Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-08-04
TYEPNAN IND III US.

| Inc expectation that otIdtoi ~
would honestly denounce the lnhalion
plsnks in the Ohio platform in his speech
last Saturday evening has ended in disap-
pointment This was especially expected
Of Mr.. Thurman, because in his speeches
in the Senate and elsewhere he has made
1.-The advocacy of hard money and denun-
citation of imitation particularly prominent.
lodged by his own declarations in times
past he was thoroughly opposed to our IT.
redeemable currency. He stood appar
emily in the front ranks OF the hard money
men. He was pointed TO as an evidence
of the soundness OF the democratic leaders
on the currency question-as great rock
to which the American people could an
Choir their hopes of specie payments with
perfect safety. In a speech made in the
Senate June -. 1874, Mr.. Thurman de-
clared that "Me real question that This
country has TO settle, = is the question
whether or not you will demonetize the
precious metals and have wholly ire
| 'deemable paper currency in all time to
| ''come, or whether you will have that
| "currency of specie or specie-paying pa
| ''per. which the experience OF all COM
''mercial nations for hundreds Of years has
"said is the only safe currency for the
county"
According to this language his belief
then was that the prominent question in
our politics was that relating to specie
paying, safe currency. Believing this,
where should Mr.. Thurman have been
found but against the OHIO democratic
platform? What voice should have been
raised more boldly and clearly against lis
initiation doctrine than his? Who could
have exered so powerful an influence as
he in favor of settling this great question
on a sound basis had he but bravely
led the way against Mr.. Allen and the
dangerous platform on which he stands
1t must be said, however, of Mr.. Thurman,
found wanting. In the time that he
should have proved himself a man of cour-
age and principle he has shown himself
craven hearted and false to the sentiments
that he has often publicly declared that he
believed in. Alas, poor Thurman what
a miserable. fallen spectacle he presents,
as he rolls in the dirt before the rag money
democratic platform of Ohio.
If Mr.. Thurman had kept silent he
would have been more respected. His
weak, dishonest attempt to reconcile him
self to the platform by making the latter
seem to be what it is not is the worst feat
ure of the whole. He undertakes to ar
que that there is no initiation in the plat
form. He views it all over and says there
is none to be found in it. He owns that
it does not exactly please him, but still he
does not think 1t means more rag money.
Against, as we may say, the whole voice
of the country the expression of
democrats as well as republicans, of those
who made the platform and of those who
stand upon II as candidates before the peo-
pie, of the press of Ohio of all parties.-
he stands up and says that it is not an infla-
ton platform. As though he knew better
what it is than Allen or Cary. who have
accepted it in their speeches as meaning
imitation, or than those who framed it, or
the convention which adopted it and
the press which defends it. Right against
the democracy of Ohio, clamoring for
more paper money and inscribing it upon
the banners which they carry at the public
meetings. Mr.. Thurman declares that the
Ohio democracy are for sound money and
so is the platform which they have adopted.
This desperate expedient to save him.
silence. The rag money features of the
Ohio platform are too clearly seen, and
too widely acknowledged both by the
friends and opponents of hard money, to
be made to appear other than they are.
Everybody viii understand that the
Ohio senator goes back on his avowed
principles, and that he does not stick at
falsifying the platform in order to conceal
his own woiul abandonment of honor.
"What fall was there"
In sharp contrast to the position OF poor
Thurman is that of Governor Hayes, the
republican candidate for governor, who
made his opening address on the same
day that Thurman delivered his speech
Mr.. Hayes plants himself squarely against
initiation, points out its evils, and declares
in favor of sound currency. OF the inlla-
ton plan in the Ohio democratic platform
he says: "No man, no government, no
Congress is WISE enough and pure
"enough to be trusted with this tremendous
..power over the business and property
| "and labor Of the country. That which
concerns so intimately all business should
"be decided, if possible, on business prin-
"ciples, and not left to depend on the ext
"gencies of politics, the interests of par
"ty, or the ambition of public men. twill
mot do for property, for business orfor la