The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-05-20
A Great APPEAL.
CYCLONE DAVIS SPEECH.
Delivered at Atlanta, Cass County,
Texas, April IS, in Closing
Debate With HI. Clay
Mack.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Citizens
I'm February, 1891, publicly renounc-
ed all allegiance to and affiliation with
the Democratic party, of which 1 had
been member all my life and my father
before me, he having cast his first vote
for that noble old hero and statesman,
Andrew Jackson. To break away from
the Affiliations Of lifetime and the an
cestral legends Of two generations re-
Quired no little courage. But under the
firm conviction that the controlling pow
ers of my party were in league with the
combined money power OF Europe and
America, to make gold the only debt pay
ing money Of our country, perpetuate the
national banking system and multiply
our bonded debt into billions, and make
the whole Of it a gold debt instead Of a
money-debt. l refused to 60 with my
party any longer. The history of myself
is the history of almost every member
Of our party today, in the South. Our
Democratic friends say we left them, but
such is not the case. In the mad rush to
ruin, bankruptcy and despair into which
our leaders were plunging the country
emn protest, stood by the doctrines of our
fathers in order to uphold the hopes and
destinies of our children and protect our
homes from the spoilation and plumber
which we saw coming. Millions of 9TH
ers-good men-followed them on; and
today they find themselves betrayed, de-
ceived, bargained for, sold out and forced
to kneel at the shrine of the golden calf
and at the feet of a foreign foe-of alien
tyrants and American usurpers and in
cringing humility beg for mercy. And
while the British bond syndicates hold
absolute sway over their party, and the
British lion Is tearing into shreds the
robes of our Goddess of Liberty, in the
frantic rage of-their despair and of our
country's ruin, they turn to us whom they
have left behind and whose warming
they refused to heed and with the voice
of a Bland and Tillman, a Reagan and
Bryan a Sibley and Jones they cry Help!
help" Friends, behold the sad specta-
Gle!
Three great parties are organized and
before the country: The Democratic par
ty, which Is in power; the Republican
party, which has been largely the dom
inant party for 80 years, and the Peoples
or Populist party, which was organized in
Cincinnati May, 1891, from the protesting
elements Of the old parties. 1t stands in
the same relation to the old parties that
the Democratic party bore to the Wing
and Republican parties under the leader
ship Of Andrew Jackson, John Randolph,
Thomas Benton ct al, in the thirties,
when the Democratic party as new par
ty "a third party defeated the Wings I'M
der Henry Clay and the Republicans I'M
der J. @. Adams; destroying the Repub-
lican party, which had been founded by
Thomas Jefferson, and becoming the
great rival of the Wing party for more
than 20 years.
We stand in the same relation to the
old parties that the Republican party
occupied in 1856-60 under the leadership
of Lincoln, Chase, Stevens, Seward ct al,
which was then a third party, protest
ing against the platforms and policies of
the Wing and Democratic parties; and
which, in 1860, defeated the Democrats
under John C. Breckenridge and Stephen
A. Douglas, and the Wings under Bell, of
Tennessee, destroying the Wings and be-
coming the great rival of the Democratic
party.
The position taken today by our party
Is almost exactly the same as that taken
by the Democratic party when formed and
led by Andrew Jackson.
The great central idea of reform was the
money question. The Wings under Clay
and the Republicans under Adams either
favored banks, bonds and an increase of
debt and corporate power or refused to op-
pose them. Jackson went back and took
up the doctrine Of Thomas Jefferson, and
opposed banks and bonds and corporate
power over the money of the country.
Upon this doctrine he succeeded; and the
Democratic party thus established abolish
ed the banks, paid off the bonds, issued
government paper money and virtually put
the government upon cash basis. The
leaders of the move were generally the
Shareholders of the South. The aristocracy
of our country was then divided. 1t was
the STAKEHOLDER against the bondhoider
The bondholder, thus defeated, sought tc
take advantage of the Estates rights" dec
trine, organize state banks and try to en-
list the Shareholders in an effort to bank on
state bonds; and after bitter experience
of ten or twelve years, the banks were
amid an era of confscation, panic and
bankruptcy, again hurled from place and
mower, and the condemnation of an out
ragged people registered against Estate
banks and wildcat money" About this
time the puritan sentiment of the east ant
the great ph:lanthropic heart OF the coun
try had become alarmed at the spread an,
aggression of the slave traffic, and tired
of the temporiz:ng policy Of the Old partie
on this question; and armed with the sane
tiled truth that 'the tree of liberty coult
not bear slaves" began to organize a new
party pledged to abolish slavery. Chatte
slavery was an enemy to wage slavery
The owner Of chattel slaves was unwillin.
that the labor of his slaves should be takel
to pay interest on bonds and bank money
Chattel slavery must be abolished to max
room for wage slavery. So to this ney
party the bondholder turned for refuge
The party grew. Its cause was heaven
born and holy. Passions grew high ant
fomenting strife grew strong.
The money question had been lost sigh
Of in the raging contention over the SLAYER.
question. The conflict came. The COO