The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-09

that cotton was king, am slavery its prophet.
These shibboieths of Fraudulent religions and
false economies have passed away. But the new
gospel OF mammon, which has built its shrines
in single corner of the country from contribu-
tons adroitly drawn from all tbs other corners,
but which has wisely sought to scatter and de-
sectionaiZe its oracles has been for years. and is
now, teaching the doctrine that there is no con-
servafsm and no enlightenment outside OF or
ganized capital, and that every public policy
that does not emanate from those centers of re-
fnement and virtue, which emulate the bad
manners OF the English and cultivate the bad
morals of the French and practice the noble arts
OF avarice and luxury which are believed TO have
originated In Jerusalem, is an ignorant and
agrarian scheme of the barbaric West and the
revengeful South to limit the rnoney-changers'
right or usance to the exact terms nominated in
the bond, and to abridge if possible, his purpose
to take out post-obit upon the national credit,
to list this and to gamble on it
II am afraid that the robust common sense
and sound and clear judgment of the President
have been misled by influences the most natural
and preponderating; influences that have sur
rounded him from his birth; that possess the
claim of local and neighborly association upon.
his favor, and that are able to assail his under
standing by al the devices with which the or
gan1Zed and prescriDtive few know so we'll how
to maintain their titles and their patents against
the rights of the unorganiZed and undiscipined
many. That the President is man of the peo-
pie, and that every pulse of his heart beats to
old-fashioned Democratic music, truly believe.
But he is not the first among the statesmen of
the Atlantic seaboard who has yet to learn that
there is a land on this side of the Aleghenies
and the Blue Ridge. That he has not learned
this gather from his message to Congress.
Upon the three great questions which the West
and South are concerned in he is either silent,
evasiye, or opposed to US. mean the Mississippi
river, the tariff. and the fiscal policy Of the
Treasury. / beg your permission to say few
words upon the two last of these great questions.
There has never been a pretense among any
class of Democrats that the tariff was to out
last the election of Democratic President, just
as there has never been q pretense Of free trade
among any class of Democratic revenue reform
ers. All of us were agreed that, if we got the
power to originate concurrent policies OF admin
istration and legislation, our first use of it should
be a measure of revenue revision which should
reduce the taxes and reform the abuses Of the
tariff. / have no fault to find with anything the
President says upon this subject in his message.
1t IS what he fails to say that considering the
from all its bearings, gives me more or less
concern, and l cannot help regretting thaghe
leaves 1t just where he found it. and has no views
of his own. Because he, and all of u.s. will have
to meet it. and having to meet it, we cannot be-
gin too early to consider it afrmatively. 1t will
not down, believe me, at the bidding OF the East.
1t will never again appearin shape solimp and life
less as to enable my friend Converse and myself to
make platform which each of US could success
fully cOnstrue to suit himself. The West and
the SOuLn nave interests anu CONVICTIONS, ana, IL
we do not fix our lines of battle in advance of the
conflict, and under the leadership of an admins
tratlon. we shall be bound to support and defend,
the next time we get into national convention,
we shall have a Kilkenny fight of it, sure
enough. Then, sir, you shall see Illinois and
Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin. and hope Ohio,
with their eghtytwo electoral votes, put TO
shame and rout the time-serving idea that we
must sacrifice every Democratic tradition and
promise to make sure of the ffty-one electoral
votes of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Parties. like individuals, must take time by the
forelock. They cannot be successfully managed
at haphazard, or hope often to get into power
by such scratches and chances as prevailed in the
last presidential contest, when it took Burchard
and Conkling greatly assisted on the day of
election by an allwise Providence, to pull us
through by the hair of the head!
'And this brings me to silver. ! think that,
after the show of hands which was had last win
ter or his silver letter to the New York bankers.
the President was unwise to throw the weight of
his message SO dead against the predictions of
such majority of his party in Congress- But
he has done it, and to the extent that he is right
we must stand by him, and to the extent that he
may be mistaken must try and extricate him.
L think that, touching the unlimited coinage of
silver, he is right am willing, for one, to stop
IL on any reasonable basis of security for the
maintenance by the government in good faith of
the double standard. At what precise point,
when and where we shall stop (which EN-
bodies the question whom and where gold and
silver shall part company, as part they must at
some pont-that is a speculative proposition
about which economists will differ. l need not
and shall! not discuss it here. wish to talk
rather about the politics than the science of
what has become an interesting and urgent issue
in current affairs.
seems to me, is his continuation in the Treasury
department of the very policy which the Demo
cratic party has for years condemned in Republic
an administratons-the refusal to obey the
laws of Congress in their letter and spirit. as they
stand upon the statute book. Good or bad, they
ought to be executed. Now, Cne of these laws
provides certain method of getting silver into
circulation Another provides for the representa-
ton of silver before the Bimetal. Latin Union,
as it is called. The first of these statutes has
remained, substantially, a dead letter. The Sec
ond has been always inadequately, and there is
reason to believe sometimes treacherousy, ad
miuistered by the Treasury Department The
failure Of the President to reverse Republican
presidents and methods in this regard has raised
in the West and South genuine scare and storm,
bringing to the front all the passions and ankle
ties of an organic question in human experiences,
that of debts and credits including, of course the
national debt and our national banking system.
AS matters stand, the Presidents suggestions
will be overwhelmed in both houses of Congress,
and this we ought to avert if we can. In my
Judgment there is a way to a much-needed parley
if not to common ground, and will give it to you
for what it is worth. precisely gave it to the
President himself a few weeks ago.
"First-I would create silver commission;
would appoint upon this three commissioners of
national repution and standing, having the pub
lie confidence; men, for example, like yourself,
sir and my friend from Indiana and an emf
nent Kentuckian. no longer residing in the State,
but the one Secretary Of the Treasury, during
many years, who did his duty; would invest
this commission with all the prestige and para
phernalia of an embassy; would send it abroad
with the moral support Of the government, not
its secret hostility; and then / would ask Con-
gress, in the interest of the double standard. to
suspend the coinage Of silver until these repre-
sentatives of the government and the people
could make their report.
And second. would rigidly and faithfully
carry out the terms of the act of 1878-give the
silver men the hot end of the poker, 20 say
and determine how much wisdom or error there
may be in the remark of the senator from Ken
lucky when he said that, if cyclone should
blow down the Treasury huildinc and scatter