The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-21
Presidential Electors Also Chosen by
a Convention, Which WAS Attended
by 300 Gold Advocates.
SPEECH BY BRECKENRIDGE
CHICAGO PLATFORM VIGOROUSLY
DENOUNCED By THE COLONEL.
Election Of Bryan and SewalI, He De-
clared, Would BE a Calamity
Gold Movement Elsewhere.

LOUISVILLE. KY. Aug. 2O.-Kentucky
Democrats who are not in sympathy with
the Chicago platform raised their standard
to-day and the Bourbon State will lead the
procession to indianapolis. The convention
which met at Music Hall to-day contained
some three hundred delegates, who filled
the central portion of the hall set apart
for them, while on the stage were many
of the men who have fought Democracy's
battles in the State for a quarter of d
century.
Two sessions were held In the after
noon temporary organization was effected,
the selections OF the various districts for
committeeman, electors and delegates were
reported and an address was delivered by
Col. W. c. p. Breckinridge that aroused a
whirlwind of enthusiasm The eloquent
Colonel's temperance into public life was
the occasion for of his best efforts.
He pitched into the Chicago platform with
might and main and declared it was the
duty of Kentucky Democrats to compass
the defeat of Bryan and Sewall. whose
election, he declared, would be the greatest
calamity that could befall the people of
this country. Mr.. Breckenridge said in
part:
Let be just to ourselves and to our
opponents. The Democratic party of 1882
NdS iOt party lIltl DtleNtu all lIldl III
uttered. and its various votes not
given by men all of whom Democrats.
And we are reaping to-day the conse-
quences of that insincerity. In 1865. at New
York. the Democratic party. under the
leadership of that most loved of our Amer
6hia leSn statesmen = George & r. Pendleton of
that In some form or another the govern
ment of the United States had the power
OF the usual of paper money TO pay its
debts not according to the honest tenor of
the understanding between the creditor and
WAS then made ana il has followed iI1aK ns from
that day TO this. No parties can in the end
survive-I do not hesitate to say party
ought to survive-that does not place
the very foundation stone Of all its policy
honest money in the discharge of obliga-
postulate of all political honesty. of all
governmental integrity. No paltering i'm a
double sense and no equivocations by the
words of statute; attempt TO make
uncertainty by the mere language of the
obligations: but an honest compliance with
the known understanding between creditor
and debtor by which the government which
owes an obligation pays 1T in such way
that all creditors can trust it; all brave
men defend it.. all honest men love il.
Long continued applause.)
NO KING BUT LAW
But, my friends. to-day the Democratic
party in Kentucky has another opportunity
the third time If not the fourth, in the
history Of Kentucky-to mark the policies
that will govern the Nation. To-day we
stand Democrats and Kentuckians
pleading with the national Democracy of
the Union to save the Democratic party
10 the country. Applause.) And we do it
upon the bid foundation. We stand against
all that is in the Chicago platform pre-
cisely as our ancestors for hundreds of
years have stood against all that is con-
tanned in it. 1t is the DID, old fight We
believe in the three great departments of
fha U-x xae;o
ecutive has the right, under the law. to
preserve the law, and to protect the prop
serty of our citizens tApplause) We be-
time of excitement is pure and indepen-
dent judiciary applause 1t may not
suit reaped in the great case re-
ferred to. Some of us think it is an
erroneous result. But the rights of prop
ervation of liberty rest upon the sanctity
of the court tappiausel, and l appeal to you.
tablished the courts of justice, that made
them independent. that We will enter into
no crusade against the courts to make them
cowardly. corrupt and subservient.
There is for us no king but law We
believe in the supreme regnancy of the
| law We believe in the power of peaceful
remedies We are Jeffersorized Democrats.
| (Applause.) We believe in the freedom of
| the press. that men may print their opin-
| ions freely; in the freedom of the rostrum
that men may utter their convictions OPEN
| ly; in the freedom of public opinion. that
| it may be enlightened by intelligent dis
| cusSioD; in the freedom and sanctity of the
courts, that the humblest litigant may be
| heard; in the freedom of the ballot that
! has taken the place of the bayonet For
| the American experiment when you reduce
i ii to its ultimate analysis. is that the bal
| lot takes the place of the bayonet and the
power of voting takes the place of violence
% all sorts and kinds. (Applause.) We be-
| lieve in peaceful remedies. We believe in
the laborer. We have stood by the laborer.
| But all grievances must find peaceful rem
edes. and we will not condore any man
or set of men who preach violence as one
mode Of redress for wrong. (Applause)
And in every part of that plat
| form there crop out the same troublesome
heresies which the law and order people
| from all time have had to meet.
''Al1 the commentary that is to be found
| to that Chicago platform is in the more
courageous and ampler platform of the
plause) You see in the Chicago platform
the half-ripe fruit. The blossom is in all
the heresies of anarchy and despotism in
the past the half-ripe fruit is in the Chi
cago platform: the not quite ripe fruit is
in the Populist platform of st. Louis. The
result is in the utter destruction of our
institutions that will come if that party
gets into power. You need not tell me
that Ii is a regular Democratic nomination.
walk not into the cesspool of that miser-
able policy under any pretense or binding
whatever. 1t had no power TO make a
pledge of Populistic and half Republican
policy in the name of the Democratic party.
| (Applause.D 1t had no power TO take hos
tile principles and to pledge the Democratic
| people to carry those hostile policies into
| statutes. And il is not Democratic merely
because il Is clothed in the Democratic
! robe and wears the Democratic garment
| 1t is the hand of Esau. IL is true but we
recognize the voice OF Jacob in every tone.
WOULD BE CALAMITOUS
Fellow Democrats. measuring my words
and weighing them with all the precision
| of which l capable. and willing to bear
| whatever may come from uttering them
speaking for myself alone. / believe that
the election Of Mr.. Bryan is the greatest
national calamity that befall our peo-
pie and for one | shall do all In my power
4 to prevent it, Great applauseD This is
I above all personalities. dear as they are
/ to me. and dearer TO me than 10 any man
| living. above all traditions of party af-
1 hliatons, precious those traditions are
to me personally and 10 the generations
Of my beloved family behind me. Higher
than all other duties of this moment the
duty of to-day IL for the Democratic party
to defeat the eseetion OF Bryan and
Sewail. prolonged applauseD
And i believe that IL this convention
means anything-if you who have come
here from the field and the farm. from
the office OF the doctor and OF the lawyer
the banker and the merchant-this repre-
sentative body that see before me. never
surpassed in all the history Of Kentucky,