CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



was by temperament and tradition a conser- 

 vative, and opposed especially to all extreme 

 measures and sectional innovations. As he 

 had adapted his Reaper so that it would cut 

 grain in all States, he could never see why polit- 

 ical policies, too, should not be lifted above the 

 limitations of geography and made to conserve 

 the welfare of the whole people. As he said on 

 one strenuous occasion when laboring might- 

 ily to beat back the extremists in his own 

 party: "Is not every government on the face 

 of the earth established upon the principle 

 of compromise?" 



To special privileges of every sort he was un- 

 alterably opposed. He asked for none for him- 

 self no favoring tariff or grant of public land 

 or monopolistic franchise. "I have been 

 throughout my life," he said, "opposed to all 

 measures which tend to raise one class of the 

 American people upon the ruin of others, or 

 one section of our common country at the 

 expense of another. The country is the common 

 property of all parties, and all are interested in 

 its prosperity." 



[170] 



