JOHN M. HARLAN IN KENTUCKY, 1855-1877 THE STORY OF Hm ...

1940] John M. Harlan in Kentucky 37the time, and that he was now fully convinced of his error.,,,The Louisville Courier-Journal was cynically to say of Harlan inthe next campaign that "no one can laugh off inconsistency betterthan he, for his youth, the passions of the time, for which he wasnot responsible, are always at hand to excuse forever positionsthat to his present view are incorreet."l,,Hand in hand with the plea for increased immigration wentthe Republican campaign for the extension of railroad facilitiesthroughout the state. Kentucky transportation advance hadbeen choked for years by the virtual monopoly maintained forthe Louisville and Nashville Railroad by the refusal of the statelegislature under its domination to grant other charters. Seekingto break Louisville's grip upon the Kentucky interior, Cincinnatiand Lexington thrust forward plans for a rival road, but theirplea for franchise had been flatly denied by the last session of theassembly. Hence this sector of the Republican economic programcomes to revolve around the broader issue of monopoly;and Harlan, now with a principle upon which he can clearly seizethe offensive, vigorously strikes out at "railroad monopolies,• absorbing the capital of the state and controlling its politics."•-Repeatedly he branches off upon an attack against monopolieseverywhere, charging that New York was "rolling in corruption"under the influence of the Central and Erie.,- With his repeatedplea that monopolies should not be permitted to "stifle the powersof industry and national wealth,",,, Harlan argues that the valuesof free industrial competition be enforced by building "up rivalsto" the railroad "monopoly and every other monopoly in thiseommonwealth.",2• Years later on the Supreme Court whenHarlan issued a series of memorable opinions with respect to theSherman Anti-Trust Act, he may well have recalled these strenuousdays of struggle against "a monopoly which is gradually overshadowingthe greater portion of this state.",,,Allied to the general stream of economic controversy runningthrough the campaign of 1871 was the issue of taxation withrespect to the debt emerging from civil war. Maintaining that1• Ibid.j May 31, 1871.m Ibid., July 7, 1875.12• Louisville Daily Commercial, July 29, 1871.123 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 24, 1871.•u Louisville Daily Commcrclal, May 24, 1871.126 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 247 1871.•a Ibid. See United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 156 U. S. 1 (dissent); NorthernSecurities Co. v. United States, 193 U. S. 197.