The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1896-02-08
THE SILVER ISSUE IN THE
SENATE.

The passage in the Senate on Saturday
last of the Free Silver substitute for the
House Bond Bill was not in any sense a
surprise, simply because the fact has been
apparent since the opening of the session,
that the advocates of free silver constitute
a clear majority in that body.
1t being foregone conclusion, that the
free silver substitute cannot become a law
with the Lower House of Congress and the
Executive, both hostile to it, the only
purpose its advocates have in view, is
to make if possible the free coinage of silver
the dominant issue in the coming Presi-
dental campaign.
The vote in the Senate indicates wide
breaches in both political parties, which
foreshadow similar divisions in each of the
National Conventions this year.
The twenty-four Democrats who voted
for silver, and the fifteen who voted against
it, may not be said unfairly to represent
the relative strength of the silver and the
gold factions throughout the ranks of the
party. The spirit and impulse of the
Democracy on this question comes chiefly
from its strongholds in the South and
Southwest and form more OF q conviction
than any other sentiment now perceptible
in the party. From Crisp and Mills and
Morgan and Vest down to Tillman it is
the paramount Democratic doctrine in the
South to-day; it is hardly less ingrained
not for the influence of the Cleveland Office
holders it would be the all hut unanimous
Democratic creed in both sections The
free silver Democrats will 90 to Chicago
this year. bent Of the capture of the Ma
tional Convention at all hazards, and in
the absence Of any reasonable hope of the
election of Democratic President the dis
ruption of the Democracy is probable in the
inevitable conflict between the Eastern and
the Southcrn-W Western wing of the party
on the money issue.
The Republicans will lie forced to face
kindred conditions, but in very much
less degree of division. The strength of
the silver Republicans in the Senate, so far
as it may represent the party at large is
far more apparent than real. The eighteen
Republicans who voted for silver and the
twenty six who voted against it are go
tesqucly isproportionate, numerically, to
their actual strength in the party. -Four
teen of the eighteen Republicans represent
States west of the Mississippi, whose COM
bncd population in not equal to the popu-
lation of Pennsylvania. When the silver
men 20 into the st. Louis Convention it is
highly improbable that they will include
one-iourth, or even one-fifth. of the total
number of delegates. Their leaders in the
Senate are now busy in making threats of
boiling the convention and rallying around
a silverite like Teller for the Presidency.
and they are certain to be the cause of
serious disturbances but the majority at ST.
Louis will be so overwhelmingly strong for
sound money in accord with the faith of
the party at large, that it will not need to
temporize or to trim for the sake even of
party harmony. 1t may be easier to elect
"A Republican President this year without
the votes of the silver States than with
their votes as the price of double-faced
platform, fashioned by financial jugglers.