The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-10-07
Extracts from DON Camsron's Speech
in the Senate, Sept 25th.

Its time. Nothing bpt conVlctiou
that our action now il vital to the
public interest forces me to speak
to-day.
l shall begin by calling your
closest attention, not to my own
views, but to those of Mr.. Glad
stone, the Prime Minister of Eng
land, given officially by him in the
House of Commons, on the 18th Of
last February, when the silver ques-
ton was last debated. AS far as l
know, this IL the latest and most
As we'll a. tho most explicit
statement of the British Govern
ment on the subject.
England" said Mr.. Gladstone,
lis the great creditor of the coun-
tries of the world; of that there can
be no doubt whatever and it is
increasingly the great creditor Of
the countries Of the world. l sup
pose there is not = year which
passes over our heads which does
not largely add to the mass of Brit
ish investments abroad. I am al
most afraid to estimate the total
amount of the property which the
United Kingdom holds beyond the
limits of the United Kingdom but
of this I am we'll convinced, that it
is not to be estimated by tens or
hundreds of millions. One thous-
and millions probably would be an
extremely low and inadequate esti-
mate. Two thousand millions, or
something even more than that, is
very likely to be Eearer tho mark.
l think, under these circumstances,
it is rather q serious matter to ask
this country to consider whether
we are going to perform this su-
preme act of self-sacri6ce."
I will not trouble you further with
Mr.. Gladstone's remark, although
be went on to develop his idea in
terms even more forcible than those
l have quoted. Senators can read
the debate for themselves. l have
no wish to excite angry feelings
against any one, whether abroad or
at home; but you will observe that
the supreme act of self-sacrifice"
which Mr.. Gladstone considers to
be contrary to the interests of Eng
land as the great creditor of the
world, is the attempt to maintain
or restore to silver the function of
serving as money.
I am tempted to sit down and
leave this speech of Mr.. Gladstone
to stand alone as the ground for
the vote / shall give on the bill now
before US. It is ground enough.
To my mind it carries conviction
as the true course of an American !;
but every one cannot be expected
to leap at once across a gap which
represents a lifetime of my feelings
and thoughts; and not one lifetime
only, but fully two hundred years
of American history. trust the
Senate will have patience with me
if I explain what seems to me, and
perhaps to them, self-evident. l
want to carry With me their unani-
nous assent.
More than once in this debate we
have heard the remark that the
United States is the greatest coun-
try in the world. The sentiment is
no doubt patriotic and honorable,
although l am not sure that it is
perfectly good taste; but if the fact
is true, or if it is even partly true, l
would like to ask Senators what
our national greatness consists of.
Some will say that it consists in
the energy and numbers of our cit
liens; in their virtues, their intelli.
gence, their education, their enlight-
eminent; in the extent and resour-
ces of their territory, and its unri-
vailed variety of blessings; in it's
agriculture, its minerals, it's rivers
and its lakes.
To all these titles to greatness I
will add another. The chief claim
of our nation to merit in the eyes
Of US who have share in its gov
eminent and in the eyes of every
republican citizen, white or black,
rich or poor, whose opinion We re-
gard, is that from first to last, on
all occasions and in every form,
America has asserted the most en-
phatic possible negative to the pol
icy and methods of the moneyed
power of England. From the day
when the Pilgrims founded Plym-
9th to the day when Penn founded
Philadelphia; from the day when
the tea was thrown into Boston
.harbor to the day when Washington
was inaugurated President; from
the day when Jefferson imposed his
embargo to the day when the civil
war ended, and down to the day we
passed the act now under discus
sion, the chief interest of our his
tory in the eyes of America or Eu-
rope has been its successful protest
against the ideas and interests of
tho moneyed power of England,
whether that power was for the mo-
ment embodied in church or king,
in a landed aristocracy or in a trad
ing monopOlv.