Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-08-27
A SOUND SPEECH
FOR SOUND MONEY


Cochran. delivered ut the great meeting |
of sound money Democrats in Madison |
Square Garden, New York, last Tuesday |
night;
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies' and Gentlemen,
Fellow Democrats All (applauseD: With
the inspiring strains of that national song
still ringing in our ears. who can doubt
the issue of this campaign? tApplause.)
Stripped of all verbal disguise, it is an
issue of common honesty, an issue be-
tween the honest discharge and the dis
honest Reputation of public and private
obligations. II is question as to whether
the powers of this government shall be
used to protect honest industry or to
tempt the citizen to dishonesty. On this
question honest men cannot differ. 1t is
one Of morals and of justice. 1t involves
the existence of social order. 1t is the
contest for civilization itself
A Democratic convention may renounce
the Democratic faith, but the Democracy
remains faithful to Democratic principles.
Democratic, leaders may betray conyen-
ton to the Populists, but they cannot Sc
duce the footsteps of Democratic voters
from the pathway of honor and of jus
4 tee A candidate bearing the mandate of
4 Democratic convention may in this hall
open n canvass leveled against the founda-
4, tons of social order, and he beholds the
Democratic masses confronting him, or
ganized for the defence. Fellow Demo-
Gratis, let us not disguise from ourselves
the fact that we bear in this contest Il
serious and grave and solemn burden of
duty.
" We must raise our hands against the
nominee of our party, and we must do it
to preserve the future of that party itself.
We must oppose the nominee of the Chi
cage convention, and we know full well
that the success of our opposition will
mean our own exclusion from public life,
but we will be consoled and gratified by
the reflection that it win prove that the
American people cannot be divided into
parties on question of simple morals
or of common honesty. We would look
In vain through the speech delivered here
one week ngo to find true statement
of the issue involved in this canvass
Indeed, ! believe it is doubtful if the
candidate himself quite understands the
nature of the faith which he processes.
i say this not in criticism of his ability
but in justice to his morality. / believe
that if he himself understood the inevita,
bic consequences of the doctrines which
he breaches. his own hands would be the
very first to tear down the platform or
which he stands. We all must remember
that lnrid rhetoric which glowed as fierce
ly in the western skies as that sunlight
which through the past week foretold til,
torrid heat of the ensuing day, and here
upon this platform we find that SAINT
rhetoric, as mild, as insipid as the water
of stagnant pool.
He is candidate who was swept int
the nomination by a wave of popular en-
thusiasm, awakened by appeals to preju
dice and greed. He is candidate who
declaring that this was revolutionar.
movement no sooner found himself fac
to face with the American feeling than h
realized that this soil is not propitious Il
revolution; that the people of this countr.
will not change the institutions whicl
have stood the tests and experiences of
century for institutions based upon TIL
fantastic dreams of Populist agitators
that the American nation will never con
sent to substitute the republic of Wash
ington, of Jefferson and of Jackson 70
the republic of an Altgeld, Tilman or
Bryan.
Whatever change may have come owe
!. his manner as a candidate, however niue
the yehemence of his eIoquence may hav
been reduced, two things for which
stands remain unaltered. On this plat
form he defended the most revolutionar
plank of the Chicago convention i
speech less vehement but not less earncs
than that in which he supported the
adoption. On this platform he defende
the Populistic programme of overtbrowin
the integrity of the Supreme Court.
there be any fruit which has grown ft
the benefit of all mankind out of the q
adjustment of our Republic it has bee
the demonstration that 1t is possible b
the organization of an independent tribl
nal to safeguard the rights of every cit
zen and protect those natural prvileg,
against any invasion, from whatevt
source or however powerful might be IL
antagonizing elements.
~ The very existence of that power pr
supposes the existence of an independeI
tribunal, yet we have this Populst CO.
yention because Populist measure W;
condemned as unconstitutional. proposiT
not to amend the Constitution in the ord
nary way prescribed by that instrumei
itself, but proposing to pack the court
that it will pronounce those laws to
constitutional which the Constitute
itself condemns, a proposal to make ii
courts of law Instruments of lawlessnes
to violate that sacred pact between II
States on which the security of this n
ton rests; to profane the temple erect
for its protection by the hands of fal
priests, who, though sworn to defend
will be appointed to destroy it,
In the time to which must contine IN
self tonight / can do nothing but @
anime that one question which Mr.. Bry;
himself declares to be the overshadowil
issue of this campaign. am a little pli
zled when | read this speech to dec
a just what Mr.. Bryan himself imagin
will be the fruit of a change in the stan
ard of value throughout this country.
do not believe that any man can folio
wholly with the speech, because if he d
SCENTS from one set of conclusions he h
got to read but few passages and he W
find another
If Mr.. Bryan could show me that
any means to heaven OF on earth wap
will be increased, will be ready to 81,
port him, because | know of no test
prosperity absolutely infallible except t
rate of wages paid to lab0rers. When ,
come to find how Mr.. Bryan expects
increase the wages of labor we find O,
selves lost in maze of contradiction.
man can tell how or where or when t
wages of the workingmen are to be
creased; but any one who examines {
scheme can see that the inevitable IL
dency, the inevitable consequence. of
debasement in the standard of value mi
be reduction in the rate of wages-a
that is the conspiracy in which the Por
lists are engaged.
Now, Mr.. Bryan tells us that he wal