The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-07-13
Mr.. Harris and the Eenatorship
OcALA. FLA. July 7, 1894.


MY DEAR SIR II thank you most
heartily and sincerely for the letter to
the Banner, in which you honor me
by mentioning my name for the state
senate for this district. My most in
innate friends will bear me out in the
statement that am not seeking this
office. shall not enter the race for
it, and unless it comes to me unsolic-
tied (which is hardly probable), / shall
not be the senator. Should it, how
ever, come to me in this way, would
accept it gladly, and appreciate to the
fullest extent the high compliment it
would carry with it. But offices do
not now-if they ever did.-come in
that way, and hardly think that you
or will live to witness a political
miracle. Those who manipulate and
manage conventions have not the re-
hottest determination to permit this
office to fall on me, and especially un-
der present conditions. The corpor-
ate and money power are now more
than ever determined to control the
politics of the country, and those not
in sympathy with them need not
hope for political preferment if this
power, in its extensive and ramifying
influences, can prevent it. Why, see
what they are doing in Florida! One
hundred thousand dollars put up in
the establishment of rival newspa-
per to crush out the Times Union, be-
cause of its refusal to bend its knees
to Baal and turn its back on Senator
Call. The chairman of the democrat
| ic state executive committee, feeling
it incumbent on him, in endorsing a
candidate for federal office in his
city, to state to the president, through
his private secretary, that the appoint
ment of this person would be satisfac-
| tory to the railroad owners of the
state. 1t is a well-known fact that
the lawyers of Florida largely domi-
nate and control political conventions,
and if you will take the trouble to
make the investigation you will find
that the most eminent lawyers of
Florida are in the Paid employ of the
corporations. Henderson, Raney and
| Myers, of Tallahassee; Sparkman,
Knight and Wall, at Tampa; ex-Gov-
ernor Fleming, Hartridge and others,
at Jacksonville; Davis, at Palatka
Burford and others, at Ocala, and so
on throughout the state; and in the
| great and perllous CONFUSION now
separating the corporate and moeyned
classes from the laboring masses,
/ these men, almost without exception,
/ side with the former, and are endeav-
oring to lead the democratic party on
these lines with them, notwithstand-
ing its teachings and its traditions
have always been in the opposite di-
rection. And see the condition into
which they are plunging the country
Are people blind that they cannot
penetrate its causes? If they are
they were not always SO. In 1878, in
his place in the United States senate,
AIR. Dan w Voorhees, said: '.In the
entire catalogue of crimes against hu.
man society, not one can be found sc
awful in its consequences, both imme-
/ diate and remote, as a government
commits when it deliberately destroys
the money of its own citizens" And
Mr., Carlisle, from his place in the
house, both eminent democrats, one
| from the South, the other from the
North, said "Such an act is more rar
reaching in its direful consequence
than war, pestilence and famine
| Have the actual results of the prophe'
cies of these wise men in the demo
cratic party blinded them to theil
realities? But if the masses desire
any measure of prosperity for them
selves and their children, they mus
not let their hearts g ow faint or their
arms weaken in a struggle for {
change in these conditions. The re
storation of the traditions of the dem
ocratie party and its principles, il
their fitness, will restore and insure
prosperity; and, in my judgment, il
is of the first Importance to bring this
party back to the faith of its founders
This can be done; / see no reason t.
the contrary, and if its members will
be firm and vigilant in compelling it:
leaders to an obedience to its declara-
tons, all needful reforms can be car
rled out through it, and the country
promised a fuller measure of pros
perity than even was achieved under
its early founders. f. E. HARRIS.