Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-08-27
RepudiateS Bryan!
COL. M. N. PRICE, OF SANBOKN
COUNTY, ONE OF THE Por
PARTY FOUNDERS, CANNOT
SUPPORT BRYAN.

bONCIDol III looNy
declines to be delivered into the
democratic camp. The popullst
party having gone out of business
and having been absorbed by the
revolutionary wing of the democratic
party, the colonel has made his choice
and given the following statement
to the public :
II frankly avow that ! cannot
support Bryan. | am not and never
could be a democrat. All my ante
cedents are Republican. | cheered
at the birth of the Republican party
and swore fcalty to its sacred banner
in 1856. / was a Lincoln wide
awake in 1860 (; was commissioned a
colonel by a Republican governor,
and first flashed my maiden sword
with eager grasp to the thrilling
music of Republican patriotism.
Il have always advocated a civil
rights bill securing to every negro
citizen a free ballot. and denounced
the notification of the results of the
war.
II am in favor Of a protective
tariff, which has always been the
steadfast friend of the laboring man,
and | have for twenty years adVo-
Gated true bimetallism, but | ann
opposed to reckless experiments in
finance which are always favorable
to the capitalist and disastrous to the
laborer. These associations cannot
be forgotten. / would not, if |
could, blot out the record of the
past.
"These sacred oracles, woven and
embroidered with memories of de-
votion to country, weaponed vaIor
against battallioned treason, wise
Legislation producing home industry
and national greatness, and steadfast
loyalty to constitutional government;
all speak to my conscience in this
crucial hour and loudly forbid
alliance with Altgeld, anarchism,
contempt of courts, Tillman, section
alism, and the shimmering shiboleth
of an iridescent orator, who is an
untried champion, a free trade and
anti-civil rights advocate, and who
insultingly ignores the platform and
nomination of trucking populism,
and kicks the cur that licked his
boots. When accidental leaders
mock at the most cherished object of
populism, when adventures for the
sake of temporary success, delude
our reform movement into abandon
ing its basic principle, then the
standard of populism becomes a
meaningless rag. |, for one, will
lower my lance and quit the field.
"Never in tho annals of parties
was there such an exhibition of brutal
manners, rude impudence, gross i'm
politeness, less calm deliberation AID
more reckless gag rulings than dis
graced the late populist convention,
and put to blush every decent mem
Der OF the party in the country.
"Loucks and Stewart were
~squelched and insulted, and PETER
and Donnelly, both eminent men,
were totally ignored, and under the
lead of professional politicians,
Weaver and Allen, backed by the
ignorant corncrackers of North
Carolina and Georgia, populism was
assasinated, crucifed on q silver
cross, and the mangled body turned
over to Coroner Bryan.
"The financial principle so strong
ly urged by Wendell Phillips, ad-
vocated and Endorsed by Edwards,
Pierpont, and Senator Stanford, aud
SO long maintained by wise legisla.
ton In France, and to advance which
! left my old associates in 1889, was
IN st. LOUIS relegated to the rear by
eager ofhceseekers, who hope to de-
lude the people and ride into office
upon the wild waves of a silver craze.
| cannot follow them against an old
soldier whose record IN morals, pol.
itics, and the field is without spot or
hlemish. Like the Texas delegation
who, amid the clamor of band-wapon
excitement, stood as firm as the
Coldstream guards, and voted mo,
no." to Bryan's nomination, so | take
my stand and shall vote "No'' on the
Bird of November. And / do not be-
lleve that earnest populists, stalwart
Fremonters, civil rights bill advo.
Gates, and protectionists of American
homes, American labor and American
prowess, whose fathers ..fired the
shot heard around the world will
deliver themselves, body and breech-
es, into the democratic camp and
vote against lifelong principles, a
Republican statesman, a home pro-
tectionist and "a gallant comrade
who carried his country's flag in the
red glare of the rebel fire, up Look
out mountain and along the Rapidan