Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-07-06
CHAIRMAN COLLINS SPEECH.
A Comprehensive View of the History of
the Great Parties-The Principles Penned
by jefferson and Upheld by His Follow
ers of To-Day-An Able Grafton by IN
Able Man.

the Great Parties-The Principles Penned
/ by jefferson and Upheld by His Follow
/ ers of To-Day-An Able Grafton by an
| Able Man.
/ ST. LOUIS, June Upon taking the chair
as permanent chairman Of the National
! Democratic convention yesterday, Hon
Patrick A Collins was greeted with an en-
thusiastic burst of applause. When order
had been measurably restored, Mr.. Collins
began his remarks, which are reported in
full as follows:
To stand in your favor in this place. so often
filed by the foremost men in our great party,
is a distinction OF the highest character and an
honor for which 1 am profoundly grateful. In
performing the delicate and difficult service to
which you have assigned me 1 can scarcely
hope to justify the wisdom of your choice.
shall at all times need continuance of your
indulgence and courtesy, as well as your full
cooperation TO promote order, decorum and
goodwill until the proceedings are brought TO
happy close.
We represent in this convention more than
thirty millions Of the American people; we bear
the commission to act for them. and their in
junction to act with all the wisdom that God
has given US to protect and safeguard the in
situations Of the republic as the fathers found
ed them.
In time when the world was King-rlddeu
and pauperized by the privileged few. when
men scarcely dared to breathe the word lib
erty'-eyen if they understood its meaning
the people scattered along our Eastern coast
with a sublime heroism never eQualed, broke
from all traditions, rejected all known sys-
TENS, and established, to the amazement Of the
world, the political wonder OF the ages, the
American Republic, the child of revolution
nursed by philosophy.
The hand that framed the immortal Declara-
ton OF Independence is the hand that guided
the emancipated country to progress and glory.
1t IS the hand that guides US still in
Onward march free and progressive peo-
pie. The principles upon which our Govern
ment can securely rest, upon which the peace,
prosperity and liberties of the people depend,
are the principles of the founder of our party
the apostle Of Democracy, Thomas jefferson.
Our young men under thirty have heard more
in their time of the clash of arms and the
echoes of war than of the principles OF govern
ment. 1t has been period of passion, force,
impulse and emotional politics. So that we
need not wondor that now and then we hear
the question asked and scarcely answered:
what difference is there between the two
partiest"
Every Democrat knows the difference. The
Democratic creed was not penned by Jefferson
for section or class of people, but for all the
time These principles conserved and expended
the Republic in all its better days. A strict ad-
herence to them will preserve it to the end, so
the Democracy of to-day, as in the past, believe
with Jefferson in
!. Equal and act justice to all men OF what
ever state or persuasion, religious or political
2. Peace, commerce and honest friendship
with all nations, entangling alliances with
none.
g. Support of the State Governments in all
their rights the most competent ministra-
tors OF our domestic concerns, and the surest
bulwarks against anti-Republican tendencies
4. The preservation of the general Govern
ment in its whole constitutional yigor as the
sheet-anchor OF our peace and safety abroad
s. a jealous care of the right of election by
the people, mild and safe corrective of abuses
which are topped of by the sword OF revoIu.
ton where peaceable means are unprovided.
t. Absolute acquiescence in the decisions OF
!. the majority the vital principle of republics
from which is no appeal put to force the vital
principle and immediate parent of despotism
= A well-disciplined militia, our best reI-
ance in peace and for the first moments in war;
s. The supremacy of the civil order to the
military authority.
g. Economy in the public expenses that labor
may be lightly burdened.
10. The honest payment of our debts and the
preservation of our public faith. sss.s
II. Encouragement of agriculture and Of com
merce as its handmade
Il. The diffusion of information and arraign-
mcnt OF all abuses at the bar of public reason.
l3. Freedom of religion.
II. Freedom of the press.
10. Freedom of the person under the protec-
ton of the habeas corpus.
1t. Trial by juries impartially selected
Add to these the golden economic rule that
no more taxes should be levied upon the people
in any way than are necessary to meet the
honest expenses of Government, and you have
a body OF principles to sin against which has
been political death to every party hitherto; to
sin against which in the future will be political
suicide.
these il
" fought successfully our foreign wars, pro-
tected our citizens in every cline, compelled
the respect of all nations for our flag added
imperial domain to our territory, and insured
peace, prosperity and happiness to all our peo-
pie. False to these principles, the great Fed
eral, Wing and Know-Nothing parties went
down, never to RISE and are here to-day as
representatives OF the party that has survived
all others, the united, triumphant, inVncibe
Democracy, prepared to strike down forever
the last surviving foe in November
Our standard must be the rallying point now
and in the future for all good citizens who love
and cherish Republican institutions, who
love liberty regulated by the constitution
and law, who believe in Governments
not for class or for a few, but Govern
ment of all the people, by all the people and for
all the people. This has been the asylum
for all good men from over the earth who
flee from want and oppression and mean to be-
come Americans but we invite and welcome
only friends to this ground and hcgemen to the
Republic. Our institutions not change to
meet hostile Wishes nor be SO much sensi-
bly, modified, save by the peaceful and deliber-
ate action of the mass of our people, in accord
ance with the constitution and the laws of the
land. Whatever problems the present has,
the future may present, SO far political ac-
ton 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 secur-
ity for their liberty and property, encourage
ment and protection for their indus tries, peace
and prosperity il following the party OF the
American masses which will ever shield them
against the aggressions Of power and monop-
oily on the one side, and q the other the surg
ingS of chaos.
While almost all the rest of the civilized
world is darkened by armies, crushed by kings,
I or nightmared by conSpracies, we alone enjoy
healthy peace, a rational liberty, progress
( i've prosperity. We owe it to our political in
stltuuonS to Democratic teachings, at least as
much as to the eXuberant soil. The man is not
a good American who, knowing what we are,
by act or word, experiment or thought, in any
way will attempt 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 OF this generation. How often we
stood in conventions in the past, when to 9th.
ers it seemed as if the shadows of death closed
about us, when the day of victory seemed al
most as far away as the day OF general judg-
ment. 1t could not then be said that we met
for spoils or personal advantage We met tie
keep the fires of Democracy alive till the dawn
OF better day. If we were party of
misfortune it must also be agreed that We
were q party OF undauuted courage and in
flexible principles. Twenty-eight years ago the
Democratic party, rent into fragment, headed
by feuds that only time could allay or punish
ment destroy, met, as it looks now, merely to
settle in angry mood the terms upon which
they should become eNiles from power. BY
/ their mad discussions they elected to go to de.
/ feat rather than wait for the SOLDERING influence
I Of time to close the breach. To the younger
I men OF that day the act seemed suicide-miti-
gated by insanity Their madness transferred
10 q minority of the American people the po-
/ litical government OF all. That party what
I ever the honesty and responsibility OF its men,
esrs, however patriotic its motives, was not
broad or National at its base. II has g. most
but one central idea, and when mat idea was
set in the constitution and crystaiiZed into law
it ran career of riot that appalled, all men.
The history OF that period OF political debauch-
cry is too sad and familiar to Americans to be
recited anew.
The Republican party, sometimes peaccably
and sometimes by force, sometimes fairly and
sometimes by fraud, succeeded in holding pow
er twcnty-four years, TIL at last the American
people, no longer cendoning its faults or for
give its sins, hurled it from power and again
committed to the historic party OF the consti-