The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-06-07

anu OH lIlt OtItI iuC vi tH1O's
While almost all the rest of the civilized
world is darkened by armies, crushed by
kings, or night-mared by conspiracies, we
alone enjoy
HEALTHY PEACE,
a national liberty, progressive prosper
ity. We owe it to our political institu'
tions, to Democratic teachings, at least
as much as to the exubersnt soil.
The man is not good Ameri-
can who, knowing what we are
by act or word, experiment or
thought in ahy way, will attempt TO
weaken the foundation of this spendid
political structure-the Republic OF the
United States. We meet to day under
new to the Democrats Of this
generation. How often We stood in con-
ventions in the past when to others II
seemed AS II the shadows Of death closed
about us, when the day of victory
seemed almost as far away as the
day of general judgment. 1t could
not then be said that we met
for spoils or personal advancement
We met to keep the fires of Democratic
liberty alive till the dawn Of better day
If we were party of misfortune, it must
also be agreed that we were party OF
undaunted courage and infieyible princi
pie. Twenty eight years ago the Demo
cratic party, rent into fragments, heated
by feuds that only time could allay or
punishment destroy, met, as ii looks now,
merely to settle in angry mood the terms
upon which they should become eXiles
from power. BY their mad dissensions
they elected TO 90 to defeat rather than
wait for the SOLDERING influence of time
to close the breach. To the younger
men of that day the act seemed suicide,
miligated by insanity. Their madness
transferred 10 Il minority of the Ameri-
can people the political government OF
all That party, whatever the honesty
and responsibility OF its members, how
ever patriotic its motives, was not broad
or national at its base. 1t had but one
central idea, and when that idea was set
in the Constitution and crystalized into
law il ran
CAREER OF RIOT
that appalled, all men. The history of
that period of political debauchery is too
sad and familiar to Americans TO be re-
cited anew.
The Republican party, sometimes peace
fully and sometimes by force, sometimes
fairly and sometimes by fraud, succeeded
in holding power twenty four years
till at last the American people, no longer
condOning its faults or fOrgiving its sins,
hurled it from power and again commit
ted to the historic party Of the Constitu-
ton and the whole Union the administra-
tion of our political affairs We won by
the well-earned confidence of the country
in the rectitude of our purpose, by the
aid of chivalrous and conscientious men,
who could no longer brook the corruption
OF the Republican party. 1t was great
deserved, necessary victory.
The day on which Grover Cleveland,
the plain, straight-forward,typical Ameri-
can citizen, chosen al that election, took
the oath of Office in presence Of the mul.
titude-a day so lovely and so perfect
that all nature seemed eXuberantly to
sanction and celebrate the victory-that
day marked
THE CLOSE or An OLD ERA
and the beginning of a new one. ii
closed the era of usurpatiOn of power by
the Federal authority, of illegal force, OF
general contempt for constitutional limi
tations and plain law, of giaring scandals
profligate waste, and unspeakable cor
ruptions; of narrow seclionalism and
class strife, Of the reign of party whose
good work had long been done. 1t be
gan the era OF
PERFECT PEACE AND PERFECT UNION
the States fused all their sovereignty
into a Federal Republic with limited but
ample powers of public service con
Quoted with absolute integrity and strict
economy; of reforms pushed TO their
extreme limit of comprehensive, sound,
and safe financial policy, giving security
and confidence to all enterprise and en-
deavor-a Democratic administration
faithful to its mighty trust. loyal to its
pledges, alive to the Constitution, safe
guarding the interests and liberties OF
the people.
And now we stand on the edge of
ANOTHER AND PERHAPS A GREATER CON
with a relation to the electors that We
have not held for n generation, that OF
responsibility for the great trust Of Gov
ernment. We are no longer auditors
but accountants no longer critics, but
the criticised. The responsibility good
the fault is ours, not that of the people.
We are confronted by a willy, unscru-
pulous, and desperate foe. There will be
no speck on the record that they will moi
magnify into blot; no circumstance
that they will not torture and misrepre.
sent; no disappointment that they
will not exaggerate into revolt
no class or creed that they will not seek
to inflame; no passion that they will not
attempt to arouse; no fraud that they
will not willingly perpetrate. They fancy
indeed that there is mo imposture too
monstrous for the popular credulitv,
no crime that will not be condoned. Bu'
we stand at guard, full-armed at every
point to meet them. Our appeal is no
to passion or to prejudice, to class 0I
faction, To race or creed, bat To the sounC
common sense, the interest OF the intelli
gence and patriotism Of the American
people.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF president
CLEVELAND
has triumphantly justified his election
4, al h. M