Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-07-27
ADDRESSES OF ACCEPTANCE OF CLEVE'
LAND AND STEVENSON.

immense building in New York city, on
last Wednesday night, in the presence
of 20 thousand people, Grover Cleve-
land and Adlai E. Stevenson were
and officially notified, by the
appointed for that purpose,
of their nominations by the National
Democratic Convention as candidates
of the Demo cratic party for President
and Vice President respectively.
They were furnished by the commit
tee with their formal letters Of notifica-
ton.
The address of notification to Grover
Cleveland was delivered by Hon. VIM.
L. Wilson, of w. Va, the Chairman of
the Committee, and that to Adlai E.
Stevenson by Hon. Stephen Nj. White,
of California.
We give below the addresses OF
Cleveland and Stevenson as all wish to
know what these candidates had to
say on that important occasion.
GROVER ULEvELAND's SPEECH OF
ACCEfIANCE.
Mr.. Cleveland made the following
response to the committee and to the
address = ,.
M. Chcsi man and Gentlemen: The
message you deliver from the national
democracy arouses within me emotions
which would be well-nigh overwhelm-
ing if l did not recognize here as
sembled the representatives OF great
party, who must share with me the re-
sponsibility your mission invites. l
find much relief in the reflection that
have been selected merely to stand
for the principles and purposes to
which my party is pledged and for the
enforcement and supremacy OF which
all who have any right to claim demo-
cratic fellowship must constantly and
persistently labor.
Our party responsibility is indeed
great. We assume a mOmentous obll-
cation to our cOuntrymen when, in re-
turn for their trust and confidence, we
promise them rectitication of their
wrongs and better realization of the
advantages which are due to them
under our free and beneficent institu-
tions.
But if our responsibility is great, our
party is strong. 1t is strong in its
sympathy with the needs ct the people,
| in it's insistence upon the exercise of
governmental powers strictly within
the constitutional permission the peo-
pie have granted, and in its willingness
to risk it's life and hope upon the peo-
pies intelligence and patriotism.
| Never has great party intent upon
the promotion of right and justice had
better incentive for effort than is now
presented to us.
Turning our eyes to the plain people
| of the land, we see them burdened az
consumers with tariff system that un
| Justly and relentlessly demands from
them in the purchase of the necessarles
and comforts of life, an amount scarce
ly met by the wages of hard and steady
toll, while the exactions thus wrune
from them build up and increase tht
fortunes of those for whose benefit this
injustice is perpetrated.
We see the farmer listening to delu
sive story that fills his mind with Wis
ions of advantage, while his pocket il
robbed by the stealthy hand of higf
; protection.
4 Our workipgmen are still told thu
tale, oft repeated in spite of its de
monstrated falsity, that the existing
protective tariff is a boon to them, ant
that under it's beneficent operation
their wages must increase, while a
they listen scenes are enacted in thu
very abiding place of high protection
that mock the hopes of toll and attes
the tender mercy the wOrkingman re
ceiyes from those made selfish ant
, sordid by unjust governmental favor
itism.
We oppose earnestly and stubborn.
the theory upon which our opponent
seek to Justify and uphold existing
tariff laws. We need not base our at
tack upon questions OF constitutions
permission or legislative power. W.
denounce this theory upon the highes
possible grounds when we contend tina
in present conditions its operation il
unjust, and that laws enacted i'll &C
cordance with it are inequitable anC
unfair.
Ours is not destructive party. We
are not at enmity with the rights Of
any of our citizens. All are our coun
trymen. We are not recklessly heed
less of any American interests, nor will
we abandon our regard for them, but
| invoking the love for fairness and
justice which belongs to true Ameri
canism, and upon which our constitu
ton rests, we insist that no plan OF
| tariff legislation shall be tolerated
which has for it's object and purpose a
| forced contribution from the earnings
and income of the mass of our citizens
| to swell directly the accumulations OF
a favored few nor will we permit a
pretended solicitude for American
labor or any other specious pretext OF
benevolent care for others to blind the
eyes of the people to the selfish schemes
of those who seek through the aid OF
unequal tariff laws to gain unearned
and unreasonable advantages at the
expense of their fellows.
| We have also assumed in our COW
enant with those whose support We in
vite the duty of opposing to the death
saries, which, under the guise of pro
tecting the suffrage covers, but does
not conceal, design thereby to per-
petuate the power of a party afraid to
trust it's continuance to the untram-
meled and intelligent votes of the
American people. We are pledged to
resist the legislation intended to COM
plete this scheme because we have not
forgotten the saturnalia of theft and
brutal control which followed another
| federal regulation of State suffrage
because we know that the managers of
a party which did not scruple to rob
the people of President would not
hesitate to use the machinery created
by such legislation to revive corrupt
instrumentalities for partisan purposes;
because an attempt to enforce such
legislation would rekindle animosities
where peace and hopefulness now pre-
| vail because such an attempt would
replace prosperous activity with dis
couragement and dread throughout a
large section of our country, and would
menace everywhere in the land the
rights reserved to the States and to the
people which underlie the safeguards
of American liberty.
shall not attempt to specify at this
time other objects and aims of demo-
| cratic endeavor which add inspiration
to our mission True to its history and
its creed, our party will respond to the
wants of the people within safe lines
and guided by enlightened statesman
ship. To the troubled and impatient
II L 4