Birmingham state herald., 1896-07-19

To the People of Alabama:
 The state of my health may further disappoint my great anxiety to speak to my constituents in person on an occasion that seems to demand such an effort, and this is my excuse, if any is needed, for in- vitng your attention in this form to the platform adopted by the recent demo- cratic convention at Chicago and to it's nominees for president and vice presi- dent.
 I will only present in brief outline general view of the situation of our coun- try on the silver question.
 There is a common disposition, in which I share, to strengthen a measure of government that we believe is vital, and to make it acceptable to the people by placing some great and experienced man in the lead as an exponent and vim dicator of its merits.
 Even Christianity, which in theory is guiltless of man worship is often judged in public estimation by the influence of its leading advocates and supporters.
 This is not wrong, nor is it likely to work evil, unless too great importance is given to the representative, rather than to the cause he represents. In church and state, in peace and war and in pros perity and diversity, occasion arise when it Is necessary to discard all ex- traneous influences and try great ques- tions upon their merits, without reliance upon personal leadership, so that their success or solution cannot be attributed to the wisdom or virtue of some great apostle. but to the intrinsic truth they have for a foundation.
 Such a question is now presented in distinct form to the people of the United States. That question is, Shall silver be abandoned by us as a money met al?" In that capacity and in that use 1t was the servant of our people, as race, long before our republic was estab- lished, and has been it's right hand for more than 100 years of it's existence, in peace and in war. It has contributed to our strength as the servant of all the la bors of our people, without having ever inflicted upon us any loss, any disap- pointment or any financial panic or dis turbance. Its record is clean and is with out the shadow of impeachment or hon. est complaint
 Its good works have been plainly vis- ible in every age of civilization, and in our country they are conspicuous bless ings in the history of every home and in every enterprise and transaction of the industrial classes.
 Its recognition as a necessary factor in government is complete in the laws of the Divine Creator and in all the history of human progress, and in this free gov- ernment of ours it is built into the foun- dation of the constitution.
 No want of the producing classes, and no danger that has threatened their prosperity has ever suggested to them a reason why gold should be, unnaturally, forced into war of extermination against silver-its twin sister.
 It is only the non-producing classes, who have accumulated large wealth, who discover such reasons in the hungry of yaf ali or power and its thirst for dominion.
 The jea1ously of preferment that caused Cain to shed the blood of Abel, his brother, is a passion that still finds its qualification in the power of money to force the undeserving into places of authority over those who toll for the SUD- port of the human family.
 This lust for power, this eagerness for social and political dominion, which dis cards the thought of fair play and equal justice to all in government, has been enormously stimulated and developed in the nineteenth century, and it will sweep genera tons and races back into the dis honorable servitude of the middle ages if the principles and rights of personal lib- erty that are esta blished in the consti- tution of the United Staes are not held by the people as being sacred and in- violable.
 No other country has so rapidly or so wonderfully developed and ripened the harvest fruits of the highest civilization as has been done in the United States in the century now drawing to its close.
 The fields of discovery and invention have unfolded their hidden wealth to the workers in every department of art and science, and these have, with marvellous skill so provided suitable mechanism to supply every human want and wish that their daily miracles have become the common inheritance and indispensa- ble need of all civilized people.
 Each of these grand achievements, such as the development of power by the enginery of steam, air, water, eiectrci- ty, gas, light, photography, sound and To- comotion, has developed machinery Tar exceeding in value all the clements of ac- tuai wealth, except the agricuitufdi pro- ductions of the earth.
 This wealth. the product of thought as- sociated with labor, is made the exciu- sive property of the discoverer or in- yentor by just and wise laws, but the power to use it to advantage depends up on the supply of money that is availaDie for investment in property, which means the sum that is not employed Tn gathering fixed charges of interest or usury for its owners
 In ascertaining the sums of current money that are measured by these lines of division, the bondholder, the money lender the usurer and the banker is fur nished by the law with ''the calP' on the market, and he excludes from investment in property all the money that can be used for the purposes of gain in his line of business.
 Money that has the power to control the volume of its own circulation, in de- f1ance of the rights of the people to add to that sum the yield of their mines of of the world. and all industry and all in-