The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1893-09-21
Cleveland And His Pledges.

c party, hive had great deal to say
about the Democratic national plat.
firm 81 1892, add whatIthey are pleased
,o cali President Cleveland's repudia-
ton If t in the matter of silver. 1t
Spit4 the purpose Of the free coinage
faction to insist that the platform
adop.,d 40 Chicago last year unquali
tiedy pledged the Democratic party
to the unImited coinage of silver at
the old IatIo of Is to l. In fact no
~ Ii pledge was contained in the plat.
form on which President Cleveland
WAS placed, and it is only by frag-
mentary and garbled quotation of its
currency plank that the partisans OF
he short weight dollar can bolster up
their charge tf bad faith against the
President. They do not quote the first
,entences of that plank as all, nor do
tley quote its concluding sentences
Indeed they do not quote any complete
sentences from it. They simply seize
upon the first two sentences ofthe sec
ond paragraph of the Chicago resolu-
tion on the currency question and ig-
more all that goes be fore them as well
as all that follows after.
With tire ,ome iteration the House
and Senate have been told by tho
champi MS OF free and unlimited silver
coinage that the Democratic party
says in its national platform: "We
hold to the use OF both gold and silver
as the standard money of the country,
and to the coinage OF both gold and sill
yer without discriminating against
either metal or charge for mintage."
And this citation has Deen made over
and over az ain, as though there was
full stop after the word 'mintage" But
there is not. The platform, no doubt,
might have been drawn that way, but
it was not. There was only comma
placed after the word "mintage," and
the declaration OF Democratic faith and
purpose continued right along after
comma as follows :" But the dollar unit
OF coinage OF both metals must be OF
equal intrinsic and eXchangable value,
or be adjusted through international
agreement or by such safeguards Of
legislation as shall insure the main
tenance of the parity of the two metals
ais and the equal power Of every dol
lar at all times in the markets and in
payment OF debt; and we demand that
all paper currency shall be kept at par
with and redeemable IN such coin"
This is the Democratic doctrine in
full, snd the silver orators are dislngeli-
ions, not to say dishonest, when they
represent two sentences taken from
the middle of the Chicago curren,y
resolution, ignoring the pledge to re-
peal the sherman act, which prec des
those two sentences, and all the q ali'
flying reservations and conditions
which follow them, and are only ovid
ed from them by comma, as If they
committed the President to the unin
itel and unconditional coinage OF sill
yer.
The President is acting squarely up
to the full measure of his own pledges
az well as OF the pledges given by his
party at Chicago. The first declaration
made by the platform on which he
stool, concerning the currency, was
that the Sherman act of 1890 was "a
cowardly IN lkeshift,' and that all ofitS
supporters should be anxious for its
speedy repeal" If there is lack OF good |
faith and fsalty TO the platform on
part it is certainly not the
President who is open to that accusa
ton, but rather those Democrats who
in full view OF that first and most en-
phatic pronouncement on the Sher-
man act in last years platform, are
not only not anxious for its speedy
repeal" but are now flibustering to
prevent its being repealed at all except
on conditions which would amount to
a reputation of the closing declara-
tons OF the currency plank which we
have quoted above.
Every opponent to the administra-
tion Knows that free coinage under ex.