The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-30
MIR. Beveridge's Speech.

Mr.. Beveridge' sNspeech was devoted most
ly to an excoriation of the Altgeld-Tiilman
planks of the Chicago platform. He said
in part:
Events, not politicians, have shaped and
shifted the issues OF this campaign. Six
perity. One month ago the issue was ma
tional honor. To-day the issue is national
life. Are the American people nation or
We aggregation of localities? Shall
the national government enforce its laws
as Washington enforced them, or shall it
first get the permission of local SatrapS
called governors? Which is supreme-the
general government of the whole people of
the entire Republic, or the caprice of the
executive of a State? Which is sacred-the
decision of court or the decree OF caucus?
Shall riot be crowned or order RI maintained
stripes the flag Of a vital nation of invinci-
bic people, CT is it meaningless as idiocy
and powerlesS as burnt powder? These are
the questions which focus upon the present
and supreme issue until 1t burns like the
heart of the sun-the estiny-determining
issue, whether American institutions,
Hamilton designed them, as Marshall de-
fined them, Lincoln consecrated them,
shall continue in their clear and single
course. or whether they shall be changed,
corrupted and dissiDated into the channels
that John c. Calhoun marked out and
John i. Altgeld has reSurVeyed.
ITO this question of fate, upon which the
American people are hanging GREATNESS,
to the citizens of Chicago the message of
people, uncorrupted by excessive individual
riches and undebased by profound poverty;
a people whose wealth is distributed with
rare equality; people who are neither
blinded by plutocracy nor maddened by
anarchy. and, therefore, a people who are
citizenship of which most of the citizenship
of the Republic is composed, and that con-
Stitute the safety of free government and
the best judges of vexed conditions and his
toric questions; people who responded to
Soldiers of liberty people who o. have n given
you Morton, the mighty. and Harrison, the
sane and superb bear you the message
that 1ndiana's thoughtful and patriotic
citizenship is for liberty vitalized by law;
for the Nation immortalzed by unity; for
order administered by courts, and against
revolution exemDlited by assaults on the
judiciary, against lawlessness. however
CARRIED and mobs, however excused. L
bear you the message that Indiana opposes
Bryan, and Altgeld, and Tillman and their
espouses William Mckinley and the holy
cause of which circumstance has made him
the champion with al the passion of patri-
of the integrity of the Nation, Indiana is
safe by a majority which you will have to
use italics to record.
DOCTRINE OF STATES RIGHTS.
1--WE have routed the enemy's first as
sault, which was made under the banner of
financial piracy. and, to-day. we are charg-.
ing their main line of battle, over which
floats the standard of States rights Cow
ernor Altgeld'S proposition is that the gem
eral government cannot suppress red riot,
extinguish the fires of arson, protect prop
erty from destruction and human life from
frenzy-blinded mobs, without the consent
of the Governor of the State where the riot
revels and those fires burn. His proposition
only by or at the request of the authorities
of the very locality where law and order
have already been overthrown. The Consti-
tuition, they say, forbids it. Our fathers
made a constitution, they insist, which is
seif-destructive; constitution which for
bids the general government to maintain
protection. Your Governor says the Pres-
dent cannot act; your Governor. says the
alton until the local authorities inform
him; that his hands are manacled until To-
blind as the eyes of death until the local
authorities touch them into life and sight.
Is that preserving the domestic tranquil
lily" which the Constitution guarantees?
Is that discharging the duties with which
the great ordinance Of national life invests
the President?
Who can best decide-who can most
safely decide when the exercise of national
power is necessary? Governor Altgeld tells
the American people that the local authori-
ties are on the ground and can best decide.
Yes they are on the ground, and. there
fore Nest Influenced ice by by local cendtions-
votes, by pandering to temporary passions
The cowardice of sheriffs who fear to Of
fend the who may elect or defeat
them is becoming burning Dy-word or re-
proach to our Institutions. The infamy of
Governors who hope to WELD local power
upon the suffrages of lawlessness has as
founded the Nation-witness Waite, with
his blood to the bride bits treason. But
the President of the Republic. by reason of
the universally of his power and support
is under such ;nDtation. He depends
not on a single locs fty-he depends on the
whole Republic, the mass of whose people
are always law-abiding; he depends upon
the whole body of the great American peo-
pie whose hope. and loyalty, and love GEN.
ter upon the American fag-not on the ban
ner of d State.
Demagogues may deceive the people of
a single locality; they may play upon the
passions of the most numerous Class in a
single county, or possibly, in a single
State Or, one section of the country may
be blinded by local conditions-frenzied by
local disturbance. And where the preroga-
tive of action inaction rests, alone with
local officers who are influenced by fear or
ambition, who are awed by threats or Sc
duced by promises, liberty and law are i'm
periled. But the whole country Is never dis
turbed at the same time. One State may be
maddened-her sisters are sane. One Sec
ton may be panicked-the rest Of the Re-
public IL serene. And. therefore. the gem
aral Uov ot1 lSr~.~