The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-11-03

In return for these recent laws breaking
down all barriers between the treasury and
any person who asks for a pension the pen
sion agents are expected to bring to the
support of the Republican party vas,
army OF voters who can be relied upon tC
support the new system Of government by
bounties to favored interests because they
themselves were sharers in it. and under
the influence OF such an alliance economy
III expenditure becomes byword of re
proach and appeal to patriotism a mockery
And again, as l wish to avoid any charge
Of exaggeration, l Will read TO you the
grave words of another eminent American
divine, who says, Every skulking ca,nr
follower and deserter, every fraudu lent
and tainted claimant, who has the effront-
! ~ to demand his bride, can have it if only
his vote shall thus become com modify
within the control of partisan dictation.'
| What infinite dishOnor such names bring
to pension roll dedicated to our heroes,
who in answer to the bugle's call went
cheerlly forward as to a festival to meet
wounds and death in the fiery tempest OF
battle, ana to our grateful memories
| They come transfigured back,
Secure from charge, in their high hearted ways,
! beautiful evermore, and with the rays
OF morn On their white shields Of expectation.
And it is certainly only in an era of the
gravest political debauchery that any party
could be guilty of such recklessness and
lndefenslble legislation as that of the Re
publican party upon the subject Of silver
In the year of grace 1890 almost every in
telligent person who bad given any atten-
ton to the subject knew perfectly well
that the rapid fall in the price of silver, in
consequence of the vast quantities of it
which were being mined and the low cost
OF mining it, rendered it as impossible for
use as standard Of value or tool of ex-
| change among civilized and commercial
nations as lead or iron
Indeed competent judges then foretold
that the fall in its value would be much
more than that of lead Or iron and such is
the case. 1t is now shown that in the
I present year vast quantities OF it have
been mined at net cost of thirty cents
per ounce and sold to the government at
seventy cents an ounce, SO that it is en-
tirely probable that our silver dollar is not
now fairly worth more than fifty cents.
We have hundreds of millions of them
coined and stored away from the sight of
men in costly dark vaults, and we have
thousands of tons of uncoined silver stored
IN the same manner, and we go On accu-
mulating, month by month, at the behest
OF the Republican party, these great
less and less valuable and less possible
Of ever being used for the purpose
for which it was bought; and as a
fit and GROWING contamination of this
folly, President Harrison has just sent to
Europe, to try to persuade Europe to help
Us in our trouble, five gentlemen, of
whom two profess to believe that if you
tall silver worth a dollar an ounce it I'll
once becomes SO; two other gentlemen
who say that we ought to continue pilin.
up silver at the rate we are now doing iii
the hope that Europe will some day re
lieve us of it, and a fifth gentleman whu
believes that you can fix permanent rati
between two metals, one of which main
tains its value and the other of whic..
changes it almost daily.
Meanwhile, by a law known in Athens ii.
the days of Aristophanes, and of cOur>,-
| known ever since, the legislation of TIE
Republican party is as inevitably drivil.;:
gold out OF the country as the tide Gibbs AK,
flows, and it is a question only of a lit,A
time until we will be reduced to siv.
currency worth last year seventy cent.
worth this year sixty cents, and worth ne;t
year fifty cents on the dollar
Such then are the results of the electiC!:
IF President Harrison in 1888; the oppr,:
sion of the poor by the Mckinley bill: IL
ontemptuous defiance of the law by I;
| rich in their trusts; the waste Of the public
| moneys and the degradation of the patriotic
| spirit of the country by the abuses of the
pension system and the building Of costly
vaults IN which to store vast masses of ut
| terry useless silver, whose value depreciates
| from the moment the taxpayers pay for it,
| the purchase of this year only being now
| worth 100000 less than the price paid for
it. Instead of these appalling results. what
ought President Harrison and the Repub-
| liCiil parry 10 nave zone IOr the country IN
the last four years?
They ought to have turned their faces in
the other direction upon the question Of
the tariff so as to lessen, rather than
widen, the too wide gulf already existing
between the rich and the poor; they ought
! toincrease the demand for labor and lessen
the cost of the necessaries of life, while
enabling America to compete on. equal
terms for the trade of the world in the
markets of the world. They ought to have
enforced the law against the illegal trusts
which add an Illegal price to almost every
thing the poor consume.
they ought to have kept the pension roll
roll of honor, graced only with the names
of those who have proven their right to
have their names inscribed upon it. They
ought to have had the courage to declare
that they well knew that metal of I'M
certain and fuctuating value like silver
can never be the basis of an honest cur
rency, and, if bought at all, can only be
bought by sheer waste of the money of the
people.
But, ladies and gentlemen, history al
ways tells the same old, old story. Such
results as have been secured by President
Harrison and the Republican party in the
last four years can only be secured at the
expense of the moral degradation of the
people who are their victims.
| dislike the Mckinley bill and all the
abuses to which l have alluded, but to my
mind they are as the dust in the balance
compared to the farreaching moral issues
which underlie them and for which, for
veal or woe, the result of this canvass is
OF such tremendous Importance. Upon a
subject so grave do not let US, beg of you,
commit any mistake we can avoid or cher
lsh any misunderstanding. | myself am
member to some extent at least of the
class which l am about to arraign, the
class OF those who have more property
10 To 4 h.
amount was divided by the total popula-
ton, and while | have profound and ar
dent sympathy with the class to which
do not belong, l certainly have no reason
Tor cherlshlng anything but respect and
regard for members of the class to which |
do belong Standing here tonight | can
honest y say have not a single particle of
ill feeling toward any living creature.
lwould be very ungrateful and unrea-
sonable person if l had, but, ladies and gen
tlemen, the solemn truth of God remains
his truth-many men Of the class to which
you and may belong are today probably
lnnocently, mistakenly, without bad mo-
tlves, but none the less absolutely poison
ing the very wells from which the people
OF America must draw their public life
During the last twenty years by very
slow approaches large numbers of wealthy
men III this country have persuaded them
selves that they are at liberty to pervert
government from its noble and lofty func-
ton OF securing the greatest good of the
greatest number into the base and degrad-
ed function of taxing the majority in order
to band over those taxes as bounties to
such persons as in return for those favors
will contribute large sums of money to
carry elections. When the doctrine is
stated in that naked form even the gentle
men who by their wealth, energy and pub
lie spirit give distinction to the ManI1fac-
turers' club would shrink from accepting
It, But am firmly resolved that there
them and me upon the facts of this matter
distinctly allege that they are now
making themselves parties to systematic
corruption OF the ballot in the hands of the
or contributes money for such a purpose is
morally guilty of treason to the institu-
tlohs cur fathers founded and upon whose
continuance in their strength and nuritv
the welfare OF our children depends. And
IN, proving this assertion would scorn to
rely upon the statement of any political
adversary, however honorable or trnst-
worthy propose to convict them of the