The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-04
DONE IN CONVENTION.
An Eloquent Address by Breckln-
ridge PreCedeS the Nomination
of Palmer and Buckner.


ridge Precedes the Nomination
of Palmer and Buckner.
CONVENTION HALL INDIANAP-
OILS, IND, Sept. 3.-The delegates were
tardy in getting to the convention hall this
morning, but when they began coming the
arrival of each State delegation was indi-
Gated by the musicians, who played the
airs most appropriate to the location
Yankee Doodle" for a New England
State, Maryland, My Maryland" for a
delegation from that State, etc.
When Governor Buckner of Kentucky
entered the hall he was greeted with
cheers. Then Mr.. Breckinridge OF Ken
lucky came in with his delegation, and
"Hurrah for Breckinridgel" was shouted
from scores of throats. The shouts for
Breckenridge were Kept up from the gall
leries, as if it were ex pected that he would
deliver the speech which he failed to make
at the mass-meeting last night. He took
no notice of the shouts, but engaged in
conversation with Governor Buckner, who
sat by his side.
At 11:4O o'clock Senator Gallery of
Louisiana, as chairman of the convention,
rose and stated that the opening of the
convention was delayed for few moments
to ascertain whether or not the committee
on resolutions was ready to report.
This was the signal for a renewal of the
shouts for Breckinridge, which finally be-
came overwhelming, though a few hisses
were heard intermingled with them. Mr..
Breckinridge advanced to the platform,
and was received with great cheering. He
delivered a speech of great power and elo-
ouence, which was listened to with pro-
found silence and attention except when
broken in upon by bursts OF applause. he
said:
Mr.. Chairman and my countrymen from
every section of this imperial Republic: l
congratulate you on this convention. We are
passing through a crucial period. In the
eloquent speeches made last night reference
was made by the orator from New Jersey (Mr.
Lewis concerning the action of the present
President of the United States at the Chicago
strike, when (under the pathetic struggle of
the unemployed laborers) there was a great
development of revolution. The late war
showed that we had the most warlike
machinery of government that the world had
ever seen. Out of that four years of war
emerged the most warlike Nation. During the
reconstruction period many things happened
o. which we may be ashamed. But out OF it
came united Republic with all its institu-
tions unimpaired, and with a prospect before
us as boundless as the horizon OF human hope
But there came another strain. Nearly
thirty years passed away with this machinery
of government $50 powerful in time of war;
able in time OF peace 10 preserve public order
and compel obedience 10 the law. Could this
peculiar Government, so complex in its forms,
without martial law, without the despot on
horseback riding TO the front, compel obe-
dience to the law. secure the preservation of
public order and demonstrate to the world
that of all governments that of liberty is in
deed the strongest? That was done and in
such way that every philosophic thinker
now knows that tAis Government is in war
the most warlike, in peace the most powerful,
that the world has ever seen. [Cneers.l Now
we come to the crucial test of universal suf-
frage. Are the people ft to be trusted with
the universal suffrage of sovereignty? And
we are here to-day in the name of the true
Democracy. the conservative radical Democ-
racy, which constructs and never destroys, to
say that the problem is solved. [Cheers.l
The American people have LETT the thin
fringe OF the Atlantic Ocean and in less than
l30 years have gone to the Pacific Coast. We
are colonists, not adventurers. AS Milton
said, we are the "builders OF empires" We
have built on foundations that we believe to
be as absolutely stable as the granite rocks on
which God has placed the great ranges of
mountains. And has it come that in the end
of the nineteenth century we are to rediscuss
all the problems of the last twenty-five CEN
turies? Are we to have agrarianlsm and
rapine and the vagaries of Rienzi over again?
Are all the mad ideas OF Jack Cade to be again
presented for disputation and decision at the
bar of public opinion?
The convention at Chicago. the convention