Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1896-07-08

W OhO AloJoAAy VI VIZ
party and the people.
A terrific yell went up when he said
"Let us construct platform that neither
human nor devilish ingenuity can submit
. to but one construction" There was
another yell when he exhorted the con
vention to tell the country: "We mean
to put silver back where it was in 1872
another when he denounced the issue OF
bonds in time of profound peace" and
the audience was wilder than ever when
he shouted: "Christ with the lash drove
from the temple better set of men than
those who for twenty years have shaped
the financial policy of this country.
BE TEMPERATE AND CONSERVATIVE.
"Be temperate and conservative" he
said, Shut do not forget you have cap.
turad skirmish lines, but the inner citadel
still stands. Do what you were sent here
to do, but whether you favor the gold
standard or the double standard, let every
one know that he is Democrat still.
pin my fate to the principles and loyalty
Of my party. A new day is dawning," he
concluded, "whose effulgence marks the
return of Democracy to power.
II beg you, gentlemen, to make plat
form that will tell the truth and then
rally as one man to vindicate its utter
ances."
During Blackburn's speech the $4,000
people in the hall were aroused to high
pitch of enthusiasm and as he closed they
went wild. For two minutes they shouted
their approval.
Then calls for Bryan we're heard. When
the chairman nqnired if Bryan was in the
hall the delegates and spectators jumped
to their feet and waved their handker
chiefs, but the young orator of Nebraska
could not be found.
| A chorus of demands for Hill was
raised again louder than ever.
Delegate A. W. Hope, of Illinois,
moved that Gov. Altgeld, of Illinois, ad
dress the convention.
| GOV. ALTGELD SPEAKS.
Gov. Altgeld mounted chair under
the Illinois standard, and, when he could
be heard, said: Con behalf of the state
Of Illinois ! suggest that this convention
give Hon. d. B. Hill, of New York, an op-
portunity to address it,"
This stroke brought down another
shower of demands for "Hill, Hill, Hill"
The chairman said: "The distinguished
gentleman from New York is not here"
Finally OK. Gov. Overmyer, of Kansas,
was brought to the platform and appeas-
cd the appetite of the crowd for several
minutes as he spoke for "the dollar of
our daddies."
For five minutes the band held the
crowd in check with stirring music.
Then the cries for Altgeld were re-
oA ~
tance, the Illinois governor was urged
forward to the stage.
With great deliberation he opened with
the statement that he had not come here
to make speech, but to assist in nomi-
mating the next president of the United
States and the formulation of declara-
tion of principles that would again offer
hope to the party of the people.
This sentiment gnrmed upgtha audience
and the almost haggard face of the Illi-
nois governor grew flushed. His gestures
came quick and vehement, and, before he
proceeded far, the convention was swayed
as by Cyclone by his oratory.
TELLING CLIMAX.
When he declared that hungry men and
children were looking to this convention
for relief, there was great demonstration.
Adroitly he worked up to the climax. He
declared that the toll and blood and sweat
of millions wers being doubled by a
shrinking standard of values. Then he
paused, and, fiinging his arms out before
him, asked: "Will you let them continue
it?"
"No, no, never" came in laundering
chorus from 10000 throats.
Later, referring to the great struggle
against slavery, he pointed to the Ameri-
can flag at his back and secuted the idea
of compromise.
"Did the men," he asked, "who gave up
their lives to preserve that flag talk of
compromise? There could be none."
As he finished, he descended from the
platform and was accorded another great
demonstration. The Illinois delegates
mounted their chairs and fraptically |
waved their banners.
After the interlude by the band, George
Fred Williams, the stalwart, fashionable,
scholarly looking young ex-congressman
from Massachusetts,, whose conversion to
free silver was recently announced, was
called to the platform amid great en-
thusiasm.
FREE SILVER IN NEW ENGLAND.
He spoke in new vein for the free
silver men of New England and his speech
was far the most striking incident of the
day. He made an impassioned plea
against sectionalism in clear cut, ringing
sentences, every one of which shot to the
mark like bullet.
His first sentence, "This is not sec
tional conventions" brought the silver
men to their feet like regiment follow
ing command, and, when he declared,
"This is battle for the restoration of
the union of states," the shout made the
roof rattle. "This is not transfer of the
seat Of power from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi" he continued, and cries
went up, "Hear, hear" II speak," he
said, ''in behalf Of the honest capital of
New England, in behalf of the real capi
tallsts, OF men who earned what capital
they could by honest toll, and in behalf
of the millions of spindles now silent.
Our customers have been ruined," he
declared,
This new portrayal of silver met with
general approval.
"The farmers of the west and south,
to whom New England sends her goods,
and the railroads. in which she invested
her honest earnings, we're bankrupted,
and now we have finally come down on
our knees with you." The seat of empire
was to be kept in the lumber camps of
Maine, the plantations of Louisiana, the
wheat fields of the west and the mining
camps Of the Rockies by the restoration
of the financial system under which pros.
perity would return.
POWER OF LOMBARD STREET.
When he closed with the statement that
the seat Of power was to be removed
"from the control of Lombard street in
London to-" the end of the sentence was
unheard, owing to the great tumult.