The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-19
WILLIAM B. THOMAS.
speech of william Ii. Thomas Last Evening In
West Philadelphia.

Ds
West Philadelphia.
At a meeting of citizens of West Philadel-
phia, held last evening, General William b.
Thomas, the opposition candidate to Judge
Kelley, made speech, in which he said:-
Fellow Citizens:-As the peoples indepen-
dent candidate for Congress for the Fourth
Congressional district, 1 cannot but feel the
want of an organized party and an active daily
press at my back. But the absence of these is
necessary popularity of my position. AL
though 1 believe 1 shall be supported by the
honest and independent men of both political
parties, still have neither party or press
that can command. have no party fund
to draw upon. shall not ask any one to
contribute to the expenses of the campaign,
and l cannot afford to do more than meet
such as the most economical expenditures
may demand.
have no organ, and shall not attempt to
control any newspaper with money. Hence,
if any one of them shall have a kind word to
say of me during the progress of the cam
paign, the public may know that it is not the
result of purchase and sale.
The friends of my opponent, knowing that
the voters of our district were opposed To his
denomination, collected q fund of over
$13, 900 from some of our leading machinists
and manufacturers, who labor under the de-
lusion that their interests at Washington are
safe only in the hands Of Judge Kelley to
secure his denomination by the Republican
Convention. AS much of the sum as was
found to be necessary was used to control
| delegates Any further sum that may be
| required in order to subsidize the public
press, colonize and purchase voters and re-
ward dishonest election officers, is said by
his managing politicians to be within reach,
one firm alone pledging itself for $4,000
for that purpose.
Already two of the leading journals, the
Press and EVENING TELEGRAPH, have entered
the list as his chosen organs, both of which
commenced their services on the 1st of July,
by the publication of false and malicious
articles intended to misrepresent and injure
me in the estimation of our citizens. Other
venal journals, l have no doubt, will be
found, during the campaign, who, under the
plea of sustaining regular nominations, will
commit themselves to the work of misrepre
sentation and falsehood.
/ have now been a voter for thirty-fivC
years, and my first recollection of politica
strife was i'll regard to the question of {
tariff, or the proper. policy to be adopted il
the admission of foreign goods into thii
country. This strife has been renewed
since that time at stated intervals by politi
cal parties whenever they could find no othel
question to divide upon. And this contro
versy has done more to cripple the various
industrial interests of the country than al
other causes combined. The consequence o.
making any given subject the issue, abou
which political parties contend, is to driv'
both to extremes. Hence the Wing party
and its executors aim to fasten the doctrine
of free trade upon the Democratic party
whilst the Democratic party charges its ad
versary with determination to foster mono
poles and special interests at the expense Of
the people at large.
The true interest of the country will gene
rally be found in the mean between thes
/ two extremes, and this middle ground woul
be adopted by our legislators if they wer
.. not driven from it by the reckless denuncia
tion Of their opponents on either side.