The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-18

reply to that of Senator Thurston pub
lished this morning:
Washington, August II, 1896.
"Hon. John NJ. Thurston, Omaha, Neb.
my Dear Sir:-I observe in the papers
this morning n letter purporting to have
am pleased to note the following pas
sage: Il would be the last man in the
world to assail the character OF Mr..
Bryan. j have not done 50 in any in
stance or by any word of mine. Mr.
Bryan is the candidate of Il great party.
1t is not just to the American people
that charges of this kind should go I'M
answered. He is the man. and the only
man, who can make definite and conclu-
sive answ ers'
Mr. Thurston, how can you reconcile
the foregoing statement with your
charges against Mr.. Bryan and against
the silver producers, which is contained
in the following language used by you
and to which had the honor to call your
attention in my former letter:
The proprietors of the big bonanZas
have found it profitable to keep n large
number of lecturers and other spokesman
on the road preaching to the people.
Among the many who have thus been
employed and carried on the pay rolls of
the big bonanzas for number of years is
William j. Bryan, of Nebraska, paid
agent and spokesman of the free silver
combine. In the city of Omaha, where
William j. Bryan does editorial work, the
Omaha Bee has made the specific charge
editorially, time and again. 1t has never
been met. / say as an American citizen,
having Mt heart the welfare of the people,
that the man posing as the advocate of
the down trOdden masses of his country.
men, holding Grown Of thorns' in one
hand and the bugaboo cross of gold in
the other, owes it as n duty to every man,
woman and child. in this country to say
whether that charge is. false or whether it
is true. 1 do say, my countrymen, and
know whereof / speak, that for three
years and a half, without regard to Bryan,
there has been a selected corps of orators
and writers, paid employees Of the silver
producers, spreading their literature O yer
this country from one end to the other,
telling the farmer that he will have more
for his wheat, telling the laboring man
that he will have more for his work ~
"Your disclaimer in connection with
the foregoing statement requires an ex.
PLANTATION, providing you consider your
reputation for truth and yeracity valua-
BILE. But your disclaimer that you would
be the last man to assail the character
of Mr.. Bryan reflects either upon your
veracity or your knowledge of the law of
libel. If you are n lawyer, and the fact
that you have been retained by the
Union Pacific railroad for so many years
indicates that you are useful in some
way to that institution, you ought to
know that repeating SANDER or libel is
equally as slanderouS or libelouS as the
original matter.
'You assume that you are not assail-
ing Mr.. Bryan when you are quoting
what irresponsible newspapers say of
him, and giving to such statements all
the credit that your high official position
can confer. You belttle your under
standing when you say that it is the duty
of Mr.. Bryan to enter into u personal
controversy with every newspaper hire
ling who is employed to Islander or de-
fame him. The people understand the
animus of partisan newspapers, and
make proper allowances for their asser-
tions, but when you clothe their ISLANDERS
with your official robes, it is q lame and
cowardly defense on your part to protect
yourself by skulking behind miserable
newspaper scribblers. / called your at
tention to the injustice of your charge,
not the charge of newspapers, which |
have again quoted for the purpose of
calling your attention to the charge you
made, supposing that you were an hon
orable man; would retract the charges at
once, if you were unable to prove them.
Instead of doing so you repeated other
stalls slanders'against Bryan, myself, Sena-
tor Sharon, Gov. Stanford and others,
which, if true, does not prove your charge
against Mr.. Bryan.
81 shall not reiterate in kind and re-
port what venai newspapers or even bet
ter men than yourself say of you, because
it is not pertinent to the issue The issue
is whether you have unjustly and with
out proof assailed the character of Mr.
Bryan. You cannot avoid that issue by
pretending that you only repeated a
falsehood which somebody else origi-
mated. Do you fear the repeating of a
falsehood and attributing it to irrespon-
sible parties will impair your influence in
favor of the cause which you are advocat-
ing?
"You must remember, my dear Sena-
tor, that there is a sense of public justice
which is outraged by Islander and libel,
which you cannot justify by claiming
that you have the right to remark it be-
cause you have not the courage to origi-
nate it. If you have no case against Mr.
Bryan, which you have already admitted
by citing irrelevant, incompetent hearsay
to prove your charge, your ISLANDERS will
be harmless so far as he is concerned: but
can you afford to be published to the
world as a peddler of ISLANDERS which you
cannot prove? If you have any friends
who supposed that you were both honest
and brave, they will be sorely disap-
pointed if you fail to frankly avow your
error and retract your ISLANDERS or prove
the truth of your charges which 1 have
quoted above. Yours very respectfully,
William NJ. Stewart