The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-10-29

| the next President of the United States.
1t is the last word We shall have with you
before you go to the polls. We feel In
tensely the momentousness of the occa-
sion.
Four years ago, at this time, we adj
dressed you in a similar way as to the
issue then presented to you. We urged
you, with all the earnestness we could
put into words, to stand solidly by Com
rade Ben Harrison, and prevent the re.
turn to power of the men who were be-
hind his opponent We gave you the
fullest possible warning Of what you
might expect from them. Most Of you
listened to what we said, and believed in
it. Many of you did not.
You know the result. You know now
that we did not then overdraw the picture.
We did not 60 far enough. Very much
worse has come than we dared to predict.
You know this to be true, without our
further enlarging upon it.
Now we would say to you, with tenfold
more earnestness, if we could, that the ca
lamity of Bryan's election will be seventy
and seven times more bitter than that
which descended upon us four years ago.
Then, all we had to fear were raids
upon our industries and upon the pen
sioners. Now we are menaced by threats
of a financial revolution which will
reach to the very foundations of our
prosperity and produce consequences
that no man can foresee, but which we
know from a thousand experiences in
other lands cannot help resulting in
misery to every citizen. So absolutely
certain is this result regarded that we
find arrayed against Mr.. Bryan and his
supporters the ablest and best men Of
every party. Never has the country
seen the intelligence, the conscience and
the common sense of IFS people so
thoroughly on one side of any great
question. We do not say this in dis
paragement of any of you who may have
been inclined to the Free Silver side,
because we appreciate the peculiar hard
ships to which many of you have been
subjected, and can understand how you
may have come to lend willing ear to
the sophistries of financial quacks and
blatant humbugs. But if you will re-
fleet, you will at once see that the men
who are teaching these dangerous doc
trines have never been regarded as safe
advisers upon any question, great or
small. Almost invariably they have
been on the wrong side of every great
question that has come before the
country. The most prominent of them
those who give tone and character to
Mr.. Bryan's campaign, and who will
inevitably control him if elected-have
in times past been the most dangerous
enemies the country has ever known. and
you bear ON your bodies or in your
hearts scars received in the desperate
struggle to save the Government from
them. You must also know that these
men hate you to-day as badly as they
ever did, and while they may fawn upon
you now, you can expect no mercy from
them when once in power. All the
danger that we anticipated to the pen
sioners in 1892 was from this class of
men, and their ascendancy in the Ad-
ministration. They were restrained from
doing worse than they did by the con-
servative portion of their party in the
North. Now they have kicked out the
old-time leaders, from whom we might
reasonably expect something, and have
the party reins completely i'll their own
hands. We can expect nothing from
them any more than We could when they
held us prisoners Of war at Anderson
vile and Salisbury. They gave us fair
warning of this by the insultingly brief
mention in the Chicago platform.
This is far from all. Not content
with urging a financial abomination
which has never failed to ruin the
wretched country trying it, they have
added other alarming propositions.
They have revived the odious doctrine
of States Rights in a particularly OBJ.