Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-30

of the power to issue all paper money and
 give them monopoly of the function" In reference to the Sherman silver law of 1890 MT. Tillman said:
 "The silver republicans of the west, who had deserted the silver democrats of the south and accepted the compro-
 mise offered by Senator Sherman, may take warning as to what faith or trust they can put in any utteranceS or actions of the senator from Ohio as to legsla tion in regard to our finances. The time for another presidential election ap- breaches They must understand that 1 the election of any man to the presidency who shall veto a free coinage bill means | defeat. It means continued disaster to our industries and increased poverty to | the masses of our people. If the secret history of the year 1892 should ever be written it would disclose the fact that the gold ring of New York, which em- braced nearly all the bankers in the | eastern and middle states and the stock gamblers of Wall street, controlled the | presidential nominations of both the | democratic and republican parties and | had an understanding with the man. | agers, or with both the candidates them- | selves, in regard to what policy should | be pursued toward our finances. They | contributed money for the booming of | MT. Cleveland as the only available dem | ocratic candidate, and they abused and ridiculed every other democratic aspir- | ant. MT. Cleveland was undoubtedly | strong with the masses of the people,
 and his patriotic and sympathetic utter
 ances during his first administration in | both of the agricultural classes gave him | great strength, but there was no doubt
 that money was used lavishly and that | there were pledges made in regard to the l distribution of patronage as means of | controlling delegates and securing yotes | There was plain evidence to show that
 the president himself had weakened on
 the question of tariff reform, and the | financial plank was cunningly drafted
 so as to satisfy both gold and silver men, with the intention that it should be in | terpreted, If Cleveland was elected, as l meaning the cessation of silver coinage | and the forcing of gold standard upon | the people. Interpreted according to the | plain use and meaning of English words | the platform meant bimetallsm, but | there were conditions and ambiguous | phrases which had afforded an excuse | to the elastic conscience of the bull | headed and self-idolatrous man who | holds the reins of power to pursue the l policy he has. Whether the scheme was 1 agreed to by the president in person or | not, and whether he bound himself in plain terms or not, would perhaps never | be known. His course had been un- | swerving in the absolute contradiction | of his public professions and letter of | acceptance The expectations and inter-
 ests of the people had been forgotten and
 
 | been betrayed and its banners, which | fioated so triumphantly in the breeze in 1892 now trailed in the dust of defeat The practical destruction of the party | had been accomplished.
 | Mir Tillman quoted from MT. Cleve- l lands letter of acceptance, and com mented upon it in these words:
 'There is nothing here which would | warrant one to expect that the leader | of the democratic party, its head and guide, would ignore the platform and | treat with contempt the trusted ieuten- ants whom the people had sent to the na- | tional capital to assist in shaping the | party's policy. The language would | lead us to expect the very reverse. How many of these reasonable expectations | have been met? How many of you. men grown old and gray in the service of the | party and of the nation-men who were | its trusted leaders before Cleveland was | ever heard of-how many. say. have | been called into his councils? If any, | speak, I shall be glad to hear them | Where has this man sunk his personal | ity? Whom has he consulted? Whose | advice has he recognized? None but that | of the bootlicks and sycophants. who | have crawled on their knees for the | crumbs of patronage and betrayed their | own constituents for the offices in his gift.
 Tn the entire history of this country 1 the high office of president has never been so anu nCNCI hoo thC appointing power been so abused. Claim ing to be the apostle of civil service re- form, he has debauched the civil service by making appointments only of those whose sponsors would surrender their manhood and with bated breath walk with submissive head in his presence. With relentless purpose he has ignored his oath of office to uphold and obey the law, and has paid out gold instead or coin and issued bonds to buy more golu,
 
 giving no heed to the interests of any but his moneyed friends-I might say, his owners or partners
 while to this besotted tyrant coin has come to mean gold alone ne cannot by his mere 'ipse dixit change the law of this land and pervert the plain mean ing of the English language. His repub- lcan partners in crime, who set the un- righteous and unlawful example which he has so consistently followed. and en- couraged him in it to the utmost extent. cannot escape the condemnation Of the honest, working, business men of the country as equal partners in his guilt "The repeal of the sherman law. 1t was asserted, which was the first point of at tack of this 'unholy alliance was only accomplished through the aid and in conjunction with a majority of the re- publican senators.
 This democratic president accomplish ed what was not possible for any republi- can executive under the circumstances to have brought about change of the party in power had left large number of offices in his gift with which 10 buy votes"
 Tn discussing the "honest meaning" of parity of gold and silver in the Sherman law he said
 .The object was to have them assist each other to hold silver up by holding gold down, and an honest secretary of the treasury who should have resigned b;e office rather than submit to the dicta- tion of besotted chief. would have paid out silver to protect the treasury from the gold gamblers and bond gamblers. as the law and his oath of office required. Rut. alas: the old breed of southern statesmen like Calhoun, who, after a life spent in the public service. had to be buried at public expense and his debts paid by the state of South Carolina. is
 no more No wonder the senator from
 Massa chusetts feels warranted in twit-
 ting us with the decay of southern states
 manship and charging us with dishon- esty. He charges 1t. however, in another