Birmingham state herald., 1896-09-06
Three Typical Speeches
 BY DEMOCRATS


 world the nomination of that conserVa- tive citizen, that man of modesty, of de- meanor, purity of public and private character, unfaltering democracy and progressive statesmanship-Oscar W. Underwood.
 Give him the nomination and every true democrat of the district will ap- plaud the act; every democrat of Ala bama will say you have done right; every democrat of the union will say well done;' and with him as the moving spirit at this end of the political line and the silver plumed knight of Nebraska at the other, the flag of democracy will be carried from stump to stump from beat to beat from county to county, from state to state and safely planted on the capitol at Washington with the inscrip- ton on it of victory.
 Give him the nomination, because you but thereby restore to him and to your selves that of which a partisan repubE- can congress, without excuse, robbed him and yourselves.
 Give him the nomination, because he is capable of demonstrating at every place in this district the wrong that has been perpetrated on himself, and Of vndcating the fair name of the people of our section against the foul action of a reckless republican majority, who pre- tended that frauds had been committed by you, notwithstanding the adverse nHOIng or every QeHlOCIGl 'cHd iOhi fifths of the republicans of the election s committee, and by this unwarranted pro- ceeding not only raped ballot box in open congress, but filled it with an odor that smells to heaven.
 Give him the nomination, because his conservative, though hrm positions on . every question will convince democrats that we have a safe leader, that our road Is the straight and narrow path" that leads to political salvation; bolters, that they have no excuse for belting, and re- publicanS, that their party has no eX- cuse for existence.
 Give him the nomination, and every true democrat of the district will rally around him and stand to and abide by the resolutions of this convention ana of the platform of the democracy Of the United States IS promulgated at Chica- go for we know that democracy means the rule of the majority and that that man who refuses to abide by this rule IS a mighty poor democrat or has very poor way of showing his democracy, for democracy means an unceasing warfare against the centralizing influences and efforts of repubiicanism; democracy means sound money, the money of the constitution, the money of the fathers or our republic, the money of the people (and the SoundeSt money, the money or the constitution, the money of the la thers and of the people, is gold and silver | Victoria or Queen Lilliokiiiha; democra- sy means the smallest taxation, whether state taxes or national tarin; democracy means that there shall not be an increase of the bonded interest bearing debt of s262 ,0OO, 900 in times of peace to meet a theory or gratifying a syndicate; democ- racy means that the best way to protect labor Is to shut out foreign pauper la bor and to control home convict labor, so that the free laboring man shall not by reason of such competition carry light basket to his lunch bench or be compelled to stint his family in the nec- eSSaries of life; democracy means that arbitration of differences should be con- trolled by just laws rather than by ava rice or passion, and that the arteries of commerce must be more strictly regu- lated in order that congestion may not follow the greed of the gourmand or tyranny the wiles of monopoly; de- mocracy means home rule-that rule which begins and has it's highest type at the fireSide of the home, whether of cottage or palace, which extends and is limited alike to those matters that should be controlled by each precinct alone and cannot be controlled by the family head, then to counties as to mat ters best regulated there; to the states as to every question that is not by the constitution expressly, or by reasonable implication. vested in the authorities of
 
 those matters only to the general govern ment which are not reserved to the states; democracy means civil and re- ligious liberty, freedom of thought and freedom of speech even to the point of the right to fairly criticise the highest in the land, whether they be private as- pirants for office or executive or judicial officers for no man or set of men are higher than the people, as no stream can rise higher than its source. Do not mis- understandable privilege of criticisng does not mean the right to abuse. If our brother or our servant differ from us. warn them of their error, reason with them, plead with them, pray for them if reed be-perhaps they will hear and hearing, do right but if they still persist in wrong doing give them our blessings and let them go. Democracy can live without them.
 Do not be tempted by any little two legged circumstance in human form, who cries out, with an extreme economy of truth, that you are anarchists to hurl harsh words at any one, but remember that democracy was born many centu- ries ago; that the pen of Jefferson gave it it's birth in America when this govern ment was formed; that the people have rallied around 1t with glad huzzas in it's hours of victory and have baptized it with their tears in its times of defeat and remember, oh, my brethren, remem- Der, that democracy, like the human soul, is possessed of that spark of vitality that makes it immortal and that it will give as long as brave men breathe the air of freedom, and if it, with all human insti- tutions, must be swept from the face of the earth, its spirit will float through space unlimited and for all eternity. proud of the principles and deeds that gave 1t immortality.
 SPEECH OF FELIX BJ,ACKRITRN E,sO