The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-09-25
Che Democratic Platform Strikes
at the Governments
Foundation.
FREE SILVER NOT BIMETAlLlSM.
Condition of Affairs Worse than War
Would Result from DEM
ocratic Success.


not bimetallism and showed what evil
results would follow Democratic sue
cess. He said that for the first
time since the election next preced-
ing the great Civil war, we are
required to guard the very fonnaa-
tions and bulwarks of national stability.
of commercial honesty, of financial con
duct. The Democratic party which met
at Chicago in convention in July suffered
q wonderful change in that convention.
The old oracles and guides of the party
were rudely turned aside. 1t was occu-
pied and Economically possessed by new
spirit-something which has not raised
Its head in the political conventions of
either party for thirty years. Ii there
was any one thing which the 100000
of men who went out TO defend this coun-
try thirty years ago thought that they
had entirely obliterated when they re-
turned. it was the malign doctrine of
state rights. which lay at the bottom
and was the impetus of the greatest
rebellion which ever reared its head
against civilized government. Le and
behold. in that convention, from the
state of South Carolina. as of yore. you
find the declaration of the same state
rights. in the same spirit as in the an
cient time. and done in connection. my
fellow citizens. which must appeal to the
resentment and repuguance of every lib
erty-lOving and country-lOving man. EE-
eryone who knows anything about me
KNOWS InaJ am not Il Dolltlcdl aulllfeI
of Grover Cleveland: but if there was
any one act of his administra ton which
after the contentious of history have
ceased to rage about his acts and his
memory. that will remain star-brlght
forever it was his action, when the
pulse of business beat low, when com
mercial intercourse was cut off by rioters
In Chicago. by which upon principles and
precedents laid down by George Wash
ington 100 wears before. he evoked the
strong arm of the United States to re-
store law and order in this country.
[Annlause and cbeers.l
This act is covertly land eovprtly is
too mild Il wordD denounced in the Chi
eago platform. More than that. If there
is anything in this country or in any ma
tion upon which the stability of the gov
ernment depends. the very keystone of
the great arch upon which the ranged
empire stands. the ultimate principle of
absoluteism that must exist somewhere
In all governments. it is the courts of our
land. where men sequestered from politi-
cal concerns and political ambitions,
holding the scales of justice even be-
tween contending passions and contend
Ing rights. decide for their fellow citizens
what the law is. And for more than 100
years the Supreme court of the United
States has sat in that exalted position,
midway in the capitol of the nation be-
tween the Senate and the House of Rep
resentatiyes. Il typical object lesson of
their position and of their sublime ca
pacity TO restrain either. and has done
more TO conduct the government TO the
high plane which it occupies. was going
to say. than all the statesmen which this
country has ever produced. tApplause.)
The Chicago platform strikes at that
court. strikes at all courts. and enun-
ciates its malign prophesy of the reor-
ganizatlon of that court and of any ether
court if necessary. to register the fi1ful
and passionate and repudiating edicts of
mistaken and misguided men, of mistaken
and misguided parties.
A Crisis is Impending.
And worse than that. my fellow citi-
zens-worse than that! If there was
another thing which the veterans Of the
last war thought they had achieved and
which the loyal sentiment of the North
thought it had achieved. it was the OBJ
liberation of all sectionalism in this cnun-
try: we were to have no South. no North.
no East. no West. any more. The whole
country was to be unity. But in these
later days. we see the solid South COM
Ing up to the banks of the Ohio and the
Missouri as before the war, and with
sectional demands upon an economic is
sue, precisely such as was made before
fne Rebellion. And now, with the pilch-
fork of Tillman stirring up the doctrine
of state rights. with the bomb of Altged
in the denunciation of our courts and of
very fabric of our government, they have
chosen to put forward as an issue some
thing which touches more Immediately
the conviction. the passions. the cupidity
and the honesty of men. and which in it
self contains more disintegrating infiu-
ences to our prosperity than all the
causes combined that l have mentioned.
Ihe Democratic convention, or the
Democratic party. as now organized. has
Joined the POpulist party in bonds of un-
n yVrnH fIan 1nrN1s Il -,
United States shall take position upon
the currency of this country which /,
speaking to you under the responsibility
of man who is speaking to his neigh
bors, say that l believe is fraught with
more disaster to this country than the
greatest foreign war could possibly bring
about. (Appause.)
And that is the subject that l have
been asked to talk to you tonight about.
i am going to do so, as l said in the be-
ginning, not with any attempt at deco
ratlye speech, not denouncing any men
who may choose to differ from me- for
/ tell you. my fellow citizens, that many
and many Thousand men who differ
from us today on this matter one year
from now will be wondering why and
how they came to do it. (Applause.)
And so / shall go on. I may be tedious
1 am going to give you facts and fig
sures. l am not going to draw on my
own imagination for my facts at all.
The facts that 1 shall give you will be
impregnable. 1t is for you to Judge
whether the deductions I shall draw
from them can be refuted.
Now what is the question? For a cor
rect understanding of the question is al
ways the first step towards the solution
of the controversy. The question is not
whether there should be the free and
unlimited coinage of silver in the mints
of all the nations, by the consent of the
principal commercial nations of the globe
upon ratio to be agreed upon. That is
not the issue. We all might agree that
when this is brought about, as it will be,
If the United States conducts itself with
judgment upon this question, l say we
might all agree that that would be an
excellent thing. The Republican party
has pledged itself in successive platforms
to labor to bring about international
agreement. The most advanced think
ers upon financial questions in both
hemispheres are advocating, especially in