Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-10-04
THE DEMOCRACY.
STIRRING SPEECH OF HON. w. M.
CUTTER, LATE A DEMOCRAT.
He Arraigns Sharply His Former
Political Party and Examines
Their Purposes, Etc.

Il I'd
Biggs, Butte county, few days since, Hon.
W. NJ. Cutter, of Marysville, Democratic
member of the last Legislature, and who
has since left that party and given adher
ence to the Republicans, delivered a stir
ring speech in arraignment of Democracy.
During his speech, among other matters
discussed, he said:
q stand before you denounced as a rec
reant and traitor by perhaps the most re-
markable body that ever assembled-a
body composed mainly of constituencies
politicians, fanatics and lunatics, and
known in the political history of the State
as the Stockton Convention. / may re-
mark here that its place of meeting was in
strict accordance with the eternal fitness of
things.
why am l thus denounced by that
Convention? Because l chose to be true
to the interests of my county-and of
northern California as well-in place of
acquiescing in the schemes and obeying
the dictates of the INSCRIPTIONS managers
of the Democratic machine; because |
would not, to the injury of those who
elected me, bend the knee to the Demo-
cratic Baal and engage in a communistic
crusade or consent to aid, either by voice
or vote, in the contamination of the most
infamous political conspiracy ever devised
against the people of any State. If this be
| treason against the Democratic party, then
l was traitor to that organization and |
am not ashamed of it. For all this ] have
| been read out of the Democratic party.
| But the Stockton Convention need not
| have wasted its time in reading me out of
| the party; for, weeks before that Conven-
| ton met, ] had read myself out and re-
! turned to the Republican ranks in which
stood during the struggle with the De
mocracy of the South and their Northern
Democratic sympathizers to preserve the
| Union of the States and the dear old flag
under whose stars | was born.
My departure from the Democratic fold
! was not the hasty impulse of moment.
| On the contrary, it was but the natural
outcome of growing feeling of disgust
with It's methods and of protest against
its principls, or lack of principles, dating
from the commencement of my taking an
active interest in politics in this State some
| five years since. That feeling of disgust
grew when, at the Democratic State Con-
vention of 1879, the San Francisco delega-
ton attempted to sell out the State to the
Sand-lot, in consideration OF votes for the
municipal offices of their city. That feel
ing of disgust grew when, at the Demo-
|
| leaders of the party, now its most pro-
nounced anti-monopoly and reform eX-
Founders, traded away the Railroad COM
mission, all The while protesting loud
mouthed devotion TO the people. That
| feeling of disgust deepened when, at the
regular session in 1SS3, tile Democratic
managers sought to force me, in contraven-
ton OF my conscience and my oath, to vote
to unseat Il Republican member of the
Assembly as fairly elected as myself, that
an unjust Siur might thereby be cast On tic
Republican administration of affairs at the
Mare Island Navy Tayd-which they
thought would inurc 10 the political nd
vantage of the Democratic party-and
threatened me with future political
death in case OF refusal That
feeling of disgust deepenel sill more
when, at the extra session. the San
Francisco Democratic delegation aided and
abetted by the ignorance or prejudice Of the
interior and under the leadership of gen
| tleman who at the San Jose Convention,
was the Congressional candidate especially
supported by the opposition to Hon. Chas.
\. Sumner, but who now is the chiefest adj
vocate of Democratic anti-monopoly and
reform and an aspirant fog the United
States Senate, commenced war on prop
erty rights and corporate enterprise which.
! if successful, would have retarded the de-
J yelopmcnt OF the State-and particularly Of
| the northern section-for many years to
come; their ostensible and protested object
being the benefit OF the people; their real
purpose the manufacture of false political
capital which would result in the election
Of certain leaders to the highest Offices in
your gift That feeling of disgust ctIllni-
mated when, at the last session Of Congress
the Democratic majority in the House OF
Representatives made an attempt, which
nearly succeeded, to tear down tie barriers
which the Republican party had erected in
| defense of American industry and admit
! free the products of the pauper labor Of
other lands to compete with those manu-
| featured by our own citizens upon our own
soil. That was the last straw that broke
| the camels back, so far as | was concerned,
and left the party
:" If felt justified in leaving it then, to-
| day feel doubly, aye trebly aye hun
dred fold justified in my course, in the
| light of events in its history which have
| occurred since. For party that can stoop
! to an attempt to blacllen the fair name and
fame of q wife, that it may make political
| capital against her husband; party that
can stoOp to lay its vandal hand in brutal
dissertation upon the memorial stone which
marks the grave of a little child. that it
may make political capital against its
| father has sunk too low for the scorn, even,
of decent men. The mere existence of Il
political organization which can descend to
| such depths of Islander and sacrilege is, of
Itself, crime against society"
The speaker reviewed the course of the
| radical element of the Democratic party in
| the last regular session of the Legislature,
| and the subsequent celebrated extra ses-
sion, and pointed out that its action was
subyersive of the best interests Of The State
calculated to destroy public confidence in
the stability OF property rights; 20 advance
communistic sentiment, and all with a view
not to serve the peoples interests, but for
the sole political purpose of advancing in
dividual preferment to the highest seats in
the gift of the people Of the State. In con-
| Guiding upon this topic Mr. Cutter said
| So the extra session ended, leaving no
| memorial of its existence but heavy bill
| for the people to pay. But the So GOO it
cost has been well spent if it has taught
| that portion of the farming population of
! this State inclined to Democratic radical
| ism that il is never 10 the interest of the
| agricultural class 10 enter into alliance with
the Democratic socialistic clement which is
| spawned in the Sums of cities if it has
| taught them that the enactment of oppres-
| siye and restrictive laws may drive or keep
capital away, but that it is beyond the
| power of legislation 10 compel investment
1t should be the aim of the State TO attract,
not to rcpel, to encourage, not to discour-
age, the investment of capital within its
borders, and by every reasonable method
| to invite the building up of industrial es-
| Establishments and the extension of Transport
tsltion lines.
II is not for the interest Of the State
that either branch Of tie Legislature should
subscribe to doctrines like those contained
in the celebrated resolutions adopted bY
| The Assembly during the second or third
week of the extra session, Those resolu-
tons, in substance, declared that if an in
diyidual or q corporation invested in TIE
| construction of Il railway line. the moment
it was completed and the cars rnnning it
belonged not TO the individual or corpora
ton building it, but TO the public Such a
principle crystaliized into law. would for
ever end the construction of railroads in
this State. The first and immediate effect
of the adoption Of the resolutions referred
TO was the cessation OF ell work upon the
extension of the California and Oregon
Railroad, the Directors being unable TO
obtain the needed funds when ii became
known in financial circles abroad that the
California Assembly had hoisted the pirate
flag"
Upon the subject of protection. the
speaker said: The one overshadowinr
and vital question of the campaign is that
of protection or free trade The Republi-
.l,.,4;