The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-09-08
SPEECH FELL FLAT.
Ex Governor VIM. f. Cameron ut the
City Hall Last Night.

Ex-Governor William E. Cameron ad-
dressed large gathering at the opera
house last night in the advocacy of the
Indianapolis platform and nominees. 1t
seemed strange to old Democrats we'll
acquainted with the history of the ex-
governor as Readjuster and Republican
to see him posing as sound money Demo
crat, but politics to q certain extent is an
uncertain business and in his case Il
death. bed repentance Is perhaps better
than no repentance at all. Time was,
however, when the Ex-Governor as a
lieutenant of General Malone was n
strong advocate of scaling the State debt,
and in helping to defeat the Democratic
party it is generally admitted that he
did some effective work. He is, how
ever, for simon-pure Democracy now and
for honest money and everything
that savers of free coinage meets his con-
domination. The platform adopted at
Chicago in it's other un-Jeffersonian feat
ures also meets with his strong con-
domination, as he labored hard for nearly
two hours last night to show. There
were nothing new or strange in the ear
guments" which he produced, however,
all OF them being the wellworn Republi-
can stock in trade" which has been
hurled upon the people by speakers and
the press since the Democratic conven-
ton did its work so we'll ut Chicago and
adjourned. The ex Governor was horri-
fed at the revolutionary tendencies of
the Chicago platform, but when it is re-
membered how the Republicans, to which
he but lately belonged once treated the
supreme court, and what little regard
that party has paid to the constitution
when it stood in the way Of it's policy, it's
progress, all such talk becomes the
veriest dross, designed only to capture
the unwary and allure the simple
minded. Colonel Cameron's speech can
not, therefore, be termed success in any
sense, as it made no converts, and so far
as his sympathiZers and sound money
friends were concerned, when the white
anu colored RepublicanD were left out
they were few indeed
He was introduced by CAPTAIN John
III. Wright, good meaning gentleman,
but who can hardly be claimed by his
strongest friends rs leader of the Dem
ocrats of this city.
Governor Cameron preached Cleveland
to the echo, and upheld his action in the
Chicago riots, denounced Altgeld and in
his reference to Daniel said nothing
harsh, but the prolonged cheer that went
up at the mention of that name showed
that the friends of Senator Daniel in the
audience were legion. He denounced the
income tax plank of the Chicago plat.
form as an insidious attack upon the
supreme court, and referred to the finan-
cial plank as an heretical abomination
and satd that cheap money would make
cheap men.
In reference to Bryan's nomination he
said "when Bryan made that speech he
swept away the motley hoard that nom
mated him." and spoke of Bryan as a
charlatan, pretender and u brilliant
Ia n .1n
went on gold standard in 1853 and not
in 1879, as was claimed by the free silver
advocates. He spoke of China and Mex
leo as free silver countries and attempted
to put the United States on level with
them In case the silver movement was
successful
In his reference to England, he said
that it made his blood rul cold when he
heard these demagogues for the sake of
scoring political point speak disparag-
ingly of the grand old mother country,
the mother of us all The Governor
seems to have q much better opinion of
England than he had when he made that
speech in the old warehouse, over twelve
years ago, when he was running for Gov
ernor against John W. Daniel. 1t was
then he scored old England numerically,
II the writer's memory serves him right.
He appealed to the laboring men and told
them that if any people on earth should
cry down this question of free silver it is
the man who depends on his weekly or
monthly wages, as the price of all pro-
ducts would go up. There are lots of food
for reflection in this statement. If all
products go up in price it seems that the
producer might here learn lesson.
He asserted boldly that if free silver
should be adopted every railroad In Viz
ginia would be bankrupted in two
months. The Ex-Governor may actually
believe be is right.