Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-04-10
VOLUME XXXVI.-NUMBER q.
FOES IN DEMOCRACY.
SPEECH OF COL. LEWIS TO THE
DEMOCRATIC CLUB.

| Councils 10 Those who Would
! Abandon Its championship OF
Liberty 10 the Oppressed, of Ke-
sistance TO Foreign Aggression.
New York Sun.
Col. James Hamilton Lewis OF Seat.
tie was the guest and one of the speak.
ers at the Democratic Club at its din
ner on Thursday night last. Col
Lewis said some things in this speech
which were heartily appreciated by
the audience. He did not hesitate to
say what he thought, and he started
out with:
81 AM to speak to you OF that which
has been quite overcoming me OF late,
my misgivings as to the fidelity to our
cause Of some of those who lately have
been brevetted by us for their deser-
ton of their past parts and their advo-
cacy Of the new role they call their
Democracy. Let me not be misunder-
stood nor my meaning be less than
plain. Even unto those who stand in
high places there is an hour when, as
in a day that is dead, an humble
shepherd in Israel must again say to q
king in Israel: Thou art the rlan!
"Who of us are not viewing with
alarm the situation of trembling un-
certainty the Democratic party now
holds, and who does not contrast the
present with the not far-away time
when the happy welcomings of great
nation to our advent to power were
the auguries OF permanent hold on
the confidence of a nation? How
now? Feeling as one in the dark for
position, uncertain which is the thresh-
old and which foot to plant upon it,
undetermined whether we are for the
people or the people longer for us, /
challenge the memory OF those about
me to recall when in the past OF the
nation was the Democratic party ques-
toned as to where she stood as be-
tween the powerful and the powerless.
In what day or hour OF the past had
there been doubt that, though denied
the halls OF palaces within, she could
ever fall into the waiting arms of the
crowds without?
"What has wrought this unhappy
change? Who has so scared her face
and besmeared her garb that no longer
is she known as the Samaritan among
the thieves? Indeed, let us be frank.
1t is the thieves themselves, who in
the cloth OF the Samaritan have en-
tered among US and held the hand Of
welcome. Thieves is the name. For
they who steal party's good name
filch more than riches-and we Ro-
mans, each of us-fgurstively speak
ing-took the deserting Sabines and
made Generals of them to lead loyal
band-to where? Alas, tonight these
nondescripts, whose consolation is to
lay their hands on their bosoms and
cry to their neighbors Il am holier
than thou'-these have led us to the
verge of q questionable future, am.
bushed us in in a thicket of confusion.
$50 long as the Democratic party
was known as the champion of liberty
in every land we were sung to as de-
liverers. Now hear these Mephistos,
who have wooed. the faithful Faust
from his laboratory by the enchant-
ment OF delusive dreams and the fash
ings Of the golden god, cry 'Holdp
when Democrat announces the DEM
ocratic principle OF thus far and no
further to any who shall trespass upon
the early and sacred rights of the
party's professed care. Why are we
thus restrained from honest execution
of Democratic measures? Because
they assert it Injuries trade-it lessons
the volume of personal revenue to
them. Shall a founded principle Of
the Monroe doctrine of mo usurpa.
ton, no confiscation' be denied exist
ence under proper application because
private colossal fortunes will be les
sened in their accumulation? Is this
the spirit of true Democracy?
"Has the hour arrived when the
Democratic party consents to subordi-
nate the principle of right to the lust
Of gain? Have these gentlemen in
their selfish creeds forgotten to reflect
that the enlightened justice of peo-
pie sees in them but the merest echoes
of their dishonored political fraternity?
That they are neither new nor Origi-
nal2 Let it not be forgotten that the
Scholar of Tarsus was denied the right
of faith in one God by the silver
smiths Of Ephesus because their trade
in making shrines OF Diana would be
diminished, their revenue decreased.
Had this early covetous principle pre-
vailed over freedom, the religion OF
God and the creed of the Christ would
have been smothered out of the Chris
tian world. This policy of fretful
greed and lessening patriotism stimu-
lated the Roman triumvirate to deny
the Democratic decree of a Roman
people, demanding shall possessions OF
public land as pensions to her worthy
warriors, and the once friends of that
republic sickened OF further fidelity
f. -