Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-06-07
ment of all the people, by all the people and

- As MAINE, HURS
ment of all the people, by all the people ant
for all the people.
| This has been the asylum for all goot
men from over the earth who flee from wan
and oppression and mean to become Ameri
cans. But we invite and welcome only
friends to this ground and iegemen" to ths
Republic. Our institutions cannot change 4
meet hostile wishes, nor be 80 much as sen
sibly modified save by the peaceful and de-
liberate action of the mass of our people in
accordance with the constitution and laws OF
the land.
Whatever problems the present has, or the
future may present, so 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 se
curity for their liberty and property, en-
coursgement and protection for their in.
dustries, peace and prosperity in following
the party of the American masses, which
will ever shield them against the aggressions
of power and monopoly on the one side and
on the other the surgings of chaos.
| While almost all the rest of the civilized
world is darkened by armies, crushed BY
kings or nightmared by conspiracies, We
alone enjoy healthy peace, rational liber.
ty, progressive prosperity. We owe it to
our political institutions, to democratic teach.
ings, At least as much a. to the exuberant
soil.
The man 10 not . good American Who.
knowing what We are, by act or word, ex-
pertinent or thought, in any way, will at
tempt to weaken the fouudatiNn Of this spleD.
| did pIAlifieal Rar,hlfo ,f fho
United States.
We meet today under conditions new to
the Democrats of this generation. How
often we stood in conventions 0f the past.
when to others it seemed ss if the shadow
of death closed about US, when the day If
victory seemed almost as far away as the
day of general judgment. II could not then
be said that we met for spoils or personal sd-
vancement. We met to keep the fires of
Democratic liberty alive till the dawn of a
better day. If we were party Of misfor-
tune, il must also be agreed that we were a
party of undaunted courage and infexibie
principle.
Twenty-eight years ago the Democratic
party, rent into fragments, heated by feuds
that omly time could allay or punishment de-
strOy, met, as it looks now, merely to settle
iii angry mood the terms upon which they
should become exlles from power.
BY their mad dissentions they elected to 60
to defeat rather than wait for the SOLDERING
influence of time to close the breach. To
the younger men of that day the act seemei
suicide-mitigated by insanity.
Their madness transferred TO minority of
the American people the political govern
ment of ALL That party, whatever the hon
e.ty and responsibility of its members, how
ever patriotic its motives, was not broad or
national in its use. 1t had at most but one
central idea, and when that idea set in
the constitution and crystalized into iaw, it
ran career of riot that appalled, all men.
The history of that period of political de-
bauchery is too sad and familiar TO Ameri-
cans to be recited anew.
The republican party, sometimes peaceful
ly and sometimes by force, sometimes fairly
and sometimes by fraud, succeeded hold
ing power 2t years; till at last the American
people. no longer condoning its faults or
l.rg, ing its sins, hurried it from power and
again committed to the historic party of the
constitution and the whole Union the admin
istrstion 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
HcD, WIZ COuli hO iOuSti DloOh thS WI Ny
tions of the republican party. ltwas great,
deserved, necessary victory.
The day on which Grover Cleveland-the
plain, straightforward typical American citi-
zen chosen at that election-took the oath of
sfiice in the presence of the multitude
day so lovely and so perfect that all nature
seemed exuberantly TO sanction and to ceie-
brate the victory day marked the close
Of an old era and the beginning OF new one.
1t closed the era of usurpatiOn of power by
the federal authority, of illegal force of gen.
eral contempt for constitutional limitations
and plain law, of glarlng scandals, pronigate
waste and unspeakable corruptions, of mar
row sectionalism and class strife of the reign
of party whose good work had long been
done.
1t began the era of perfect peace and per-
feet union-The State fused in all their
sovereignty into federal republic with
limited but ample powers; of a public ser
vice conducted with absolute integrity and
strict economy Of reforms pushed to their
extreme limit; of comprehensive, sound and
safe financial policy, giving security and con-
fidence to all enterprise and endeavor-a
Democratic administration, faithful to its
mighty trust, loya to its pledges, true to the
Constitution, safeguarding the interests
and liberties of the people.
And now we stand on the edge of another
and perhaps greater contest; with rela-
ton to the electors that we have not held for
generation-that of responsibility for the
gr. at trust of government. We are now
accountants; no longer critics, but
the criticised. The responsibility is ours, and
if we have not taken all the necessary steps TO
make that responsibility good, the fault 10
ours, not that of the people.
We are confronted by q willy, unscrupu-
lous and desperate foe. There will be NO
speck OH the record that they will not magni-
fy into blot, no circumstance that they will
not torture and misrepresent, no disappoint-
ment that they will not exaggerate into
revolt. no class or creed that they will not
seek to inhame. no passion that they will
not willingly perpetrxte. They fancy, in
deed, that there is mo imposture too mon
strous for the popular credulity," no crime
that will not be cOndOned.
But We stand al guard, full-armed at every
point to meet them. Our appeal ia not to
passion or TO prejudice, to class or faction,
to race or creed, but to the sound common
sence, the interest, the intelligence and
patriotism of the American people.
The administration of Preside at Cleveland
has triumphantly justified his election. 1t
compels the respect, con fdence and approval
of the cuuntry. The prophets of evil and
disaster are dumb.
What the people see is the government of
the Union restored to its ancient footing of
justice. peace, honesty and impartial en-
furcement of law. They see the demands
of labor and agriculture met, 80 far as
government can meet them, by Legislative
enactments tor their encouragement and pro
lection. They see lie veterans of the civli
war granted pensions long due them, to the
amount of more than twice in number and
nearly three times in value of those grant,d
under any previous administration. Thy
see more than % 900 ,00U acres of land, reck-
lessly and illegally held by the grantees of
the corrupt Republican regime, restored TO
the public domain for the benefit of honest
settlers. They zee the negro, whose fears
of democratic rule we're played upon by
demagogues four years ago, not only more
fully protected than by his pretended friends,
but honored as his race was never honored
before. They see q financial policy, under
" hicn reckless speculation has prscucall,
ceased, and capital freed from distrust.
They see for the first time an honest observ-
a,c., ,,f tb. law vnyaruiny the civil estab-