Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-10-09
DEMOCRATIC MEETING.

\ ~'~ Wy AhS hoi1 w dS
well filed and on the stage were
Messrs. NJ. B Harlow, J. T. Sweeney,
Mayor Thompson, J. T. Beckham. w.
ID. May, S. h. Lunt and others. The
Third Regiment Drum Corps furnished
the music for the occasion.
The meeting was called to order bv
Mr.. Harlow, who, in introducing Sena-
tor Stewart, said he was one of the sill
yer Senators who, fortunately for the
South, had opposed the force bill sent
to Congress by President Harrison.
Senator Stewart was received with
applause. He said there was now an
crisis in this country of as much i'm.
portance as any that had existed since
the settlement of Jamestown; ne PEG.
pie OF Great Britain had as much in
1luence in the country now and direct
ed Its affairs as much as was done I'M
der the rule OF King George. Who
ever, he said. controlled the medium
CT exchange controlled the government.
Then discussing the coinage of metals
he said prosperity advanced hand in
hand with the development of mining
ia the world. He attributed to John
Sherman the responsibility for the de-
monetzation of silver; gave history
of the silver legislation and of
how the bill of 1873 was gotten
through Congress Without lis provisions
being known or understood Grant, he
| said, was ignorant of the demonetiza-
ton clause in the bill and afterwards
recommended recoinaee in letter to
friend. He said the conspiracy to
demonetize silver was because great
discoveries OF silver had been made and
the holders OF the government bonds,
chiefly foreigners, knew they could
make mere money by being paid in
gold and that one.half of all the gold
in the world was held by foreign gov
ernments. Rich people from this coun-
try, he said, who had travelled in Eu-
rope now said we must have strong
government to keep the common peo-
pie in place. He contrasted the meth
od Of issuing bonds in this country with
that of France, saying that the French
bonds were taken and held by the
French people, while those of the
United States were chiefly sold to syn
dicates and sent abroad-6ve thousand
million being owned ia England Sher-
man and Cleveland, he said, were to
gether on the bond question and the
administrations of little Harrison and
big Cleveland had brought on the pre-
sent crisis. Harrison and Mckinley
had voted for a resolution declaring
that bonds were payable either in gold
or silver, as had all the present gold
bug leaders, and Cleveland had joined
Gladstone in demonstrating silver
Instead of the Bland bill driving gold
from the country it had brought here
all that we have; we were promised
that when the Sherman act was repeal
ed we would have prosperity, but it
had brought disaster and that main
tanning the gold standard meant an
unbearable burden on the Peep e.
Ia three years $500, 10000 had beeu
borrowed, aud now we had but 800,
100000 on hand-but little more than
before the borrowing commenced boz
rowing gold to pay interest on bonds
must cease some time. Harrison in
Richmond had advocated increasing
the tariff to get more money for the
government and to bring about pros
perity, but, said Senator Stewart, such
tariff would protect few monopolies
but would be an additional burden on
the people. He denied that the labor
ers would be injured by free silver, and
said the cost OF living would not be ma
terially increased as on rising market
competition in business would keep
prices about the same.ln speaking OF the
threats OF corporations to compel their
employees to vote-as they directed, he
said they thought when they were pay
ing them for their labor they were buy
ing their manhood; they may be com
PEELED TO wear Mckinley badges, he said,
but they wear Bryan hearts. The re-
publican committee who were directing
the campaign represented hundreds OF
millions and said, Money is power
and you must obey"
A you amt right
Senator Stewart then told Of the Chi
cago conventions; how Whitney and
Hill had been sent in the interest of the
gold bugs Hill had been recommend
ed by the committee TO preside, but the
delegates had taken things in their own
hands and had chosen Daniel, and this
was notice to the world that they
meant business. He said that the Chi
cago platform contained sentiments
that Jefferson had held all his life and
told how Bryan, after Hill and Villas
had spoken had knocked out
their gold standard arguments and had
won the convention to his ideas and
had carried everything before him.
The silver party and the populist party,
he said, had subsequently met and had
nominated Bryan; the populists and the
democrats would come together because
they both were for the redemption of
this country and to drive the English
gold standard from the soil of America;
the people of this country could not be
bought, though some treacherous lead
ers might be. He then ridicuied the
idea OF giving the miners one dollar for
enough silver to put in silver dollar
and fthat coin being worth only 90 cts;
such talk was folly. he said the cleo
ton of Mckinley would be followed by
general reduction of wages; strikes
would then come and the army would
DE used again to put down such strikes,
He described the provisions of the force
bill; told how elections could be con-
trolled under that bill and said such
elections would be mere farce. He
closed by predicting the election OF
Rrvan bv tremendous MAORI Y and