The climax. [volume] (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1887-1897, 1895-10-09
WEIGH To MR.. J. NJ.
ATHERTON.
SrANFoRn. Ky. Oct . ,Q1

CIANFoHD, ny, Oct. :, 20.
My Dear Anterior: / read with lively
interest your open letter to Gen P. Wat
Hardin published September %. May >,
under favor of a long and unbroken
friendship, and without being suspected
of oficious intermeddling, offer court
eous dissent to certain conclusions you
announce in that litter?
Let me promise that l agree with YOU
fully on the currency question. l be-
lieve, as you do. that there can be but
one standard for the measurement of
values, and that that one should be the
best and most stable, and this belief has
been strengthened and confirmed by re-
cent study OF your admirably lucid and
convincing treaties on THE Fallacies Of
Free Silver" l 90 further with you,
and hold it as beyond rational question.
that the State Convention, whose com
mission Gen. Harlin holds, enthusiastically
displayed an overwhelming sentiment
against the free coinage of silver. 1t is
true also that Gen Hardin, goaded to it,
suspect, by the somewhat dictatorial dog
matism Of certain Of our newspapers, has
-unwiselY and unnecessarily grant you
advocated as a nominee OF that con-
vention, and with characteristic ardor
and audacity, the very heresy against
which it undertook to pronounce
Does it follow, however, either of ne
cessity or at all, that, as you put it, no
sound-money Democrat can vote for
Gen. Hardin without surrendering his
convictions? 1t is a question of no little
moment to me as voter and thousands
of others in Kentucky In answering it
to and for myself, have not underesti-
mated the force of much that you say,
nor have | been freer than you from the
natural Impotence one feels on being
disappointed in a reasonable expectation,
yet my answer is Numerically opposed to
yours. Let me give briefly the reasons
which have led ME to this conclusion.
They may possibly be help, not to you,
l fear, who were ever the hardest-headed
of mortals, but to others who stand halt
ing betwixt the ID Of Republican dom
ination and the deep sea of unlimited
cheap silver.
In the first place, l maintain that the
Louisville convention did not intend by
! its nomination of Gen Hardin to impose
upon him the duty of advocating the
gold standard or the degradation of re-
! canting his own views on this question.
| These views were well known to the con-
ventiOn and to the people. He was NOM
mated in spite of them, or rather with a
wise indifference TO them. They had no
earthly relevancy to the place be sought,
and the question was itself a purely
national one, which had not been passed
upon by either of the national conven-
/ tiOns-of course l leave out of consider
alton the fantastic utterances of the Pop
ulists. 1t is true the National Democrat
/ ic Convention of 1892 had voted down a
resolution favoring the free coinage of
silver. Withlike unanimity and prompti-
/ tude that convention would have voted
! down resolution favoring a gold stand
ard. VIGOROUSLY, both of the parties which
are to be taken seriously in this country
have so far failed or feared to take DO
sition on this question. 1t was, therefore,
in June last, and it is now as a party
/ question, an open question and
as such to be treated liber-
ally and tolerantly. The State Conven-
ton must, in common justice to it, be
understood as merely declaring the pre-
vailing abstract sentiment on an issue
prematurely thrust upon tribunal with
out authoritative jurisdiction, and then as
/ saying to Gen. Hardin, and TO its other
nominees whose views on this subject
seems neither to have been known nor
/ inquired about: "We do not require or
expect you to change your opinions
/ touching the currency as you might
change your coat. We indorse you to
the party on all national questions which
are closed-questions on which issue has
been rendered and joined. We especially
accredit you as in touch and sympathy
with the party in respect of State and
local policies. Above all, We commend
you as misrepresentation of the Democrat-
&c party in the one tremendous issue. of
the pending election, whether the do
nestle affairs of great State, affairs
nearest Of all to the heart of its citizens,
the making and administration of its
laws; the assessment, collection and dis
buIsement of its revenues; the control
of its schools and charitable and penal
institutions, shall be taken from that
party which mainly represents its inteli-
genee and conscience and which mainly
pays its taxes. and turned over to the
Republicans, and to fate which the his
tory of similar experiments in the South
does not leave in doubt"
In the second place, the June conven-
ton had no power to impose such con-
ditions on its nominees even if it had de
sire to do so. It had not jot Of author
ity to declare or define any new party,
policy or principal. An attempt to do so
would. as the lawyers say, be ultra wires
and binding on no one. You say as much
in your letter when you say: "a State
convention may. with propriety adopt
resolutions which approve the last ma
tional platform, and also resolutions