The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Nor is it by any means certain that General McClellan would not, once
elected, consider himself the Chicago Platform, as Mr. Buchanan avowed
himself to be the Cincinnati Platform. He has written a letter, to be
sure, in which he has given it to be understood that he is in favor of
continuing the war against the Rebels until they shall be subdued; but
so did Mr. Polk, twenty yearn ago, write a letter on the Tariff of 1842
that was even more satisfactory to the Democratic Protectionists of
those days than the letter of General McClellan can be to the War
Democrats of these days. All of us recollect the famous Democratic
blazon of 1844,--"Polk, Dallas, and the Tariff of '42!" It was under
that sign that the Democrats conquered in Pennsylvania; and had they not
conquered in Pennsylvania, they themselves would have been conquered in
the nation. Mr. Polk and Mr. Dallas were the chief instruments used to
break down the Tariff of '42, in less than two years after they had been
elected to the first and second offices of the nation because they were
believed to be its most ardent friends. Mr. Polk, as President,
recommended that it should be changed, and employed all the influence of
his high station to get the Tariff Bill of 1846 through Congress; and
Mr. Dallas, who had been nominated for the Vice-Presidency with the
express purpose of "catching" the votes of Protectionists, gave his
casting vote in the Senate in favor of the new bill, which meant the
repeal of the Tariff of '42. The Democrats are playing the same game now
that they played in 1844, with this difference, that the stakes are ten
thousand times greater now than they were then, and that their manner of
play is far hardier than it was twenty years since. Then, the question,
though important, related only to a point of internal policy; now, it
relates to the national existence. Then, the Free-Traders did not
offensively proclaim their intention to cheat the Protectionists; now,
Mr. Fernando Wood and Mr. Vallandigham, and other leaders of the extreme
left of the Democratic party, with insulting candor, avow that to cheat
the country is the purpose which that party has in view. Mr.
Vallandigham, who made the Chicago Platform, explicitly declares that
that Platform and General McClellan's letter of acceptance do not agree;
at the same time Mr. Wood, who is for peace to the knife, calmly tells
us that General McClellan, as President, would do the work of the
Democracy,--and we need no Daniel to interpret Mr. Wood's words. We mean
no disrespect to General McClellan, on the contrary we treat him with
perfect respect, when we say that we do not believe he has a higher
sense of honor than Mr. Polk possessed; and as Mr. Polk became a tool in
the hands of a faction,--being a Protectionist during the contest of
'44, and an Anti-Protectionist after that contest had been decided in
his favor,--so is it intended that General McClellan shall become a tool
in the hands of another faction. Mr.
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