The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-05-12
CLEVELAND'S TASK
PERFORMED WITH SPEED, WIG.
OR AND FEARLESSNESS.

Vig0r and Rapidly In Re-
storing the Govern
ment TO One Of
Sound Prin.
ciples.
AT the banquet given by the Iro-
quois Club, of Chicago, celebrating
the birthday of Thomas Jefferson,
among the many distinguished
speakers was ex- Governor John E.
Russell, of Massachusetts,, who made
the address published below, in re-
spouse to the toast.
''The Administrations: Vigorous,
Fearless, Democratic
Mr.. President and gentlemen
The Federal elections during the
last administration show that as
soon as the policy of the party in
power was developed it lost the con-
tidence of the people and was dis
credited and repudiated to the end.
The pressing necessity for repeal
of all the fiscal legislation of that
period of reaction has led to disquiet
which now makes all deliberation
seem slow. We must judge the Wig
or the Administration, not by this
natural impotence of the people but
by comparison with other years.
1t is year last month since our
party assumed the responsibility of
government, under circumstances
which could not be more discourag-
ing in times of peace. Four years
previous Mr.. Cleveland had given
the chair to his successor with only
one pressing difficulty-excessive
taxation, creating large Treasury
surplus.
This eonditnon had been clearly
put before the country in the ia
nous message to the Fiftieth Con
gress, which responded by the pas
sage Of the Mills bill, a salutary
measure, rejected by the Republican
Senate.
Our opponents met the condition
in their way, and at the end Of four
years we return to a change of affairs
so radical that the recital seems in
credible. A Treasury without dol
lar of working balance, loaded with
obligations, deep bedded in laws; a
tariff which has taken the name oil
its author, because it is an invention
of a new system to increase burdens
while it reduces revenue, by turning
the stream of taxes from the people,
treasury to the pockets of individ-
uals, corporations, ana trusts.
The financial legislation bearing
the name of Mr.. Sherman had work
ed adversely to the expectation Of
its trainers, and had SO impaired oul
credit abroad that our stock market
were breaking down with securities
sold for foreign accounts, and q
financial panic was well under way
These were the conditions Mr.
Cleveland and his cabinet were call.
ed to face. Never did the people
expect so much. There must be
economy to make up four years o.
waste; confidence, chilled by rockies,
action, was to be warmed to life
trade, fitful and feverish from ex
cessive stimulation, was to be re
stored to calm health, and, as ours i:
government not of men but of laws
and laws are the ripened fruit O
wise delay, time was necessary.
I, Through the whole administration
of Mr.. Harrison there had been {
steady decline in the values of agri
cultural products and in the railway
traffic of every part of the country
, the iron and steel market, the baro
meter of public prosperity, had fall
en- until a third of the furnaces in
the country were cold. But nj
Democratic politician would attrib
ute this solely to law or lack of it
Unwise and extravaganza as tn,
Fifty first Congress was, prodigal as
were its Interpretations for pen
sions, bounties subsidies and public
buildings, there were other and
deeper causes at work involving tn,
whole civilized world. So closel,
are the nations bound together il
| financial relations, that under any
laws the currents of our trade would
have been disturbed and we coulC
not avoid our share of the distress
which has. spared no part of tn,
trading world.
1t is the common cry of partisan
ship to attribute the troubles of til,
past year to an election, which i'm
piled a reduction of the taxes of tn
people. If this we're true, if in tn
second century of our Cover nment .
, popular election can not be held ant
a change made in obedience to tn
will of great majority of the cleo
tors without ruin to the business o
: the country then our institution
are a failure. No thoughtful, n
, patriotic citizen will make such al
assertion. The business of th
country is not carried ON by politi
: cal parties; it is based upon the re
! sources of the continent, upon tn
farm, the forest, and the mine, an,
the daily toll of humble men. Whe
the farmer of the South, feeling tn
airs of the warm Gulf, and lookin
out upon whitening cotton field
cries in distress, and is answered b
1 the Northwestern wheat grower, VIII
stands upon his mortgaged farm,
hopeless debtor amid his golde
q sheaves, there are deep causes G
a trouble that only the shallow politi
c clan or the partisan of the hon
q would attribute to the changes sue
gested by an election.
The determination of the peopl
: expressed in several elections, t
equalize taxation and curb the pow
t err Of privilege, has not caused th
8 fall in the price of iron or of silvel
II the whole fabric of protection wa
swept away in rude disregard Of til
2 or 8 per cent of our populatio
s who may possibly derive some Der
eft from it, there would be no diffcl
Y ence in the value of the crops of til