Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-08-20
GOV. RUSSELL'S LAST TALK
His Great Speech at the Chi
cago Auditorium.
A RINGlNGpLEA FORSOUNO MONEY
Free Silver Coinage a Radical
Departure.



public address made by the late ex-Gover-
nor William Il. Russell of Massachusetts.
II was delivered at the great sound-mOney
Democratic meeting in the Chicago Audi
turium. on the eve of the National Demo-
cratic Convention:
esteem II M honor and a privilege to
address this great meeting of Democrats,
all loyal to their party, earnest for its
honor and success, but deeply anxious
over thc crisis which how confronts it.
We have met on the eve Of our National
Convention to take counsel together for
the promotion of the welfare of our party
and our country. We meet with no per-
saiinl ambition to serve, with no threat
uINn Our lips, and with no purpose To
question the sincerity and honesty of any
Democrat, however radical the differences
within our ranks, but we are painfully
conscious of the palpable fact that for the
first time within generation, and for the
second time only in its hundred years, years
OF honorable life, the great national Demo
cratic party is on the point of sectional
and geographical division, with its untold
misery and disaster. The door is open for
division, defeat, dishonor. We see new
fnces and new principles urging us on,
but we have not yet crossed the threshold.
May God save us from the final step.
In spirit of uniiinching loyalty to n
party which for lifetime has been to
| many of us a guiding faith, of deepest
| love to our common country, for which all
would give their blood and life, we ask
| the representatives of our party to pause,
and, without prejudice or passion, to con-
slider well before committing Democracy
to a radical and novel policy, which we
believe affects our nations honor and we
4 tta.. Inc. .tnb htn.l
south and north, east and west together,
in an enduring and triumphant Democ-
1 racy.
/ A Democratic National Convention al
| ways has been n deliberatiye body. Ii
i meets to register the will of no man or
coterie of men. II cares little for personal
| ambitions. II is not dominated by wealth
or class or faction. It. places patriotism
above party, principal above section, and
through concession and harmony, finds
and proclaims the fundamental and just
principles upon which II united party can
face the common enemy and appeal with
confidence to the conscience and patriot
ism of the people. tApplause.)
In such convention, If true to its past,
our party will meet this year. The doors
will not be closed 10 argument and reason,
the members will not he mere automatons
|
get the ties which bind us together heart
and soul in order to emphasize one issue
which divides and threatens us.
In a true democratic convention each
member carries his manhood under his
own hat, conscience dominates instruction
and the welfare of his country and the
life of his party are more important
than any sectional interest or personal
success. In the belief that now.as former
ly, our party meets in this spirit, anxious
to rally under the old flag all of its old
, soldiers and to win recruits from every
, section and ready to afford freedom of
speech and action. we have gathered here
i. tonight to make our appeal for union, and
we have the north and east to plead for
, the very life of our party II would be
folly to overlook the gravity of the crisis,
, but it would be cowardly to abandon hope
and undemocratic to assume that our ap.
peal will fall upon deaf ears. As we stand
on the very threshold of division it is
pleasant and useful to recall the past, the
principles which have united and still
unite II, the battles we have fought to.
gether, the victories we have won and the
, supremacy with our great national party
: has gained in the hearts and confidence OF
|, the people of all sections and of all CLASSES
during the whole life of orr nation. II
fears no contest except within its ranks
! it cannot die except by suicide. The glory
of our party has been in the past and ought
now and forever TO be its broad and
g national character. tApplause.) 1t knows
no section and no class. II serves the PEG
pie, only fighting the rule of wealth or OF
g class or of privilege. 1t defends the right
d of the State wherever and whenever at
:. tackled; it upholds the freedom of the in
p ulEitnDl wbDpnVur Gifun t.,. II nm,
i necessary restrictions and burdens of gov
Il eminent. 1t never has believed that the
Q function of government was to be a pater
g nal power to grant favors to dependcn
= people, but rather il was to be the subjec
of their sovereign will guaranteeing the
freedom and equality of all.
II, has heen and is the peoples party
fighting for their cause against selfish sec
tional and class interests which contro
+ the Republican party. Within its rank,
s thus far there has been no room, thanh
/ God. for sectional prejudice, proscriptiv,
9 biE0try controlled by selfish interests ol
any influence which would divide us OF
o geographical, religious or class lines
!, Rights. not favors; the people, not classes
8 our country, not its sections, are the max
. inns OF our Democratic creed. Great ap
d plause.I
b Has the time come when we are read,
Il to surrender these the cardinal principlc,
b OF our faith, to reverse the established mol
y icy of our party, to look to paternal gov
. ernmcnt to add value to any commodity il
j. the interest of class or section, and as tn,
j, result of such folly to destroy the nationa
o character of broad and tolerant Denoc
II racy?
# We are not ready to surrender to Repuh
10 lican protection and throw that mantl
!, over silver. its discarded child: nor I,
b abandon our position ms the peoples part,
l. to become like the Republicans, a party o
, class and of section.
d speak tonight not MS a northern but
y national Democrat, whose privilege
n has been to take part in the battles of gu
It party over the issues of the past twent
!. years.
10 have never yet advocated principl
4 or measure which was not as SCUM
ia Democracy in Illinois or South CAROLYN
n ;ls In the commonwealth of Massachusetts
!. tCheers.l Preaching Democracy in ever
IN section of the country, l have gloried 4
! the fact of belonging to a party who's
, principles did not change with latitud
Iy and longitude, hut were the same an
!. standard everywhere. / have seen nortf
:. ern and Southern Democrats together
N fighting for the rights of the South, resis
n ing the odious measures of the Republica
L. party, which. with Federal bayOnets an
i, force bills, sought to overthrow home rul
g to control for partisan purposes sovereig
% States, and to stir up sectional hatre,