The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-07-24
Written for " The Enquirer.
CAMPAIGN TALK.

1t is not a retraction or anything of the
kind for Democrat who has heretofore
been an advocate of gold to support Bryan
and Sewall. Thrice when Cleveland has
been candidate have the silver Demo-
Gratis stood by him faithfully although his
repeated public declarations and actions
on the money question was severe test
of their party loyalty.
do not mean party loyalty in oppo-
sition to loyalty to country. TO true
Democrat no such opposition can exist.
The principles Of Democracy as interpreted
and practiced by Jefferson and Jackson
are not the principles Of party, but OF free
self government. They have far wider
reach and greatly lower depth than any
specific issue to which they may be APP
piled. They are grounded in the eternal
and inal1enable rights of man and express
ed in the Declaration of Independence.
In fact they constitute the religion Of hui
manity and, honestly put into practice,
will make a government OF the people, by
the people and for the people.
With regard to the silver question there
is no difference of principle among honest
Democrats, but only diversity of opinion
about results. And a man is certainly not
sacrificing principle when he yields his
mere opinion to the opinions OF much
larger number of honest and intelligent
men who have had better opportunities OF
ascertaining and comparing the facts upon
which to base an opinion than he himself
has had.
The silver men at Chicago represented
an immense majority of the Democrats of
the country. Both represented and repre-
sentative were honest and intelligent
They surely knew what was better for their
own interests than did the gold minority.
1t was going far indeed for the gold men
to tell the farmers and producers OF the
South, the Middle and the West that, they
were not competent to form a judgment
or to know what their real interests were.
And this is what they told the skilled and
unskiled laborcrs and mechln;cS Yet
any one who knows anything of the work
ing men of this country i'll the shops ana
factories, knows well enough that they are
more competent than anybody else or than
anv other class of men to Judge what is
for their own best interests. And the fact
is that all the great labor organizations
| have declared for free silver.
If, then. the vast middle class of the
country, including farmers and the smaller
manufacturers and also the laboring and
mechanical classes all say that silver is
better for them, do they not constitute a
majority Of the Democratic party and
should not the man who Processes to be IA
Democrat and to believe in the rule of the
majority-should not a man processing
this acquesce cheerfully in the platform
of the Chicago Convention and support its
nominees
Now | want to touch another subject
and come down to the A B G of the money
question for the benefit of those who want
to begin at the beginning.
Dawn tn tho ypor 1872 had free COIN
age of silver; that is, all the silver that
was taken to the mint was coined, one
ounce of gold being equal in value to six
teen ounces of silver. This is what we
mean when we say we are for the free
| coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1.
But at that time -1S73-(and also now
only silver dollars were legal tenders for
all debts and to any amount SilvercOlns
| less than IA dollar were land still are) legal
| tender for only ten dollars. In 1878 IA law
was passed prohibiting any more coinage
| of silver dollars.
l will not now undertake to expose the
| deceit, the fraud and the treachery that
was practiced on both houses of Congress
| by the scoundrel conspirators in getting
| this bill through. No one except the few
conspirator congressman knew that the
clause striking down the coinage of silver
dollar was artfully concealed and hidden
away in the belly of the bill. 1t was voted
for and passed on the false representa-
tions of the men who had it in charge.
Grant himself was imposed upon and did
not know the poison was in the bill when
he signed it. Any body can see his letter
| in which he says this.
| The effect of stopping the coinage of the
silver dollar was to cut off one hay of the
money of redemption and to immensely
enhance the value of all bonds and obi
cations against the government and indi-
viduals and to depreciate in the same de-
gree the value of all lands and products of
land. And from 1873 till to-day, the bur
| dcns of uebt and taxation have continued
! to increase until now they are the double
of what they were then; that is, it will
now take just twice as much land or pro-
duce to pay the same mortgage, debt, or
tax that it did in 1873 OF course, the
bankers, bondholders and money lenders
! all wanted silver dcmonetiscd because it
made money scarce and put up the value,
or purchasing power, of their paper; farm
ers and producers did not want it demone
tised because it put down the value of their
land and produce. e.