522 FAMOUS UVINO AMERICANS a senator from Kentucky, a governor, or perhiqps a cabinet officer. But such service he correctly saw, as paxHes then were, would * * begin in slavery and end in poverty. ' ' He be- came greatly excited over the struggle in Congress conoeming the election of Hayes. It was said that he threatened to lead a hundred thousand armed Kentuckians to Washington to de- mand justice, but it is certain he had no intention of doing it After the defeat of 1876 Mr. Watterson settled down to the work of building a new Democratic Party. The Civil War had left the old party without a platform. Mr. Watterson was a believer in a low tariff. The high tariff of the Bepub- lican Party was too much of a hindrance to trade. As a re- sult of his advocacy the Democrats accepted the principle of a ** tariff for revenue only.** Along with that he placed a declaration for civil service. While these were both impor- tant questions they did not arouse the people. The burning question of the late seventies was the money question. Here Mr. Watterson found an ample field for his wit and his wis- dom. He had no patience with cheap or fiat money. He linked the question with the morals of the people. Harper^s Weekly took special delight in cartooning him on this issue. In answer to the statement that the government could make paper a legal money he answered that it could also make soft soap money but it would neither be wise nor honest. Almost twenty years later, when the managers of the sound money campaign telegraphed him at his summer home in Switzer- land asking what attitude to take on the ** sixteen to one'* plank in the Democratic platform of 1896 he answered back,
- Make no compromise with dishonor.'* He refused to sup-
port the ticket. From 1876 to 1892 he sat as a delegate-at- large from Kentucky in every Democratic national conven- tion and as much as any man helped mold the political opin- ions of that party. With all this party service to his credit it cannot, however, be said that he was a party man. His democracy always began with a small **d.** He quarreled with Cleveland, refused to support Bryan, and denoxmced Wilson. Mr. Watterson will be remembered for his political labor,
