Daily globe., 1879-06-23

NUMBER 100
WIN. L. KELLY DECLINES.

N UMBER lou
WIN, J.. KELLY DECLINES.
And Giues Tery sensibte Reasons for not
Leaving the Democratic Party.
ST. PAUL, Mimi, June 10, 1879.
Hon. Janaes StarAsy, Chairman State
Central Committee, National Greenback
Labor Party Of Asnrsesota.
DEAR Sm:-I am in receipt of yours 18th
instant informing me of my nomination by
the late State convention of the National
Greenback Labor party of Minnesota for the
Office of Attorney General of this State, and
requesting notice of my acceptance or declin-
alton of the nomination.
The convention did me high honor, but
one little merited. am surprised and at
the same time f1attered by its action. Sur
prised that it passed over so many more de-
serving in its own party ranks to select an
this without the customary ante nomination
interview without knowing or seeking to
know what might be my sentiments upon
the subject, trusting the honesty of the man to
For this honor aud conhdence, beg leave
to thank the convention and its party.
You have not honored me with q CODY of
the resolutions adopted by or proceedings of
the late convention, and I will avail myself
of the daily press, and presume the printed
reports to be correct Gathering from them
what the new party processes, and the con-
ditions which were attached to nominations
then made, unhesitatingly and at this first
opportunity afforded me, decline the honor
rendered.
I am asked first of all to leave the Demo
cratic party. Though I have long sympa-
thized with Greenback men in some of their
political principles-particularly in the advo-
cacy of the free coinage and free circulation
Ct silver as legal tender money-in the
denunciation of that supremest Of all follies
and most transparent of all political frauds,
the national banking system their denun-
citation of bribery and corruption at the ballot
boxes-yet fail to see anything in these,
aud much more I could mention, that the
Democratic party has not always advocated
or denounced as strenuously as have Green
back men. .
The Democratic party from its organiza-
ton, coeval almost with the government, to
this day, has been emphatically the party of
the people. Through good and evil report,
in sunshine and in storm, it has kept steadily
in view, as the pole-star of its political ex-,
istence, s'the greatest good to the greatest
number. Treason within its ranks, and
Misrepresentation without, have, at times,
but for time only, driven it from power;
but as surely as truth is mighty and will
prevail-as certain as real Republican prin-
clples have place in the hearts Of the
American people, SO sure does it and will it
return again to the helm of state. My first
knowledge, as boy and man, of it, dates from
the Know Nothing movement of 1856.
saw the party, then as now battling for the
rights of the people, for the heritage of the
poor and the oppressed, swept out of sight
by the political tornado of that day. The
Democratic party went down, and with it also
disappeared for period the guaranteed
rights of every foreign born citizen and
every Catholic in the land. But I saw it rise
again when the madness passed-and the
honest American heart, speaking through
honest American lips at the polls said the
Democratic party was right it it's defence of
civil and religious liberty. I saw the party
divided With internal quarrels at Charleston,
and through its broken ranks purely sec
tional organization march to the possession
of the government. As patriot leave
the veil of time unified from the record of
| fire and sword that followed this first
triumph Of sectional party which will
mark the years from 1860 to 1865 as the
saddest in the history of the Republic.
From 1865 to 1874 the sectional Republi-
can party held undoubted control of all the
| branches Of the federal government, the
House, the Sen ate, the Presidency, the Judi
ciary and the army. It dictated it's policies, it
framed the laws, it filled the bench with par
tizans to oonstrue those laws, it overrode the
constitutional barriers which the
fathers of the Republic had
interposed to protect minoritles and to
preserve civil liberty, and with the iron hand
| of the army it enforced its party mandates
| at the polls. More than. this, 1t fostered
| monopolies the most infamous and rapa-
cicus it sowed the land with the dragons
| teeth of sectional hate; it placed and re-
tanned men in Office whose official lives and
conduct were stencil in the nostrils of hon
est men and disgrace to the nation !; in
| short it "played such fantastic tricks before
high heaven that the American people,
stopping but for moment in their struggle
for material wealth, saw the danger that
threatened their liberties and thrust this
corrupt and daring party from power, and as
though to emphasize the justness Of the pop
alldr yerdi5 Of condemnation, in the face
of one half q million majority against it, this
so-called Republican party stole the presi-
dency, and have actually appropriated the
goods. Yet through all this the Democratic
| party, a mere handful in it's representation
in Congress at times, has always presented
an unbroken front in maintaining the vital
principles Of free government. A party like
it can never die. A party like it does not
deserve to die.
And you ask me, after all these years of battle
for principle dear to me because they under
/ lie and sustain the liberties of my country, to
abandon now that grand old Organization
that old guard of the constitution upon
which the Union rests. You ask too much.
Were a plxce hunter the opportunity was
plain and inviting when came into Mime
sofa had been a Southern Union mar,
during the war. had been Union man
at time and place when sacrifices had to
be made. / came into Minnesota in 1865,
and settled ia Hennepin county in 1866
had but to ally myself with the Republican
| party to have shared the honors and enolu-
ments that follow triumphant party.
No Sir, if the Greenback- labor men are
in earnest in their denanciation of the wrongs
and corrnptions inflicted upon the county By
Republican misrule in the past, and believ,
they are, they have amply opportunity, nay
is their duty as patriots to ally themselve.
with the only party that has kept its organi
zation unbrokeu and has made unceasinl
battle for the Constitution and the Union
from the first triumph of sectionalism dow
to this day-the national Democracy.
Here in Minnesota it is the crosses