Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1896-08-28


but not OF language. Il federallst diatribe
in 1900 would have passed equally well
for an anti Jackson manifesto in 1928, a
slavery pronunciamento In 1856, or
a Mckinley ''savior-of-society" procla.
nation in the present year.
In many cases the tories Of 1896 are
the lineal successors of those that libeled
Jefferson and Jackson and stirred up the
mobs to lynch abolitionists. Two Of our
New York contemporaries, the Evening
Post and Commercial Advertiser, date
back to the early days Of American poll.
tics. They saw the same horrors then
that they see now. It is the most per.
sistent case of tremens on record.
In the campaign Of 1900 ''Marcellus, !"
supposed to be Hamilton. predicted in
the Commercial Advertiser that Jefferson.
II elected, would turn out every federal.
ist office holder, tumble the financial
system OF the country into ruin at one
stroke," and thus of necessity stop all
payments of interest on the public debt
and bring on universal bankruptcy and
beggary." He would dismantle the
navy, so that ''every vessel which foated
from our shores would be plundered or
captured" The SCARED veterans Of the
Revolution, deprived of their pensions.
would be seen starving in the streets. or
living on the cold and precarious sup
plies Of charity" The officers Of the
government, unable to collect their SAL
aries would resign, and "counterfeitine
would be practiced with impunity."
Nothing much worse has been feared
from the election Of Bryan. Yet Jeffer.
sons election was the beginning Of the
most prosperous period this country had
ever known, and the results Of the ex-
pertinent pleased the people so we'll that
the very name Of the opposition party
died out. and when. in the course Of a
quarter Of century fresh political divis-
ions arose. there had to be an entirely
new start. since the whole union had be-
come Jeffersonian.
Even after Jefferson's election the al
armlsts continued their gloomy predic-
lions for time. The Evening Post,
which from its very earliest days has
had the habit Of collecting Its valuable
opinions in pamphlet form. putting them
on sale in its counting room, and then
suppressing them when it finds it advis.
able to alter its course. attacked his first
message IN series of articles signed
"Lucius Crassus." The verdict of Cras.
sus, otherwise the Post, was that:
1.-The message of the president, BY
whatever motives it may have been die.
tated, Is a performance which ought to
alter all who are anxious for the safety
of our government, for the respectabllity
and welfare of our nation. Il makes or
aims at making, most prodigiOus
sacrifice of constitutional energy, OF
sound principle and of public interest, to
the popularity Of one man."
To complete the similarity between
that time and this, the clergy was as
active IN behalf of "order and property
then as now. The political preacher
was expounding federalism from thous-
and pulpits. The Rev. John Mason, the
fashionable exhorter OF New York, sus-
pended a fast day sermon to exclaim:
''Send us, if Thou wilt. murrain upon
our cattle. a famine upon land; send us
pestilence to waste our cities; send US.
il it pleases Thee, the sword to battle
itself in the blood of our sons; but spare
US, Lord God Most Merciful. spare us
that curse-most dreadful of all curses
an alliance with Napoleon Bonaparte."
So detestible were the Republican doc.
trines thought to be, that the men who
held them were cut by their federalist
acquaintances. Social persecution was
added to political prosecution. The
families Of the Republican leaders were
harassed. During the absence of Ell
bridge Gerry in France, IN 1898, the
model of a guillotine stained with blood
and bearing a headless eftigy, was re-
peatedly set up before the window of his
young wife in Cambridge.
When Jefferson was elected, the peo-
pie in the strong federalism sections
despaired of the republic. They expected
to see the government crumble to pieces
about their ears. But to their astonish-
ment the republic went on, greater, more