San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-09-13
PATRIOTIC DECLARATION.
OF Party Preference by Hon. Thomas
Fitch.

Hon. Thomas Fitch, one of the most
noted free silver advocates in Arizona,
being called upon at the Arizona Re-
publican convention, responded in the
following speech, which for eloquence
and beauty of diction, deserves pre-
| servation. Mr.. Fitch's review of the
past of the party tells why it can be
trusted to legislate for the future f.
nancial welfare of the country.
| Gentlemen of the convention:
| thought that the seclusion that the
upper gallery grants, combined with
other circumstances, would exempt
me from any invitation to speak before
this convention, but your repeated call
leaves me no alternative consistent
with courtesy but to answer.
| The speakers who have addressed
you have spoken of the free coinage
of silver as a cardinal principal of the
| Republican party. fear that the st.
Louis convention may compel us to re-
tract some of our steps in this matter,
and, as the statesmen who control this
| convention have not included me "a
mong those deemed most fit to repre-
sent Arizona at st. Louis, 1 feel quite
at liberty to tell the truth.
1 suppose no one will question my
| long devotion to the cause of free sill
yer coinage.
Years ago, at the inception of the
movement, 1, as vice president of the
national executive committee of the sill
yer convention, in Connection with A.
| j. Warner, the president of the COM
mittee, Travelled through the south and
west preaching the doctrine of bimet-
allism, and have never since had &C.
casion to change my views with re-
| spect to the great benefits that might
result to this nation from the complete
restoration of silver as a money metal;
and yet there are other circumstances
quite as influential which must be po-
tent in determining the future action
!, many republicans in this matter.
his morning a friend, who is a men,
| bt of this convention, and who now
hol or me with his audience said to me:
| Nh. Fitch you have always been a
| pronounced advocate of the free coin
| age of silver; what will you do if the
st. Louis convention adopts a plank
| their platform favoring a single gold
standard and denouncing the free
coinage of silver?' did not answer
this question then, but with your per-
mission 1 will do so now.
1 belong to the republican party be-
cause it's history is the history of the
growth, the greatness, and the freedom
of this nation; because its purposes are
| patriotic; because it is the friend of
labor without being the foe of thrift;
because it is wise. because it is just,
because it's restoration to complete
power will rekindle the furnaces and
start the turbines, and fill the land
with the music of content and well
paid toll, and put bread into the mems
mouths, and hope into their hearts.
1 belong to the republican party be-
cause it is the grandest political organ
ization of free men that the world has
ever known; because under its wise
| guidance star after star has been ad-
ded to our flag, ship after ship has been
added to our fleets, factory after fac
| tory has been added to our resources,
millions after millions have been added
to our wealth, city after city has been
| developed from our villages, and the
| land has been laced with a network
of iron rails, and furnace fires have
| illuminated the night, and the grand
| diaphason of labor has been made to
sound throughout the continent.
1 belong to the republican party be-
cause under it's inspirations these Uni
| ted States, once a wrangling and dis
cordant commonwealth; these United
| States, once shamed with slavery and
decrepit with the disease of the Sc
cession- these United States have be-
come a country where no slaves pres
ence dishonors labor, where no free
mans utterances are choked by the
hand of power, where no man doffs
his hat to another except through the
courtesy of equals, where education is
free, where manhood is respected and
where labor is protected.
Under the patriotic rule of the
Republican party these United
States have become nation
whose credit reigns at the head of the
worlds finances-whose flag floats
proudly upon every sea, and whose
armies would come at the drumbeat
out of the hives of industry to swarm
in defense of the country on every
shore.
Under the rule of the republican
party these United States have become
the greatest, freest and most prosper
Gus nation under the light of the sun.
l belong to the republican party be-
cause it gave land to the landless, be-
cause it gave work to the Industrious,
because it gave freedom to the slave,
because, when the nation was in peril,
it gave armies and treasures for her
preservation.
Forty years ago, when a lad of 1871
Joined the republican party, and too
young to vote, flung my blazing ban
ner aloft for Fremont and Jessie. 1
was present as newspaper reporter
at the Chicago convention in 1860,
when all Illinois shouted Lincoln into
the presidency. heard the song of
John Browns soul sung in bated breath
and in secret gatherings of the SYM
pathizers, and four years later on these
distant shores / also caught the echo
of its refrain when armies chanted it
for their battle anthem. 1 enjoyed the