Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1896-10-21
The Day of Deliyerance is at Hand.

Two weeks from yesterday this great
county will have spoken. The people
will have declared whether they are to
be sovereigns or slaves. They will
have decided whether they wish to
enter upon Thirty years more OF star
walton, or whether they will live as
becomes American citizens, of industry
and economy. They will haye decided
whether they will guard their homes
and firesides, or whether they will be-
come serfs, and be plundered as the
Russian or English nobleman plumbers
the helpless peasant. They will have
decided whether all power in this
country emanates from the people or
from the plutocrats, whether money is
omnipotent, or whether the ballot still
retains some of it's ancient and honor
able properties. Will it be Bryan and
a prosperous future, or will it be Nc
Kinley with all the continued horrors
of gold standard. Will the country
surrender her manhood and bow sub
missive to the dictates of England and
Wall street, or will she rise in her
might and grandeur, and break the
shaekles of slavery under which she
groans, and assert her sovereignty in
herited from those who fought at Con-
cord and Bunker Hill. and Yorktown?
Will she show to those who sought her
purchase and to the world, that she
may possibly be overcome in battle,
she may be blotted from the list of
nations by catastrophe, that she may
perish as have done many nations of
the earth proud, naughty and warlike,
and as many more will do, yet that in
the mines of Golconda. nor in the
Golfers of Croesus, is there wealth
sufficient to buy her-or will she &C.
cept the bride her tempters have
offered, and fall like Lucifer to rise no
more? These are grave questions and
effect every human being, who
breathes the pure air of this great Re-
public. If Mckinley wins, there will
be no man, woman or child who will
not at heart know that his election
was purchased, and woe be it when
there sits in the chair of the Chief
Magistrate of this country, a man who
came there, not through the straight
gate. This is the first bold attempt to
buy the nation. Previously men have
purchased portions of it, and received
their reward. but before our eyes to-
day, stands massed against the people
the combined money power of this
country. Every National and State
Bank, every railroad corporation,
every life insurance company, every
trust and combine, great or small. Are
they there because their life and pros
perity depend on the election of Nc
Klnley? By no means. Are they there
because their sense of patriotism de-
mands this assertion of that noble
principle ? By no means. Are they
there because they seek good govern
ment, and honestly believe that they
can find it only by the elevation of
VIM. Mckinley to the presidential
chair2 Not they. They are there as
thieves banded together that they may
plumber on a larger scale. They are
fighting for Mckinley, in solid phalanx
as wolves go in herds upon sheep
fold because they find that in union
there is strength. They are combined
in this issue as they combine in all,
that they may have no competition in
their scheme, or hindrance in the con-
of their designs. These
facts should arouse the people as
has ever aroused them. These
creatures who now seek their ruin are
the peoples offspring. Every corpora
ton and trust, drew its life from the
loins of the people. They created it
nurtured and fostered it by the laws
they had made. Now the creatures
are rising above the creator, and if not
checked in their imperious course will
turn vampire and suck the life blood
of the nation.
If the people OF this country will
only look at what confronts them, they
will see that this is their fight, this is
their struggle for existence, this is
their chance for freedom, and if they
fail to seize the opportunity it may
pass never to return. It can be done
ut the polls. and the day is at hand.