this policy. But the President was firm. He prepared for a hard, stubborn fight. This could only be educa- tional and bear upon the campaign in the fall of 1888, as a Republican Senate stood ready to checkmate any- thing the Democratic House of Representatives might choose to do in the matter. This laying aside of the old war issues and raising the tariff question was precisely what Henry George had hoped for since 1876, when he made free trade speeches in California for Tilden, and to bring on which he sev- eral years later wrote "Protection or Free Trade?" For the abolition of the tariff was necessary to establish the single tax as a national policy. And because parties at all times had been nothing to him, but principles every- thing, he quickly announced that while he thought it unwise for single taxers to commit themselves to a line of policy so far in advance of possible changes in the political situation, yet it seemed to him that he would have to vote with the Democratic party and support Cleve- land should Cleveland be renominated and should he con- tinue his assault on the tariff. Post, Croasdale, Johnson, Lewis, Shearman, Garrison of Massachusetts, Maguire of California and a great num- ber of active single taxers in New York and over the. country viewed the matter in the same light; and many so expressed themselves in "The Standard. But there were others who wished to avoid the tariff issue. They desired to put an independent single tax candidate in the field. Some of these had left the Re- publican party, yet thought little good could come from the Democratic party. Others, headed by John Mc- Mackin and Gaybert Barnes, plainly said they favoured an independent campaign in the "doubtful" States of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Indiana. When -505- |