The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-16
LIBERTY OF CONTRACT
HOW CHICAGO PLATFORM WOULD
UTTERLY DESTROY III.
Address by w. w. Thornton Before
the Commercial Travellers Club
Last Night on Silver Question.

ne tOInTfeFCldi 1IdNeleTS ISepuDlCdi
Club. at its regular meeting last night. was
addressed by w. w. Thornton and several
members of the club. The Hon. Will Cum
back was to have spoken at the meeting.
but he was unable TO do so. A letter re-
celved by the president of the club stated
that he had made an operrair speech yes
terday afternoon and had overtaxed his
voice. Members of the club responded will
ingly when called upon to express their
views on the topics Of the day. and there
was no lack of interest throughout the
meeting. Mr.. Thornton spoke on the silver
question principally. though he touched
upon the other issues of the campaign. Re-
garding the plank of the Democratic plat
form which provides for the notification of
certain contracts he said:
When we read the Democratic platform
We may well be astoniShed at the extreme
length It's trainers propose TO go in order
TO uphold the cause of full and
coinage Of silver. The leaders of the cause
of silver were shrewd enough to perceive
that great opposition would arise TO a
greater use of silver than we have at
the present time. Looking at the. past and
the present. they knew men would exercise
the right of contract in the future. and
draw obligations payable only in gold.
There is no prohibition in the federal
Constitution which forbidS Congress enact
ing a law that impairs the obligations of a
contract, the DIOilDlllOU III lildl llcQ uihCHI
forbidding the impairment of the obliga-
tions of a contract applies only to State leg
islation, not to legislation by Congress.
But so universal has become the rules or
construction that a statute applies only to
events taking place after its enactment,
that courts will not apply its provisions TO
transactions of the past unless such pro-
visions are SO broad and so clear and ex-
plicit that there is no escaping the inten-
ton of the Legislature, that the statute
should govern and control contracts then
already i'm force. The trainers OF the plat
form EVIDENTLY had this in view when they
constructed that instrument. 1t is the evil
dent purpose of these gentlemen TO enact
a law providing that all debts, although
they may be payable in gold, can be dis
charged in silver, and absolutely prohibits
ing the making of d contract payable only
in gold.
TO DESTROY JUDICIAL IMPARTIALITY
In order to make sure of attaining this.
and upon this attainment the success of
their whole cause hinges. they have de-
clared against the life tenure of office.
Now the only federal officers who hold
their offices for life are judges of the United
States courts and the clerks of these
courts. The Democratic party recognizes
the fact that the Supreme Court will prob
ably be a lion in their path; so they are
preparing the way for a shorter term than
a life tenure, whereby they may place their
own henchmen-men who will do their bid
ding regardless of the Constitution or the
lawn places of high trust; and all this
for the cause of silver alone.
The federal and all State governments
in the United States are divided into three
divisions, each coordinate with, but indie
pendent of control by the other two-the
legislative to enact, the judiciary TO inter
pref, and the executive TO enforce the laws
enacted. BY common consent the judiciary
is the weakest department of the three.
Whenever one department encroaches upon
another the Independence of that other is
destroyed and rendered less efficient in the
administration of justice. This result VIII
will be brought about if the life tenure of a
judicial officer shall be destroyed, and Tor
it substitute q periodical tenure.
us the cause OF free and unlimited COIN
age of silver so urgent that this must be
done? Must we imperil the very fabric of
constitutional government, of constitutional
liberty. in order to afford these owners and
traders in silver a market for their wares?
1t would seem that these gentlemen hest
tate at nothing in order to attain the res
suit they desire. Indeed, in view of this
proposed revolution OF the IaIr fabric of
fathers of the past, we may, without a
stretch of Imagination, believe they are
ready TO adopt the assertion of an eccentric
Governor of a Western State. who declared
he would ride in blood until it reached
the bride bit, in order TO further the cause
Of silver.
Looking at the past, extending over a
period of six centuries. we preceive that
the attainment of two great objects imbued
our English ancestors ana continental
Europe. The one was the attainment of
religious liberty, and the other personal
liberty. The oppressed of all Europe hailed
the discovery of America as affording an
asylum where they could think and act
and worship the Almighty Father as their
own conscience dictated. To attain hat
asylum the pilgrim fathers braved the ter
rors of the unknown deep and founded a
place on the stern, inhospitable and rocky
coast of New England. For this liberty
Cromwell, the greatest of Englishmen, and
his ironsides fought on Marston Moor. And
to-day we find embodied i'm our own State
Constitution sentiments handed down to US
from the days OF Runnymede and the Pro-
%tector's times, among which is that: All
men shall be secured in their natural right
TO worship Almighty God according to the
dictates or their own Conscience; that no
law shall, in any case whatever. control
the free exercise and enjoyment OF re-
ligious opinions or interfere With the rights
be required as a qualification for any Of
flee of trust or proht.'
THE LIBERTY OF PERSON.
"Of equal consequence with that of re-
ligious liberty is that CT liberty of the per-
son, and the liberty of the person includes
the freedom of action and the freedom of
contract. Thus we find in our State Con-
stitution these clauses, handed down to us,
in one form or another. by our ancestors,
since the days of Magma Charta: All courts
shall be open, and every man for injury
uOne 20 MIN III MS person, property or rep
utation shall have remedy by due course
of law. Justice shall be administered freely
and without purchase, completely and
without denial, speedily and without delay
And in the federal Constitution we find.
springing out OF the same desire to protect
the citizen in his private rights, a clause
which declares that: No State shall
pass any DILL OF ~attainder, ex post facto
law. or law impairing the obligation of
contracts
Now. it is the avowed purpose of Mr..
Bryan and his followers that a law shall
be enacted in favor of the cause of free
coinage of silver: that all contracts now
payable in gold may be paid in silver, and
that no man hereafter shall nave the power
to bind himself by a contract payable in
as calls for payment in gold shall be void
so far as relates TO the kind of money in
which il shall be paid.
This. fellow-citizens deprives a man of
the freedom of contract. just as much as il
a law were enacted that a man could not
buy a house or any other article Of mer-
chandise. II YOU deprive a man of the
power to bind himself TO discharge an obli-
CATION by payment in gold coin, you may
so further and deprive him of the bower to
purchase any article of merchant Sc. or a
farm or a railroad. for an agreed number
of ounces of gold: and If you may say he
cannot enter into a contract payable in
gold ounces. you may say he cannot bind
himself TO pay so many bushels of oats, or
corn, or wheat. or potatoes. or even days,
labor. To what goal will the exercise of
such a power bring US; and to what ex-