The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-09-24

state, and especially the right of each
| state, to order and control its own do
nestle institutions according to its own
| judgment, exclusively, is essential TO
| that balance of power upon which the
| operation and endurance of every pOHI-
| zeal fabric depends, and we denounce
| the lawless invasion by armed force OF
| the soil OF any state or territory, no
matter under what pretext, as among
the greatest of crimes (AppIause.) do
you know from what plaftrom that
plank is taken? a voice: From Abra-
ham Lincolns platfOrm.) Yes, from
Abraham LincOln's. applause, loud and
lOng.) That is a plank IN the Repub-
lican platform of 1860, and when you
compare our plank with that you will
find ours is mild in language compared
to this one. (ApplauSe.) Abraham Lin
coin ran for president on that platform
He was elected on that platform. (CrieS
Of So will YOU be- and I hope SOD,
and in his inaugural address he quoted
that plank in full and reiterated it with
his approval (Cries of So will YOU'D
Now, my friends, if our platform IS
wrong I want these Republicans to re-
pudiate Abraham Lincoln. (Applause)
Because if you take Abraham Lincoln
from the Republican party you have
taken from il its most sacred memory,
my friends. applause and cries of
There viii be nothing left-D Now, let
me call your attention to another thing
which they have complained Of They
say we criticise the supreme court. Let
me read you what we say on this sub
ject. IMr. Bryan then read the plank
Of the Chicago platform in regard to the
income tax decision.l I call attention
TO the fact that the court Overrules the
decisions of 100 years.
rs it not possible that future judges
may adhere to the presidents of
one hundred years instead of
adhering to a decision rendered
by a majority of one, and that one
changed his mind2 Cloud applauSe.)
When did our opponents find that de-
ofe # q
cred2 Let me read you what the Re
publican platform said about decisions
of the supreme court in 1860: That we
condemn the recent reOpenlng OF the
African slave trade under the cover of
our national flag, aided by perversions
of judicial power
This is what Lincoln said about the
supreme court: Candid citizens must
confess that if the policy of the govern
ment upon vital questions affecting the
whole people is 50 irreVOcably fixed by
the decisions of the supreme court, the
instant they are made, in ordinary h1-
cation between parties in personal ac-
ton, the people will have ceased to be
their own rulers, having to that extent
practically resigned their government
into the hands of that eminent tri-
bunal'
Our platform is not as harsh as the
language of Mr.. Lincoln. But must
apologize for quoting Lincoln as a Re
publican authority. (ApplauseO Abra-
ham Lincoln is no longer a Republican
authority Abraham Lincoln believed
in a government by the people, of the
people and Tor the people, and that is
not Republican in this campaign.
Now our opponents say we are OPP
posed to the enforcement of law.
deny it. I stand as the candidate for
three parties. I do not speak of myself
as an Individual. because the individual
is lost in a campaign of this character
But my friends, I want to say to you
that the fear that is expressed is not
a fear that if elected I will not enforce
the law. (ApplaUse.) 1 have said be-
fore. and I say again, that If by the
suffrage of my cOuntryrnen 1 am placed
in that position which is the highest pO-
sitfOn within the gift of the people of
the world, every law shall be enforced,
against the great as well as against the
small. GOng applause.) 1t is not
fear of lawIessness, my friends. Think
Of men who have tranSgressed being
afraid there will be lax enforcement
of the law. Think of men who have
considered themselves greater than the
government who are afraid that the
government will not be great enough
I know why these men are afraid to
have the Chicago ticket elected. 1t IS
because these great trusts, these great
corporations, these great combinations,
this aggregated wealth is enjoying un-
just privileges. tremendous applause-)
They know that the attorney gener-
al whom I will appoint, if elected, viii
not stand to defend the corporations
when he ought to enforce the law
Great applause.)
Let me read you again from
speech of Tilden: "A powerful cOrpor-
alton engaged in a death struggle with
the government to which it owes it's
existence assails the purity of our
press, the fidelity of our representa-
tives and the freedom of our election
and by the control of the currency
spreads far and wide, dismay misery
and ruin in order to extort a renewal
Of it's privileges and power from the
fears and necessities of the community
My friends, if he lived today he
could not have described the opposition
to free coinage in more accurate terms
than he described the opposition in that
day of moneyed interests. That same
money power exists today and it is do
ing the same work today that it did
then and these men are terrified. Men
who owe money are threatened with
bankruptcy unless they sell their citi-
zenship- Great applause.) If a bank
er dareS have an opinion of his own he
is menaced with ruin and half of the
New York banks who terrify and in
timidate their country correspondents
stand with the great London banks,
which have padlocks on the safes Of the
New York banks
The nominee then entered into an ex-
tended statement of the conditions
which he believed would prevail under
a policy of free coinage of silver in the
United States.
Mr.. Bryan quoted Prince Bismarck's
recent letter on bimetallism and COM
menting on the fears from independent
acLlOn Dy TINS Dal1On. SalQs shame on
the cOwardly American who thinks
this nation is not as big as Bismarck
does. (Applause.) Oh that some of the
Republican campaign fund might be
used to pay the expenses of those tim
id Americans if they would go across
the ocean and see the great statesman
and learn confidence. cloud applause.)
Why, if we cannot have an independent
financial system we cannot have for
eign policy of our own. We have Op-
posed some of the policies of the presi-
dent, but let me tell you of the best of
the people of the west and south that in
spite of their opposition to the gold
standard they stood by him on the