The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-10-23


nifty Of the judiciary as the last refuge
Of the oppressed citizen; ID vindicates
the rights OF labor and the rights Of
property 10 denOuncmes violence and
crime whether committed by one man
or by combinations Of men, and insists
upon the absolute supremacy Of the
federal and state laws within their re-
spective spheres And while it advo-
Gates all necessary reforms in legisla-
ton and administration, it resolutely
resists all revolutionary attempts to
subvert the foundations Of public auth
GRITTY, or to destroy the basis Of our
comm and industrial system It
does not recognize the Omnipotenee of
any human government and 1t there
fore denies the power Of congress or
parliaments or kings to create values
by laws OF proclamations.
This is the kind Of Democratic doc
trine I believe in, and my support viii
be given to the candidates who repre-
sent 1t in this contest. Every man who
has read the history Of this country
knows who they are. John nj. Palmer
and Simon Bolivar Buckner are not
strangers to the American people, they
We're not discovered yesterday by the
beWildered delegates to a political con-
ventiOn, and they viii not be forgotten
when the sound and fury Of this re-
markable campaign has subsided.
They are editors and statesmen, ripe
with the experience derived from long
public service at critical periods in our
history and they stand cOnspicuously
in this contest for law and Order,for the
pendence and manhood Of all classes of
our people. for just and equal taxation
for public purposes only for a sound
and stable currency and for the main
tenance Of the national authority and
national honor under all circun1ST anceS.
Let us inquire for a moment how
far mere considerations of regularity
are influencing the actions or our crit
les in this campaign. The nominations
made at Chicago have been partially
repudiated by the very men who made
T-A 4N~- AJAX
Union. The national and state commit
tees appointed to carry on the cam
paign and pledge to the support of both
the nominees of the Chicago conven-
tonic the support of one just as
much as to the support Of the other
have in 20 or q states deliberately en-
tered in to arrangements and cOlnbina-
lions TO deprive one of the nominees of
q large number of electoral votes and
give them to another candidate not
nominated by that convention or by
any other convention even pretending
to be Democratic and yet these gentle
men have the assurance to call US
boilers and the presidential candidate
himself, who has cOuntenaneed and en-
c0uraged the sacrifice of his associate
ON the ticket, whose nomination was as
regular as his own, tells us that we
cannot get back into the Democratic
party unless we come in sackcloth and
ashes
Gentlemen, we are not out Of the
Democratic party and we do not intend
TO so out or TO De put OUT Here IN
Kentucky the state committee without
authority and in defiance of the action
of the state convention which nomina-
ted q full electoral ticket, has entered
into a contract by which it has traded
off a part of the votes of the people.
actually hargafned, sold. assigned and
transferred them from some Of the
electoral candidates regularly n0mina-
ted by the Democratic convention at
Lexington to your electoral candidates
selected by the POpulist committee thus
making it impossible for any citizen Of
this state TO so cast his vote at the ap-
preaching election as to give the nOmi-
nees of the Chicago convention the en-
tire benefit of his support.
Have we ceased to be Democrats
because we refuse to support this cleo
toral ticket not nominated by the state
convention but mutilated and disfgur-
ed by the names of new electoral can
didates pledgd to cast their votes for a
wild and reckless POpulist for vice
president of the United States and
who, If elected, might become presi-
dent and be invested with all the pow
ers of that great Office. This is not a
Democratic electoral ticket; it repre-
sents to political parties and to politi-
cal platforms no one of which is Dem
ocratic according to any docurinal or
historical test that can be applied to
them.
"On the one great question which is
engrossing the attention of the pepOle
and to which the presidential candidate I
is now seeking to subordinate all 9TH
ers-the free coinage of silver at the
ratio of JIG to these platforms are !
directly in conflict with the declara-
tions made upon the subject by all
prior national Democratic conventions /
held in this country. The act dropping
the standard silver dollar from the
coinage and making gold dollars the
sole legal standard Of value was pass
ed February u, 1873, and the first ma
uonal Democratic convention after that
date met In st Louis in 1876, and the
very first declaration in its platform
was. Reform is necessary to estab-
lish a. sound currency. restore the pub /
lie credit and maintain the national
honor
Upon that platform Samuel ]. TIL
den secured the largest Democratic !
vote ever cast in this country Up to
that date and was as we believe. legal |
ly elected president of the United !
States. In 1880 the party declared for I
nome iu4e honest money coHsIstlI6
Of gold. silver and paper convertible 4
into coin on demand; the strict MAIN /
tenance Of the public faith. state and
national and a tariff for revenue only.
This is a concise and accurate descrip- I
ton Of the currency we now use and
have used continuously since 1879 !
gold and silver and paper convertible I
into gold and silver on demand. Sub !
stantially the same declaration was
made on the currency question In 1894 [
the language then being: We believe /
in honest money, the gold and silver
coinage Of the constitution and cir
culating medium convertible into
such money without loss. "
Continuing he said: In view of the
record of the party insist that the
proposition to revolutionize our mon
etary system by legislation authoriz- !
Ing the free and unlimited coinage Of
legal tender silver at the ratio of is to
I, when commercial ratio is about 81 to
l. must be considered and decided en- |
tireiy on its own merits, without any
adventurous support from the assump-
ton that it is OF Democratic origin or
that it is consistent with any Demo /
cratic financial policy ever heretofore /
authoritatively announced; but if such /
a policy is right, If it is not incompati- I
BILE with the honest Observance of /
public and private obligations and I
would be beneficial to the country. the /