Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-10-31
Speech of Hon. Thomas F. Bayard.

Delaware, U. ). Ambassador to Great
Britain, made a speech at Dover, Della
ware, to large audience of enthusi-
astic Democrats. AS ne is recognized
as one of the purest aud ablest states
men of this country, and has the con-
fidence of the people, we publish a
sketch of his speech
AIR. Bayard was introduced by Dr.
Henry Ridgely, of that city, and was
greeted with tumultuous applause
Mr. Bayard began by telling how from
his post of duty three thousand miles
away he had watched the disastrous
Development of unwise. republican
policy in his native land
When | saw all this thing" he con
tinued, saw the wreck and the suffer
ing that you were undergoing here, my
friends, | cannot say that l was sur
prised. | only can say that | was
grieved. and | ain here to night to put
before you solemnly. sincerely. fear
leSsly, the question whether YOU will
invoke again the evils from which YOU
have barely escaped or whet her YOU
will place power again in the hands of
Il party to whom America owes her
worst woes and her greatest suffering.
Applause
'This is the question. 1t is no idle
question. 1t is one fraught with the
deepest Interest to every one WHO hears
me. AN glad the mothers and the
sisters and the wives of the men of
Kent county have come here to night
| am glad to have their counsel and
their aid. / am glad to see here such
All assemblage of men and all | can
promise you is will try TO be worthy
of ti4e respect that this meeting indi-
Gates Applause.
Mr. Bayard compared the condition
of Lee country on March 4, 1889, to the
state at affairs four years later, when,
for lie first time since 1861, the demo
cratic party had President of its own
choosing, controlled the House by a
large majority and had scanty, al
most nominal majority in the Senate.
All the measures that had been passed
and the consequences of which were
exhibiting themselves, the ambassador
continued, had been enacted by repub-
licans. He then said:
If the trade policies of the country
had been unwise, if the distribution of
public powers to private hands and
private use had followed, for all of that
the republican party stood then and
stand to-day and ever will stand truly
and justly responsible"
Mr. Bayard spoke of the change in
1892, and proceeded to demonstrate
that the people did not make mistake
when they placed the democratic
party in power.
"There was danger that the demo
cratic President of 1885, he said, had
stated to the people that by an honest
and strict collection of the taxes, by an
honest and economical expenditure of
the funds of the government, a surplus
was gathering and had gathered that
was dangerous to public business. was
useless and ought to be abated.
IF there was scarcity of money
created by the accumulation in the
treasury, the obvious method was to
diminish the source of supplies. SO that
the people would pay less and enjoy
more, and the public should not be dis
turbed by congested treasury. That
was common sense. 1t was honesty
But it did not suit the purpose of the
incoming party. They said No, when
they came in they said, as to the sur
plus we will soon manage that or as
one profligate servant, who deGlt with
money without apparent considera-
ton. that money is the fruit of hard
labor, and that every dollar that passes
into the treasury means some man s
working from sunrise to sunset; and
his phrase was, with bitter and prof
Iligate sheer, unrebuked by his official
chief, God help the SURPLUS and the
surplus disappeared amid prof1igate,
excessive, lawless eXpenditure-all ex-
pended for the purpose of making the
people of the United States believe
that the government should support
the people, and not that the people
should support the government. APP
pause.
But into power they went. and in
stantly there was enacted, upon the
demand of the influences that CONTROL
ed their party, that control their party
to day, that are now seeking to govern
this country precisely by the same
methods by which they sought to
govern it then-instantly the demand
came that they should hand over to the
men who led the republican party
those powers of the government that
are essential to its existence; those
powers of the government that are the
essential prerogatives of every govern
ment, then they demanded that those
sovereign powers should be handed
over for private use, for private profit,
to be divided and parceled up, as
though it were the plumber. the spoil,
of captured city or province.
Into their hands-the longest and
the greediest fingers clutching the
largest share-they passed the taxing
power over this nation. Every man
l,N l, n lnV1d A.
an INSCRIPTIONS grasp, every man who
was promised as reward for the
money he had furnished to currupt the
votes of poor men-to each of these
was handed his share of the plumber
And what was the outcome? Let us de-
scribe it in one word-prof1igate ex-
penditure had changed the surplus
into a deficit. That emptied the
treasury and put us in debt, and then
a bill of enormous taxation, laid in the
name of protection to American in
dustry-the Mckinley tariff bill-and
then a bill urged on by the same prin-
ciples by those who owned the mines
of silver and were interested in their
development-the bill which bears the
name of Mr. Sherman, the Sherman
silver purchase bill.
my friends, those measures had
been passed before the election of 1892
Public policies do not always declare
their results quickly.
1.-The people of this country, by an
instinct of self preservation, felt that
the policy engendered by the McKin
ley tariff was shutting them out from
the markets of the world; that under
the plea of protection to American in
dustries 1t was in fact protecting every
workman except the American in every
market except our own. They saw the
silver-purchase bill of Mr.. Sherman
looming like terrible shadow, darken-
ing the horizon. filing the hearts of
men with apprehension; and it came
up to this point in 1898. There stood
the republican party. Mr.. Harrison
was President. He had a republican
House; he had republican Senate; it
was his duty, under the constitution,
to lay before Congress the true condi-
ton of the country. And now l ask
you, what did they do? What did they
say? What was the attitude of that ad-
ministration? What was the attitude
of those party managers? | know moth
ing that will describe it except a page
in the history of France"
Mr.. Bayard then alluded to the reign
of Louis XIV under which France sWeDt