The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-09-26

the treasury Of the nation with a hun
dred million dollars surplus, not count
ing the money on deposit for redemp-
ton Of the national bank circulation.
amounting to $4,000. 900. This vast sum
OF S155, 900, 900. left in the treasury when
Mr.. Cleveland retired and Mr.. Harrison
was inaugurated, had been squandered
by the Harrison administration. and the
Mckinley bill had cut off the revenues
to such an extent that all the surplus
was gone.
There was also in the federal treasury
one hundred million dollars Of gold, held
as reserve for the redemption of out
standing paper issues at the time Mr..
Cleveland gave way TO Mr.. Harrison.
Bankrupt Treasury.
When Mr.. Cleveland was inaugurated
in March, 1898, he found the treasury
bankrupt and drains were being made
upon the gold reserve. This caused an
issue OF bonds for fifty millions Of dol
lars to replenish this reserve and to be
used in the payment of pensions and all
other current expenditures.
Again II Is seen that the republican
party in power is a pestilence. In Har-
rison's administration there was one
long, ceaseless riot in the expenditure
of the peoples money. The treasury
was looted and a "bil,ion-dollar con-
gress." under the leadership of Thomas
3. Reed. saddled upon a tax-burdsned
land, obligations which constituted
monumental infamy.
Again. in 1892, the people concluded
to change the republican pestilence for
democratic conditions, giving Mr..
Cleveland 372,562 more votes than were
recorded for Mr.. Harrison (the vote be-
ing: For Cleveland, 5,551,145; for Har-
rlson, 517S,5S1; Cleveland's majority
over Harrison, 372 562).
Fellow-eitizens, in what I have said
the purpose has been to follow along
the track Of history; to demonstrate the
ultimate verdict of the American peo-
pie relating TO their estimate of the re-
publican party as compared to the dem
ocratic party. What was that verdict:
Simply this: That the democratic
party, whether theory or a
condition (and my honorable competi-
ferable to the republican party. the final
verdict being to rescu the government
by placing its executive and legislative
departments in the hands of the demo-
cratic party, where it is today.
/ am aware that much that / have
said may be referred to as somewhat
ancient history, but / am persuaded
that, while the Father of Waters rolls
his floods TO the sea the land record of
the democratic party will challenge the
admirationl of the American people, and
in showing to what nights of popular
favor the republican party were when
the cry was Vote the way you shot
and TO what depths of perfidy it de-
scended to retain power against a ma
TONS condemnation have recited
facts of the highest concern now. when
the republican party hopes here and
there to obtain an office of some sort
by wild and senseless defamation of the
democratic party.
My distinguished competitor for the
Office of secretary of state some weeks
ago opened his campaign at Peru, and ii
was reported that he opened 1t under
suspicious circumstances. He had
been weeks In training and had developed
his intellectual muscle and brain power
TO such an extent that as the champion
of his party 1t was deemed just the
thing to escort him to the opera house
with brass band, playing, l conjecture,
"Tra-la-la Boom-de-aye
When the campaign is over the "aus-
picious circumstances end the brass
band" will have disappeared and my
competitor will have ample leisure TO
Fecuperate his wasted energies and
wonder where he is az"
l think l remember to have read
gentle hint that II would be the part of
wisdom for me to avoid my competitors
campaign and eye-opening address, be-
cause 1t was only one of a brood 70 be
Matched as the campaign proceeded, and
| may be charged with great temerity
for abiding to 1t. but, having read the
production, l experienced no great strain
on my courage In any attempt 1 may
make to wrestle with it. / notice with
complacency the opening sentence, as fol-
lows:
When a party comes to power in our
country IL repeats the laws to which Il
was opposed and coins its own principles
into statutes"
Precisely. When the democratic party
came into power, on the 4th of March,
1893 1t proceeded to repeal the Sherman
law, a statute so obnoxious that Mr..
Sherman, its author, was ashamed of it.
The Force Bill.
Then the democratic party proceeded in
due form and with commendable al7crity
to repeal the republican force BIZ"
measure designated by its author to
utterly destroy local self-government
1t was a measure that centralized power
on election days in the hands of men,
often the scum of the Sums armed them
with clubs, swords, pistols. guns and
DayOnets, to OVer-aWe the people at the
polls. to invade and strike down the
rights Of the people, to please some
despot whose purpose was to irrevocably
destroy the sacred right Of self-govern-
ment. This statute Ga relic of the
methods that seated Hays the demo-
cratic party. when the people placed Il in
power. repealed, and had the act been
The only act of the liberty-loving and
tyranny-hating democratic party, ii
would have been enough to entitle it TO
the everlasting gratitude of the American
people.
My distinguished competitor, when he
announced that parties when they come
into power proceed to coin their own
principles into statutes. spoke truly of
he democratic party, but not truly Of
the republican party. an organization
which, when in power having no prin-
..,nlPS To c0in into to
coin its prejudices into statutes aad to
glory in its shame.
The democratic party, upon it's acces-
sion to power, as 1 have shown, was con-
fronted with a looted treasury. Harri-
sons administration left the government
financially wrecked and stranded The
ma gnificent surplus of S155, 000 900 left in
the treasury by Cleyeland had disap-
peared, whittier and by what route
into whose pockets, no one knows. The
people contemplated the wreck i'm blank
Amusement When the astounding per-
fdity Of republican financiering became
known; when the republican books were
opened and the extent of looting was in
part comprehended. and the blow-holes
cracks, plugs and other imperfections
as in Carnegie's steel-plate. had been
discovered, CONSERVATION doubts and
fears spread like forest fires, and the
country felt the full force of the repub-
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