Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-04-18
Palmer Shows His BriStleS.
THE ILLINOIS SENATOR MAKES
A POINTED REPLY TO
HIS CRITICS.
He Refuses to Answer Charges OF In
consistency Made Against Him by
Hinrichsen and Merritt.

! SPRINGFIELD, Ill, April H.. From
present indications United States SEN
ator John Nj. Palmer proposes to fight
the so-called free silver Democrats oil
Illinois to finish. The venerable
Senator to-day raade such declara-
ton, and from the vigor and determi-
nation expressed in his manner he will
give his opponents a hard fight.
II am in this fight to stay" he said,
land will not he beaten, either"
When asked il he had read the in
terviews published during the last day
or two in regard to- his position on the
silver question, Senator Palmer re-
piled:
"Yes, have read the purported in
terviews with Mr.. Hinrichsen, chair
man of the State Committee, Governor
Altgeid, Mr.. Gahan, and that of my
friend, Mr.. Merritt, which appears in
n late publication.
| "Mr. Hinrichsan and Mr.. Merritt as
sail me personally. will answer their
personal charges when have nothing
else to do. All these interviews, in
Guiding that of Mr.. Hinrichsen him
self, prove that the call for State
| Convention to be held next June is a
part of a carefully concocted scheme
to commit the Democratic party of
Illinois to the free coinage of silver
and make it a part of the silver party
of the future. / have no doubt of the
truth of what | now state, that the call
issued by Mr.. Hinrichsen for a meet
ing of the State Committee was part
| of this scheme. Some members of the
committee were in the secret; others
were not. Some members of the COM
mittee, attaching but little Importance
to the meeting of the Subcommittee,
gave their proxies thoughtiessly, and
others who appeared in person are re-
ported to have caused some delay in a
measure which was intended by the
managers to separate the Democracy
of Illinois from the Democratic party
of other States.
81 have no notice, formal or other
wise, of the meeting of the State Com
mittee, nor do l understand that the
Democracy of the State was better in
formed than | was. When the COM
mittee assembled, am told, a call for
a convention to meet in June was pro-
duced, of which Mr.. Hinrichsen was
the putative. author In this call the
Democracy of the State were told by
the State Committee that the only
question before the country is that of
the currency.
"There are other statements in the
call, to which l only revert for mo-
ment. One OF them is that the Feder-
al election laws are repealed, never to
be re- enacted, when there are good
reasons for believing that upon a re-
turn of the Republican party to power,
they will enact laws of a still more
vigorous character.
sit is further declared in the call
that no general tariff legislation will
be attempted for many years, while it
is known that upon a return of the
Republican party to power, they will
attempt to apply and extend the doc
trine of protection to the foreign COM
merce of the United States. Protection
with all of its socialistjc features is Re-
publicanism.
81 repeat, that in my opinion, the
call for a State Convention was issued
as a means of entrapping the Demo-
cratic party into the silver movement.
The members of the committee who
were in the secret intended and ex
pected that result. If they had not
believed that they had all the ma
chinery ready to secure a majority in
the convention favorable to the free
and unlimited coinage of silver upon
the ratio of 16 to /, the call would not
have been issued.
81 do not believe that Mr.. Hinrich-
sen will deny that the call for the con-
vention was based upon the fixed be-
lief that when the convention met it
would declare in favor of the free coin
age of silver, nor do believe that he
will deny that if he had believed other
wise the call would not have been is
sued.
"The late call for convention is
sued by the Democratic State Central
Committee is without precedent, not
only in the history of the Democratic
party of Illinois, but of any other po-
liticai party in any of the States.
"My poor friend, Mr.. Merritt, is re-
ported to have said that the Demo-
cracy has nothing to lose.' God tenn
pers the wind to the shorn lamb, un
less the lamb is a fool" and the Sena
tor closed with Il smile and another
assurance that he was in the fight to
stay.'