Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-06-07

for all COED men from over the
earth who fed from want and op'
preston, and mean to become Americans.
But we invite and welcome only friends to
this ground and liegemen TO the Re- ublic.
Our institutions cannot change TO meet
hostile wishes, nor he SO much as senslbly
modified save by the peaceful and deliber-
ate action of the mass Of our people in ac-
cordance with the constitution and the
laws of the land. Whatever problems the
present has. or the future may present., 80
far as political action can affect them,
will be dealt with by the American people
within the law. And in the future as in
the past the people will find security for
their liberty and their property, encour.
agement aid
PROTECTION FOR THEIR INDUSTRIES,
peace and prosperity in following the party
Of the American masses, which will ever
shield them sgainst the aggressions OF
power aod monopoly on the one side, and
on the other the surgings of chaos.
while at present most all the rest OF
the civilized world is darkened by armies.
crushed by kings, or night-mared by con-
spiracies, we alone enjoy heslthful
peace, a rational liberty, progressive
prosperity. We owe il to our political in
stitutions, TO Democratic teachings, at
least as much as to the exuberant soil.
The man is not good American who
knowing what we are, by act or word. ex-
al -. mil n .
tempt TO weaken the foundation OF this
splendid political structure the Republic
of the United States. We meet to-day
under conditions new to the Democrats in
this generation. How often we stood in
conventions in the past, when to others il
seemed as if the shadows Of death closed
about us, when the day Of victory assmed
almost as far away "a the date Of general
Judgment. 1t could not then be said that
we met for personal advancement; We met
to keep the fires Of Democratic liberty
alive to the dawn of better day. II We
were a party of misfortune 1t must slso be
sgreed that we are party Of
UNDApNTED COURAGE AND INFLEXIBLF
PRINCIPLES.
Twenty eight years ago the Democratic
party, rent into fragments, heated by feud,
that only time could allay or punishment
destroy, met as it looks now, merely tt
settle in angry mood the terms or
which they should become exrles from
power. By their mad dissensions they
elected to go to defeat rather than wait fol
the SOLDERING influence Of time to close the
/ - IT, ha nf hot 1ax
the act seemed suicide-mitigsted by in
sanity. Their madness transferred to {
minority if the American people the polit
ical government of oil. That party, what
ever the honesty and respectability of i'll
members, however patriotic its motives
was not broad or national at its base. i
had at most but one central idea, and wheI
that idea was set in the constitution and
crystslized into law it ran career of rio
that appalled, all men. The history o
that period Of political debauchery is To-
sad and familiar to Americans to be recitet
anew. The Republican party, sometime
fairly and sometimes by fraud, succeeded
in holding power twenty-four years, til
at last the American people, no louge
condoning its faults or forgiviDg its sins
hurled it from power and again commit
ted TO the historic party Of the coDstitu
tion and the whole union the sdministra
I tion Of our political affairs. We won b,
the
wELL-EARNED CONFIDENCE OF THE CoUN
TRY
in the rectitude Of our purpose, by the al,
of chivalr0us and conscientious men VIII
could no longer brook the corruptions 0
the Republican party.
ut was great, deserved, necessary vic
tory. The day on which Grover Cleveland
the plain, straightfor ward, typical Amer
lean citiz.n, chosen at the election, tool
the oath of Office in the presence Of the mul
titude, was day so lovely and so peIfec
ths. all nature seemed exuberantly to sanc
tion and TO celebrate the victory ths
marked the close of an old era and the be
ginning OF q new one. 1t closed the era O
usurpation of poTer by the Federal an
thority, Of illegal force, Of general cen
tempt for constitutional limitations ant
plain law, of glsring scandals, profiigst
waste and unspeskable corruption, Of mai
row sectionalism, of the reign Of a part
whose good work had lcng been done.
began the era Of perfect peace and psrfec
union-the States fused in all their sov
ereignty into Federal Republic, wit
limited but ample powers of publi
service conducted with absolute integrit
and strict economy Of reforms pushed :
their extreme limit Of comprehensive an
safe financial policy, giving security an
confidence to all enterprise and endeavo
"a Democratic administration faithful
its mighty trust, loyal TO its pledges, tru
to the Constitution, safe guarding the II
terests and Liberties of the people.
"And now we stand on the edge Of or
other and perhaps
A GREATER CONTEST,
with relation to the electors that we hav
not held for a generation-that of respor
sibility for the great trust Of government
We are no longer auditors, but account
ants. No longer criticize, but the crit
cizsd. The responsibility is ours, and
we have not taken all the power necessar
TO make that responsibility good, the fau
is ours, not that of the people. We ar
confronted by q willy, unscrupulous an
desperate foe. There will be no speek o
the record that they will not magnify in.
blot, no circumstance that they will Nd
torture and misrepreeent, no disappoin
ment that they will not eIaggerate into
revolt, no class or creed that they will N
seek TO inflame, no passion that they wi
not attempt TO rouse, no fraud that the
will not willingly perpe.rate. They fame.
indeed, that there is mo imposture te
monstrous for the popular credulity,n 4
crime that viii not be eoaGoDed.
s.But we stand at guard, full-armed {
every point to meet them Oar appeal
not to passion or to prejudice, to class
faction, to race or creed, but to the souu
common sense. the interest, tie intelligen.