Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-10-26
DEMOCRATIC DEMONSTRATION.

Il
Speeches by Hons. Elisha Meredith
and John GoOde.
The Opera House was well filled last
night by the democratic voters of this
city to welcome Hons. Elisha Meredith
and John Goode, who delivered mas
terly speeches and who were listen
ed to attentively and earnestly APP
plauded. There was sprinkling of
ladies in the audience. 1t was an Or
derby assemblage, and nothing what
ever occurred to mar it. AS is often
the case, however, at public gather
ings, there was one individual present
who belongs to class who invariably
fall asleep when compelled to sit over
five minutes in one place, and his ster-
torious notes were generally heard dur
ing the lulls in the speakers remarks
or when something pathetic was being
gotten off.
1t had been announced that Senator
John W. Daniel would be present and
address the meeting, but it was learn
ed early yesterday that that gentleman
would be unable to attend. About S
o'clock, Messrs. Meredith and Goode
having arrived, those gentlemen were
escorted to the stage. They were &C.
companied by Mr.. L. G. Barley, chair
man of the city democratic committee;
Mayor Strauss. VIM. II. Marbury, ESQ.,,
President of the Board of Aldermen;
Leonard Marbury, Commonwealth
Attorney; and Messrs. S. G. Brent,
Harrie Yohe, T. L. Cockrell, r. F.
Knox aud others.
After having been seated few min
utes, Mr.. Barley, in appropriate re-
marks, introduced Mr.. Meredith to the
audience. He was received with earn
est applause, and upon its subsistence
the speaker began his remarks by say
ing he~@as glad of the opportunity to
appear before his fellow citizens III
Alexandria and to have chance to
give an account Of his stewardship.
He referred to the unanimous nomina-
ton he had received for Congress on
other occasions in the hall in which he
stood, and thanked the people for the
confidence they had bestowed in him.
He said he, as we'll as the party he rep
resented, had been faithful n their en-
deavors to carry out the principles OF
the democratic platform, and rapidly
passed over the history of the proceed
ings of Congress during the last year,
in which he used incortrovertible argu
ments to show that the business de-
preston from which the country is now
emerging was not brought about by the
democratic party, but had been precip
itated by the party which preceded it
in power. He referred to the fact that
all of the legislation of the past third Of
a century until month or two ago had
been the work of the republicans, and
challenged any one to show how it was
possible for the democrats to produce
the hard times before they had enacted
a single national law. Mr.. Meredith
proceeded in his remarks in an easy.
conversational way, interspersing them
with apt and amusing anecdotes which
were much enjoyed. In his reference
to the tariff he said the Mckinley bill
and pensioners cost Virginia about
SIS 100000 year. These measures,
he said, drained one section for the
purpose of enriching the other,
and he alluded to a cartoon which
represented a COW feeding in one place
and being MIXED in another. The
democrats, he said, wanted the animal
turned around in order that the
her section of the country could
come at the teats. TIE fact, he said,
that John Wanamaker had advertised
that under the new tariff he could sell
goods 33 per cent. cheaper showed the
benefit of that law to the country. He
reiterated what he said on former oc-
casions in this city in regard to pen
sions; i. e., that he had nothing to say
against any man drawing pension
who was honestly entitled to it, but
was averse to the government paying
bounty-jumpers, camp followers and
bummers. The democrats, Mr.. Mere
dith said, had reduced the pension list
to the tune of S13, 000,0 and cheaper
ed the cost of every necessary of life
during the short time they have been
to work. After Mr. Meredith had fin
ished his defense of the democratic par
ty and exposed the trickery and the
nervousness of republican legislation,
he paid his respects to his political OPP
ponents in the Eighth district. He first
took up Mr.. Mason, the populist candi-
date, and started out by making the
sensible assertion that populists were
almost invariably people who had met
with failure in one party or the other.
Mason, he said, was fine gentleman,
but probably one of the most mistaken
individuals in the State of Virginia.
He was not responsible, however, for
running for Congress Unfortunately
he had one Robert Beverly for his IA
ther-in-law-an individual who had
groomed two other would-be Congress
men (his son Brad. and Bev: Turner)::
The voters had very sensibly turned
both under and Mason would form a
trio of congressional aspirants whom
the Eighth district has repudiated. The
speakers structures upon the inspirer
of these miguided individuals, who
pose as the poor mans friend, were
severe and he challenged contradiction.
His references to Mr.. McCaull were apt
aud humorous. He said Pat. had roost-
ed in nearly all the political camps.
He had been q Confederate soldier, a
democrat, readjuster and republl-
CAP, and though coming from county
Astounding in other metals, seemed to
have brought nothing away but the
brass. His harangues on the stump,
the speaker said, were devoid Of argu-
ment, and consisted chiefly of anec-
dotes. The Sixth district had repudi-
ated him and, of course, the Eighth
would follow its Mr.. Mere