Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-09-03

honest, patriotic and intelligent men who
CHING with all the strength of conviction
10 the specious but unsound theory of bi-
metallisnt at 16 to 1. If their theory Is de-
nounced as false and pernicious. no impu-
tation Is cast upon their character nor any
slur upon their intelligence
Free Coinage the Supreme Issue.
The free coinage of silver is and has
been since Mr. Cleveland's Inauguration the
supreme, overshadowing issue before the
| country. Upon that issue the President
| and a majority OF his party's representa-
tives in Congress took opposite sides. III
consequence he has been powerless to ef
feet financial reform and secure immunity
from gold raiding on the treasury.
Since the inception of the struggle for
free silver no compromise has been pos
sible. Our brethren knew that thu battle
was on to the death. The nominee OF the
so-called democratic party has on several
occasions proclaimed the irreconcilable ma
ture Of the conflict 1t is a lifting culmina-
ton Of such a contest for our brethren to
obtain allies from populism at the price OF
Incorporating its nefarous doctrines in
their platform and attempting to palm
them off as genuine democracy. 1t was nj
that to a degraded and deprecated cur
rency should be added an assassinated
judiciary and poweriess executive:
Fellow citizens. We are not traitors TO
our party. We are In the house of our
fathers. We cannot be driven from 1t.
We will defend the honor of our country
and the integrity of our principles as long
as life endlres We can neither be ousted
from our political heritage nor forced into
the ranks of our old-time adversary. We
intend to preserve intact unimpaired and
unsullied. by and through the organiza-
tion which we perfect today, the democ-
| racy Of Jefferson, Jackson. Benton and
Cleveland. We propose to furnish refuge
and an abiding place for such Of our breth-
rem as. shocked and grieved at the be-
| trayal Of our principles at Chicago. are in
clined to go to the republican camp.
THE principles Of democracy are i'm
perishable. They are antagonistic to the
socialist; the destructiveness OF the an
archist and the vagaries of the infiationist
and repudiator- Byron wrote: While the
Coliseum stands Rome shall stand, and
while Rome stands, the world We say:
While democracy stands the republic shall
stand; and while the republic stands. hu-
man liberty
For a season our party may stray after
false doctrines and founder amid quag-
mires, until the beacon light of truth
breaks upon It, 1t will rise from every
fall, like Antaeus Of old. and ''een in its
ashes Will live its wonted fires If in the
decree of fate our party must perish, let
no historian write such epitaph on its tomb
| as this: Came to an untimely end from
swallowing political and financial poison
but rather let this epitaph be written over
Its honored grave, dug amid the ruins Ct
| the Capitol: 1t did not survive the loss CT
liberty, the destruction of the republic, and
No New Creeds.
we are the .propagandists Of no new
| creed. We are the upholders Of the old.
We appeal from democracy drunk with de-
fusion to democracy sobered by reason
With an abiding faith ia the Intelligence
and honesty Of our people, We lay before
| them and the world the reasons that
| prompt us to unfur the old flag that has
| foated over many a triumph and many a
defeat and never yet been soiled by re-
pudiation or stained by dishonor.
I'VE deem II wise to pursue an aggres-
sive rather than negative policy; to be
Achilles dragging Hector around the walls
of Troy. rather than Achilles sulking in his
tent We propose to make a funeral pyre
or the eadavers of popuism and anarchy.
We propose to drag behind our triumphant
| chariot wheels. in defeat and disgrace,
around the national capital the dead
Frankenstein personifying their pernicious
creed and their turbulent fanaticism.
I'VE cannot make bedfellows even in a
night of furious storm and this darkness,
| OF our lifelong antagonists. We cannot,
even to escape as great evils as are the
| necessary result of the success of the Chi
cago platform, be the execu.ioners of our
| loved and venerated party. We cannot,
even by implication, be held to the false
f, theory that the people can be made rich by
| taxation, nor to the theory that the fed
| eral power and treasury can or ought to
| be used to impair the autonomy of the
|
dispe nse largess to favored classes. The
| election Of Mckinley or of Bryan, with our
| support, would mean the destruction Of
| our whole party for a generation. For,
when our people recover from the debauch
| of populism and anarchy they will discard
the men who have led their orgy. If we
| go to Mckinley, those men will be the rec
ognized opponents of democracy. When
| the fumes of the debauch are .1issipated
| and. sober reason resumes her sway, our
| flock will turn toward its fold, only TO find
| 1t destroyed. We, therefore, stand fast
We sound a bugle call throughout the land
for all democrats to rally for the support
| OF government and law, for the honor of
| their country and for the main
tenanee and preservation Of their
| creed. its memories and its glories.
If not needed. now, it will be in the near
| future. And those clouds which lowered
| over our political horizon and darkened
our councils will take flight, those opposed
| eyes which lately met in party conflict
will be turned all one way and united and
| triumphant democracy will march on to
| victory. under the aegis of the Constitu-
| ton and under the precepts of the apostles
| of our faith
Adjourned to This Morning.
At the conclusion OF Senator Caffery's
| speech John p. Irish Of California was call
ed for and responded with a speech. Mr.
Irish has quite reputation as an orator
and fully justified 1t.
He said there was something appropriate
| about the selection Of Indianapolis for this
| convention, as there in the days of the war
| democrats assembled under the threat of
| shotted guns, and declared their faith
| They were now threatened with something
| orse than physical determination
Their name had been filched and their
| principles dehauched by those who had DIS
| placed that code with creed to which the
| democratic party had been opposed since
| there had been a division of parties in the
| country.
| His characterization Of Mr.. Bryan as the
"agent Of the silver syndicate and the
| commercial traveller of the millionaire mina
| owners touring the country for business
| raised laugh, which ended in a round of