The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-10-08
TREACHERY OF THE CHICAGO
CONVENTION TO THE ST.
LOUIS POPULIST CON
VENTION.

The Chicago free silver nomination for
the presidency is rapidly simmering
down to the last degree of attenuation.
It's tail for all practical purposes dropped
off before it was firmly glued on. Any
thing conceived in treachery and eXecu-
ted in bad faith is bound to fall to pieces.
when exposed to Il discerning public.
There can be no doubt that SewalPs
nomination at Chicago was made as
feint, or for the purpose of dropping
him off upon the demands of the popu-
Ist convention at st. Louis as Il ground
of fusion between these political parties.
The members of the Chicago cOnven-
ton knew there was no hope for the
election of their nominee for the pres-
dency unless they could coalesce with the
populist party. They framed their plat
form on such principles as that the pop
ulsts could consistently stand upon it
and although they knew Bryan was a
popuist, they were nominating him as a
democrat, and they knew when they
nominated Sewall that the populist con-
second place on the ticket, and they Sc
lected Sewall from state in which they
had no hope, and he plutocrat whom
they believed they could move readily,
without any injury to themselves drop
off and put populist on the ticket with
Bryan. Their leaders went to the popu-
list convention at st. Louis, and we do
not hesitate to say, promised the popu-
lists that if that convention would NOM
mate Bryan and Watson that they would
Immediately withdraw Mr.. Sewall. But
during the session of the convention
these democratic leaders got dispatch
from Bryan protesting against the ar
rangement to make Sewall step down
and out. The young man from Nebras-
KIT had been so fatteringly received and
had in few days become so pulled up
that his vanity backed him in the belief
that he could carry his ticket without
the aid of the populist party.
This dispatch was concealed from the
knowledge of the populist convention,
but some of them had become suspicious,
notably the Texas delegation, and they
stood squarely in the middle of the road
demanding an open arrangement. The
democratic leaders present in st. Louis
counteracted this by concealing Bryan's
telegraph and by the small eXpedient
of shutting off the lights in the conven-
ton hall when the demand of the mid
dle-of-the-road delegates became too hot
for them. BY these two expedients they
succeeded in getting the populist con-
vention to endorse Bryan, but it was
done upon the express promise on the
part of the democratic committee that
Sewall would be withdrawn and Watson
put in his place by the national execu-
tive committe of free silver democratic
party. They knew at the time they
made the bargain that they could not
comply with it, neither did they intend
to comply with it, but they hoped that
something would turn up by which the
populists would desert Watson and sup
port Bryan and Sewall. They counted
without their host. The political sagaci-
ty of the populist party taught them
that their desertion of Watson and sup
port of Bryan and Sewall would wipe
the populist party out of existence, just
at the critical time when that party had
become of national Importance and prom
lsed to be great political factor in the
land as party.
We do not believe the Chicago free
silver steering committee ever intended
TO keep faith with the populist party,
and we think the facts show that their
original design was to wipe out the en-
istence of the populist party and attach
its members to the newly baptized free
silver democracy, but the good sense of
the populist party has disappointed that
design of the Chicago democrats.
The populists have seen the tran set
for them, and with more sagacity than
the fly that was enticed into the SPIDERS
den of school book memory, they have
most respectfully declined to be entrap-
ped by any such treachery. As we point
ed out the other day, a fusion between
the populists and the free silver demo-
Gratis would be the most unnatural DO
litical bedfellowship that could possibly
be arranged. What party, especially in