Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-08-19
THE TRUE ISSUE.

ahN% aht1 49,
These are times of revolution. There
is a realignment of political parties.
Politics is giving way to business.
Prejudice no longer holds its baneful
sway over the minds of the people, and
as never before the sovereign voters
are doing their own thinking and reach.
ing their conclusion through mental
processes guided by reason and the
light of experience.
1t is true that there is a vast amount
of clamoring and clashing, din and
confusion, but anarchy and fanaticism
do not reign supreme by any means.
1t is true that we are confronting new
neutrality-suspicious. precipitated by
cranks, demagogues, pot hunters and
free hooters. But it is by no means APP
parent that there is a possibility of the
country being overriden by such a
combination of irresponsible and dizzy
headed characters. He. who at this
time despairs of q happy and glorious
outcome, though it be ever so dark and
troubles coming in battalions, must
lose all faith in the prudence, CON
servatism, intelligence and patriotism
of the masses.
There is such an emphatic and un-
just inequality in the conditions of the
classes of American citizenship, the
distress is 80 intense and universal that
relief must c0ne i'll ONE shape and
from some quarter, and it must come
Don and come to stay.
The people are resolute, terribly in
earnest, in demanding a change, not
merely for the sake of change, but for
the return of the opportunities to labor
and to mako a decent and comfortable
living. They demand a currency in
which all its forms shall be of stable
and uniform value.
This is the real issue of the present
exciting Presidential contest despite
all its bewildering and confusing ell.
vironments, and the sober, second
thought of all Glasses is beginning to
take firm hold of this fact. In a signal
way politics has become business, and
as an assuring consequence 'crowns of
thorns"a and ''crosses of gold"ar bright
but not alluring metaphors only.
The Democratic party has signally
demonstrated its incapacity to rule this
great country and protect its expand
ing interests in the enactment of laws
that have brought upon them impover.
ishment and bankruptcy. All was nap.
piness, hopefulness and prosperity un-
til in an evil and reckless hour the
Democratic party was enthroned in
power. Ever since there has been I'M
certainty, alarm, the boarding of CAPT.
tai and consequent depreciation of val
ues until s%tagnation has laid its hand
upon every industry. 1t is plain to
every reasoning man that Democracy
can not cope with the fearful condi.
tions which it's misrule and imbecility
have created. 1t has an amazing ge-
MUS to spread havoc and wo, but is as
~toundingly n~nresourceful in the work
of r%ecuperation and repair. This fact
has finally worked its way into the
minds of hundreds and thousands of
honest Democrats throughout the
country, and they are joining the Re-
publican column in all the States with
an unanimity and enthusiasm which
congeals the marrow In the spines of
the anarchists and fanatics who COM
posed the Chicago Crankfest. These
accessions will moro than offset the
loss sustained by the Republican party
from the st. Louis bolt.
The tangled and inconsistent record
of the Democratic party, to say nothing
of its historical failures to solve the
political, industrial and economic
problems that have arisen since the
war, afford not the slightest hope of
relief from this source. Whatever it
found good 1t changed to evil; what
ever it found bad it made infinitely and
intolerably worse. Its success in '96
would be loaded with irretrievable dis.
aster. The people will not tempt a
fresh succession of misfortunes in any
such a dare devil way.
The record of the Republican party
is straight, coherent, brilliant and sig
nally free from serious mistakes and
plumbers. From the beginning it has
had a we'll settled, clearly defined line
of policy covering the whole ground of
national progress and expansion. All
its achievements have been for the
good of the country. Its craftsmanship
and legislation signalize the splendid
and affiuent eras of the country's his
tory. The people have always incurred
and suffered when they spurned its
commands and rejected its rule. 1t hal
no lot of unredeemed pledges in the in
ventory of its liabilities. Its accom-
plishments are far beyond the dreamI