Daily Texarkana Democrat., 1893-09-04
ANOTHER VOICE RAISED.
Senator Zeb Vance Rings the Changes
on Gold Supremacy.


Few arguments IN either branch of
Congress in favor of the white metal
have sounded to a greater depth the
true inwardness of the monetary
problem, now confronting the law
making power of the nation, than that
of Hon. Zeb Vance, the distinguished
Senator from North Carolina, The
speech is conceded on all hands TO
have been a strong and mastery eff
fort in behalf of silver, opposing in
unmeasured terms all efforts at un-
conditional repeal. In the course of
his long and thoroughly exhaustive
argument Mr.. Vance said: Ii was
said that there was no abandonment
Of the Chicago platform in the uucou-
ditioual repeal of the Sherman law
but only postponement He Won
dered if any of our political literature
rich as it is in ingenuity and device,
full as it is Of eloquce and true genius,
overburdened as it is with every con-
ceivable and inconceivable form of
wildcatism and humbuggery, which a
hundred years Of free government
wherein men Of all opinions have had
a chance to ventilate them, and could
be found approaching in absurdity
the incorporation in this bill Of a part
of the Chicago platform. Was there
ever a cat trotting trough the tangled
thiekcts of the Alleghanies or roam
in5 over the barren Wilds Of the
Rockies, so wild and mtamable as
this cat? Was there ever any bug
discovered and classified by science
with a hum to equal the hum Of this
bug?
The Democratic party in 1884. 1888
and again in 1892 made certain
pledges to the people that they would
make certain fnahcial reforms if the
people would only put them in power
where they could enact laws Last
year it promised to secure the use Of
both gold and silver as currency and
the parity Of the two, These
promises were contained in one para
graph and in good faith are not sopa-
raDle. They constituted scheme by
which the financial policy Of the coun-
try was to be reformed and honor
and fair dealing required those prom
ises to he carried out together Dem
ocrats were put in power, and Mr.
Cleveland, though known to be per-
sonally hostile to the use Of silver,
was elected because the people be-
heved that he would carry outiu good
faith the promises made for him in
the platform, and to which he acced-
ed in his letter Of acceptance.
In the fulfllment of those promises,
the first thing done was to try to|
yield to the clamor of capitalists and
the regular session Of con-
gress for the sole purpose Of stopping
the coinage of silver and nothing
more. If the party intended to enact
the laws it had promised, it should do
il now. If the party was acting in
good faith it would carry out these
pledges now, and if the friends ofthat
platform let go Of what they had be-
fore they got something else in eX-
change, how could they justify them
selves before their people? If asked
why he could not trust the future for
the enactment Of those laws which
ought to come concurrent with the
repeal of the Sherman act, Mr.. Vance
said, his answer would be more nearly
the truth than thclrs-he had not con-
fidence. Being once deceived, he
could not accept any more promises
as those of honest and responsible
men.