The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1891-08-27
REPUBLICAN PROMISE BREAKERS

REPUBLICAN PROMISE BREAKERS.
Major Mckinley says the Union vet
Grams never thought Of rewards when
they enlisted, and have been and are
content to wait while the bankers and
bondholders gobble up the lions share
Of National prosperity. True, the I'm
ion soldiers were patriotic and mag
unanimous, but in 1861 to 1866, from
every platform in the land, spoutinR
orators promised to these men the I'M
asked rewards of personal valor in the
Nations need. No amount of sophis-
try from the mouth Of Major Mckinley
and his recreant associates can make
these men believe they have been dealt
with Justly and honestly. Note what
Paul Van Dervoost, Past Commander in
Chief Grand Army of the Republic, has
to say on this subject, in an open letter
to his soldier comrades In Nebraska, on
formally renouncing the Republican
party. Evidently he does not think that
Major Mckinley, ex.chairman OF the
ways and means committee, who de-
feated the service pension bill, is a
proper person to speak for the veter-
ans of the Union. Neither do the vet
Grams of the great soldier state of
Nebraska who are renouncing
the Republican party by the
thousands. Van Dervoost says he is
"going to join a party where pious
frauds like John Wanamaker cannot
buy cabinet Office with the largest
contribution to the campaign fund"
and adds:
Have always heen in the ranks a
marching, fighting veteran. l have
been known and trusted by all the
grand leaders of the party, including
the peerless statesman, honest man and
matchless orator, Roscoe Conkling,. and
the Bayard and Murat of American
politics, and the real plummed knight,
John A. Logan, and last by my loved
uncle, the greatest judge OF the age,
Justice Miller, and have seen them all
die and cross the river and JOIN the New
Jerusalem of patriots and heroes on the
golden streets in the diamond decked
celestial city. can live no more on
tradition, and golden memories are
dust. / said in 1888 that If the Repub-
lican party did not redeem its promi-
ses to the soldiers and pass a law that
would insure every man free white
winged ballot, that 1t was the last cam.
paign l would ever make for its candi-
dates. / declared that in six different
states, in all the great cities and stand
by that declaration. / had
all the pledges, even from
the party standard bearers,
and went out and told my comrades
that the era Of glory was daWning; that
the president was carrying the flag who
would not weigh the promises in an
apothecary's scale, yet ( saw Corporal
Tanner, who spent two months in In
diana and saved the state, stricken down
by the hand of the maGnate of Wall
street, simply for doing what we all
pledged. saw the Golden club,
through the journals purchased with
alien GOLD, cruelty man whose legs are
buried or the field Of Bull Run, and
drive out hero without a crust, and
leave my comrades in the WindoWIess
huts of the poor, behind the bars of
and widows with gray hair
and starving children crying for bread.
[ saw party born amid peril In the
nations hour of agony, and baptized
With the red blood of heroes who per- |
shed for liberty, go back on the golden |
words of Abraham Lincoln, who said |
we will care for him who bore the |
burden of battle, his widow and orphan"
am going to leave party which SIM
)ly in this state represents streak of |
ust, exuding from the iron bands of s.
100 miles of railway, and has for its I
the rotten, ravenous,
obbing, Matchmaking band of
,ormorants and vultures OF
he penitentiary ring.
y / appeal to my comrades for |
whom have labored all my life, who |
lave won all the victories of the Re- |
publican party, who stood by them with
IS loyal devotion as in the day, when,
With iron hands and nerves of steel,
hey held the shining musket and the |
lashing saber in the red front OF battle |
IN all fields of carnage; who have for
,iven broken promises and seen re-
wards given to those who battled in the
ines Of the gray, to come out and join |
lands with the rising glory of the new |
party, and tramp to the music OF the |
lnion in unbroken ranks, as with stead
'ast step they march together in last |
,ffort in the scar and yellow leaf of life,
20 show the promise breakers that the |
men who wore the union blue still live |
md have the same firm determination
hat gave them power to save the ma
ion and purify the flag. 1