Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-03-25
He Is Said to Strongly Favor
A Sound Money Plank.
And Will Have It in Democratic
National Platform If Possible.



In Washington, and no one is able to give
satisfactory answer. But I have made
some inquiries which, satisfy me that tho
administration has only one definite pro-
eramme, and this has not to do with can
didates. The first great desire of the pres
ident and his advisers, as l told you some
time ago in a dispatch from this city, is
to secure the adoption of sound money
plank in the Chicago convention. Every
thing else is to be subordinated to this
project. Unless the platform can be made
right the president and his followers will
have little interest in the nominations If
the principles of tho party are to be chang
ed, il the Democracy is TO become free
silver party, Mr.. Cleveland and his iinme-
date friends will not care rap who the
nominees are, and will wash their hands of
the whole business. This statement gives
n keynote to the programme of the admin
istration, and everything else will have TO
be measured by it.
Carlisle and Morrison.
Secretary Carlisle is in a certain sense
candidate for the presidential nomination,
and in u sense he. has. the support OF the
administration. But it would not be true
to say that he is ''the' administration
candidate if by that is meant that the
whole power of the government is to be
used to bring about his success. The truth
is that Mr.. Carlisle was put forward rs u
possible nominee more in the hope that his
appearance in the field would strengthen
the sound money cause than through any
belief that he could be nominated. Before
%
Isle was in close touch with the free silver
people. Though not very much of a free
silver man himself at any time. he was II
member Of their ranks in conservative
way, and his friends in public life and IL
majority of his admirers in private life, were
in the states which now seek to have silver
made the cardinal principle of Democracy.
Therefore 1t was believed that, as presi-
Dental candidate, Mr.. Carlisle might help
to hold up the hands of the men who are
struggling for antisilyer delegates IRON
the southern states.
Morrison Not For Free Silver.
There was a special reason why Mr.. Car
isles name should be INTERCEPTED to the
canvass. Colonel William r. Morrison of
Illinois Is the most prominent candi-
in the western and southern section of the
country. Morrison and Carlisle have much
the same standing. They have been fast
friends, personally and politically. Their
political friendship is at an end but Their
personal relations are as pleasant as ever
They have belonged to the same coterie-
that Is, the friends of ono have in innumer
able instances been the friends of the other
Colonel Morrison is not q free silver man
His personal belief is that free coinage by
this country alone would be dangerous
But he is satisfactory to the silver men, in
q measure, because it Is understood among
them that If MI. Morrison were nominated
for president and elected he would not veto
silver bill i'll case one were passed by the
congress. Mr.. Morrison declines to saw
whether or not this Is true, but the silver
men appear to be we'll content with his
position. If it is true, it is because Mr..
Morrison, rs an old fashioned Democrat,
does not believe 1t lies within the province
OF president to set himself up as greater
than the congress and greater than thu
people who elected the congress by inter
posing the executive veto upon measure
which has been discussed throughout the
country, and upon which there has been
no rash or hasty legislation. There is a
theory to which it is believed Mr. Morrison
subscribes, that the veto power should only
be exercised when congress has acted has
tily or impulsively, or upon supposed state
of facts which afterward turned out to be
Incorrectly stated and that in no case is 1t
the duty or right of the president to thwart
the will of the people as expressed through
the ballot box upon a great question of
economic or financial policy.
Contingency.
Another reason why Mr. Morrison is not
opposed by the silver men is because he is
believed to take such view of the duty of
the president that if he were in the White
House he would not sell bonds to maintain
the gold reserve unless he were expressly
directed to do SO by congress. In other
words, if he were president he would as
sumo that if congress wanted the reserve
maintained in that manner it would say
SO explicitly; that at any rate the respon-
sibility rests upon the congress and not
upon the president, whose duty it is simply
to obey and carry out the laws and not to
create them. OF course any one can see
what the result of such policy would be.
If the gold reserve were attacked by the
exporters, and congress refused to direct
its replenishment by means of bond sales,
it would disappear altogether, and the
country would go to silver basis As
long as the free silver men have control Oh
the senate, rs they are likely to do for
some time to come, no such authorization
could be carried through congress-
For these reasons the administration is
especially desirous of defeating the nomi-
nation of Colonel Morrison, who personally
would make an admirable candidate. MIR.
itcln Nx-uc to- H..