The Republican Party has had that supreme virtue of parties courage - courage - courage!

BEECHER, HENRY WARD. (1813-1887) Influential American minister and supporter of emancipation, women’s suffrage and evolutionary theory. AMsS. (“Henry Ward Beecher”). 9pp. 8vo. Rectos only. N.p. N.d. In the form of a letter to the editor of the [Chicago?] Tribune, who has entitled the manuscript, Mr Beecher and the Tariff, A Pungent Letter from the Great Prophet on the Tariff... With editorial and authorial corrections.

Only today have I seen the following remarks [an editorial clipping entitled Mr. Beecher and the Tariff, from the Utica Observer, has been pinned to the sheet] My personal views and political conduct are of little value to the public except so far as they are supposed to represent the views and purposes of a larger and daily increasing number of silent voters. [The following sentence was crossed out, but marked “stet” by the editor.] I have been a Republican from the origin of that Party, because it represented better than… It was the party of liberty as against slavery: the party of free speech as against intolerance. It boldly faced the threat of secession and elected Lincoln. It had the courage to accept the risks of war rather than back down in the face of Southern threats. It was baptized in blood and proved worthy of its high calling. It had wisdom and courage to recompose the shattered columns of this union and give to it a grandeur which has won the respect of the world. It met the bloated currency which the war had induced and brought back the current within the appropriate bank. It never was charmed with the greenback syren but brought back the dissolute theories to virtue. In short, the Republican Party has had the courage to meet every issue which has arisen for twenty-five years, without shuffling or evasion. It has had a clean policy, and it has had that supreme virtue of parties - courage - courage - courage! The Republican Party inaugurated a policy of High Tariff. The necessities of a period of gigantic war, is the only palliation of such a policy - But when Protection of American industry was grafted upon the Tariff, no excuse could be found for the blunder. It is an insult to American Enterprise to assume that it need protection - American Industry is no decrepit thing, needing crutches and... It puts the government into the ridiculous attitude of undertaking [to] supervise all the various and intricate affairs of manufacturing and commerce. It is the last vestige of that old system of paternal governments to arrange men’s religious beliefs, to determine their social relations, to prescribe their meat, drink, and apparell [sic] to do for them what a free people are a thousand times better able to do for themselves. The aim and drift of Protection is foolish and impertinent but the machinery by which it seeks to secure this bad end is even worse than the cause which it serves. Corrupt Customhouses in this nature are Academies of injustice and dishonesty - abhorred of God, as they ought to be of men. The Republican Party is, as yet, under a Sorcerer’s spell. It will yet be disenchanted. Because it is sick, it is not to be lightly abandoned. But, what a ridiculous and monstrous follyit would be to leave the Republican party because it is yet blinded with Protection and go over to the Democratic - that has coquetted [sic] with almost every evil which the war has swept away and which has not yet shown that it had learned a single lesson from the grand struggle of the last twenty-five years. It has no faith in itself – No unity in measures, no wise leaders. It has learned to construct platforms and then to run away from the only wise planks in them, couragious [sic] in words and cowardly in deeds. What am I asked to do? To go over from the Republican party that has the courage of its opinions to one that avows free trade principles and then plays comedy in congress in carrying out their pretentious reforms: that has no leader that dare lose in a good cause, or suffer for their principles! When some bold advocate of free trade arises among them like Waterston, he is knifed by his own compatriots. When the Democratic Party shall have a mission, as it had in Jefferson’s day, or even in Jackson’s - but to mention these names is [to] throw ridicule upon that modern Sampson [sic] after he had slept in the arms of the Delilah of Slavery been shorn of his strength and lost his sight and committed suicide. There is another contingency - If the engineers and managers of the Republican Party, select a Candidate for the Presidency, stained by jobbery in alliance with the policies of the Great Railway princes, hand and glove with corrupt lobbies and in full faith with the corrupt and corrupting gangs who swarm our legislatures and live by sleek plunder, it will be the duty of every patriotic Republican to secure his defeat, not by the folly of joining the party of historic imbecility, but by laying the foundation of a new movement that shall respect the moral instincts of their people â€‘ a party of Common sense, based upon moral sense.

Initially a reluctant seminarian, Henry Ward Beecher became one of the most influential clergymen of his time. His audacious, unorthodox views and bold oratory likely served as the basis for his popularity which grew with the size of his congregation. From pulpits and lecture halls around the country, Beecher advocated the emancipation of slaves and suffrage for women. In 1874 he was accused of committing adultery with the wife of fellow reformer and newspaperman Theodore Tilton. This led to a lengthy and inconclusive trial that cost Beecher $118,000 and a good deal of his reputation. However, his popularity did not flag, and he returned to the lecture circuit, in part to repay the large legal debt he had incurred. His radical views eventually earned him the Association of Congregational Ministers’ disapproval, and Beecher withdrew his membership in 1882. Ever more seditious, his controversial Evolution and Religion, published in 1885, further served to bolster his lecture appearances until his death. Four small printer’s holes on the last page do not affect the signature. Normal wear.

Item #8910

Price: $3,000

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