published in the Nashville Union of the 5th of May, 1843.

Here he is plain, distinct, direct, and cannot be misunderstood. He is for bringing all duties to the same rate, and that rate is twenty per cent. ad valorem, and no more; for that was the rate at which the Whig Congress found all duties on the 29th of June, 1842.

He is therefore for repealing the act which altered that rate;

that is to say, he is for abolishing the present tariff. No language can make this plainer. And let me add, that any man in the United States who wishes to abolish the present tariff will vote for Mr. Polk. It remains to be seen whether those who are in favor of the present tariff, who are of opinion that it ought to be continued and upheld, can be brought, by misrepresentation and false pretences, to join its enemies and coöperate for its overthrow. That is the true and real question.

Again, Mr. Polk says he is "for such moderate duties as will not cut off importations." Very well; this is explicit; all can understand it.

Now if we do not wish to cut off the importations of coal and iron, and the various products of English manufactures, then we shall agree with Mr. Polk; but if we do wish to cut off these importations, then we shall disagree with him and disagree with his policy; for he would have only such moderate duties as will not cut off importations. But, as I have said, he is quite explicit, and I thank him for it. He would reduce the duties to the rates of the Compromise Act, as they existed in 1842, when they afforded no protection at all. But there is a tariff in existence at present, and some questions were put to him to this effect: Are you in favor of that tariff, or are you not? Will you support it, or will you try to repeal it? To these questions, put since he has been a candidate for the Presidency, he stands mute. There are humane considerations occasionally employed in courts of law, when persons are mute; but when a man can answer and does not answer, when he is perfectly able, but entirely unwilling, to make a reply, then we have a right to put our own construction on the case. But it was entirely unnecessary to put these questions to Mr. Polk; he had already stated that he wanted the duties reduced to the Compromise standard. The duties in June, 1842, had come down to twenty per cent. without discrimination; so, therefore, Mr. Polk was in favor of bringing down the duties to twenty per cent. on all imported articles.

In a written address to the people of Tennessee, dated May 29, 1843, Mr. Polk expresses his sentiments in a still more considerate manner. Here is the address:

66

"TO THE PEOPLE OF TENNESSEE.

"Winchester, May 29, 1843.

"The object which I had in proposing to Governor Jones at Carrolville, on the 12th of April last, that we should each write out and publish our views and opinions on the subject of the tariff, was, that our respective positions might be distinctly known and understood by the people. That my opinions were already fully and distinctly known I could not doubt. I had steadily, during the period I was a Representative in Congress, been opposed to a protective policy, as my recorded votes and published speeches prove. Since I retired from Congress I had held the same opinions. In the present canvass for Governor, I had avowed my opposition to the tariff of the late Whig Congress, as being highly protective in its character, and not designed by its authors as a revenue measure. I had avowed my opinion in my public speeches, that the interests of the country, and especially of the producing classes, required its repeal, and the restoration of the principles of the Compromise Tariff Act of 1833."

Now come forth, any man in this assembly who pretends to be a tariff man, and tell us what he has to say to this? Is Mr. Polk a tariff man, or is he not? Honor is due to Mr. Polk's sincerity. Indeed, he does not speak like a man who is making a confession, but rather as a man who is claiming a merit. Before the people of Tennessee, he insisted upon it that he was an original, consistent, thorough, whole-souled anti-tariff man. He says he wishes his opinions to be distinctly known and understood by the people. I hope he means still that his opinions shall be distinctly understood by the people; for he says, he had been steadily opposed to a protective policy while in Congress, and he had held the same opinions ever since. Now there cannot be any thing more explicit than this declaration, out of the mouth of the man himself; and he will no more deny this than he will deny his own name. And since he avers all this, insists upon it, and repeats it over and over again, what friend of his will stand up to deny it and give him the lie to his face?

But let us see again. How did those regard him who brought him forward as their candidate for the Presidency of the United States? Take the case of the South Carolina members, for instance. A resolution was brought forward by Mr. Elmore, in Charleston, by which the anti-tariff gentlemen of that part of