Our land policy, giving to every immigrant, after he shall have declared his intentions to become a citizen, a home and a farm substantially as a free gift, charging him less for 160 acres in fee-simple than is paid as the annual rent of a…
John Sherman
The Public Record
John Sherman was an American politician from Ohio who served in federal office throughout the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He also served as Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State. Sherman sought the Republican presidential nomination three times, coming closest in 1888, but was never chosen by the party. Between 1861 and 1897, John Sherman served in the U.S. Senate for nearly 32 years and holds the record for longest serving senator from the state of Ohio.
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Our system of free schools, melting in a common crucible all differences of religion, language, and race, and giving to the child of the day laborer and the son of the millionaire equal opportunities to excel in the pursuit and acquirement…
This is an advantage and a blessing which the poor man enjoys in no other country.
It is a high privilege to enter into American citizenship.
These are misleading phrases, for every tariff for revenue imposed on any imported article necessarily protects or favors the same article produced in the United States, which is not subject to the tariff tax.
This representation in the Senate gives these groups of states a very decided advantage in tariff legislation.
It was especially manifest in framing the tariff of 1883, when New England carried a measure that was condemned by public opinion from the date of its passage.
I always thought the great error was made in 1883 in not making, as the substantial basis, as the real substance of the tariff law of that year, the report of the tariff commission.
Here were the platforms of the two great parties embodied in the form of bills, and the choice between them, not having been decided in Congress, was submitted to the people, and the people of the United States passed their judgment upon…
On the one hand, the Democratic party believe in a tariff for revenue only, sometimes, as they say, with incidental protection, but what they mean is a tariff intended solely to raise money to carry on the operations of the government.
To say that anyone can be misled or may be deceived or does not know the contents of this bill is to confess a degree of ignorance that I would not impute to any Senator of the United States or to any Member of Congress.
There are two or three principles involved in this bill; first, that it is the duty of Congress to foster, protect and diversify American industry.
We believe that whenever a new industry can be started in our country with a successful hope of living, with a reasonable protection against foreign manufactures, we ought to establish it here, and that this is a good policy for the…
It has come down to us, and we are trying now to carry out that idea, to encourage home productions by putting a tax upon foreign productions.
We think that this tax ought to be put at such a rate as will give to our people here a chance to produce the articles and pay a fair return for the investment made and for the labor expended at prices higher in this country than in any…
That is the first rule, and I believe that that rule has been carried out, and I think liberally, and so as to secure increased production at home and a larger market.
I looked upon this as evidence that I had arrived at that period of life when a difference in political opinions was no longer regarded as a ground of personal disfavor.
I defended the latter as a protective measure that, while reducing taxation, maintained the protection of all American industries impartially.
When, in 1853, you or your ancestors organized the Republican party, our only object was to resist the extension of slavery over our western territory.
Afterward, in 1861, the only object of the Republican party was to maintain the union of these states, to preserve our country as an inheritance for your children and your children's children.
In 1876 the object of the Republican party was to make good the promises contained in our notes, and to make all our money as good as gold and silver coin.
Now, the great issue between the parties, not so great as in the past, but still worthy of discussion, is how shall we levy the taxes to support the national government?
Last year we lost our governor, this year we carry the state by a splendid majority.
The Democrats fixed up the congressional districts so we would get six Congressmen only, but we got eight.
As to the general result of the congressional elections, I have seen such convulsions a dozen times or more, but they have had no permanent effect.
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