The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-04
Stenographers' Record of the Prog
ress of the WorL-HOw the Nom
nations Were Made.
FULL TEXT OF ALL SPEECHES
FINE WIT AND sCATHING SARCASM
OF COL. BREChINRIDGE.
Nominating Speeches of s. l.. Kill
bourne, of Michigan, Who Named
Cen. Palmer, Jones and Others.

a
a. m. The delegates were all in their seats
and the galleries comfortably flied
when Chairman Caffery brought his gavel
down and announced that the committee
on resolutions was not yet ready to report;
therefore. such action would be taken in
the interval as the convention should in
dictate. A great cry of breckenridge!
BreclinriGge!" rose from all parts of the
hall, while few Kisses were heard in the
southern gallery. In response to the over
whelming call Kentucky's favorite orator
passed up TO the platform and was taken
by the hand by Chairman Caffery and Sen
ator Palmer. When the cheering which
greeted Mr.. Breckenridge subsidized he adj
dressed the convention as follows:
Mr.. Chairman, and my Countrymen,
from every section of the imperial Repub-
Hc-I congratulate you upon this conven-
ton. We passing through crucial
period In the eloquent speeches that were
the present President of the United States
about the Chicago strike. We hardly know
what was the value of that action during
those days. The great loss of property,
the violation of law, the pathetic struggles
which met our eyes; but underneath them
there was great development of our in
THE war showed that we had the most
warlike machinery of government that the
world had ever seen. In the midst of pro-
found peace, a pastoral people, inhabiting
thirty States suddenly found themselves
confronted with the terrific problem. Eleven
States seeded, and, without a jostle, or
ganized a government with it's executive,
judicial and legislative functions unim-
paired, and by the mere power of those
complex but subtle and powerful institu-
tions which our fathers had formed, put
into the field army larger than it's
tire adult population, and history will tell
of the glorious struggle that that army
four years,
AT the same time the twenty States of
,rIxr 10 xxv;.I,
ships scattered, scarcely with an army,
instantly organized the greatest army the
world ever saw; the courts of justice
manned open; In the main the private rights
of citizens were protected, and out Of those
Tour years merged d Republic the the most
seen. (Cheers)
LAS it had withstood the trials of that
great war it withstood the greater trial
of the reconstruction period. (Appiause.)
Many things happened of which we may
be ashamed. but out of it came a united
Republic without change of government,
with all of her institutions unimpaired
and with prospect before her that was as
boundless as the horizon of human hope
There came another strain. Nearly
thirty years passed away. Was this
chinery OF government in time of war
powerful able in time of peace to preserve
public order and compel obedience to the
law? Could it, with its peculiar govepn-
ment and its duplex States and general gov
eminent, without martial law, without
despot on horseback riding to the front
could 1t compel obedience to the law, pres
to the world that of all governments lib
erty is indeed the strongest? (Cheers.) 1t
done, and in such way that every
philosophic thinker now knows that the
American government. in war the most
warlike, is in peace the most powerful that
the world has ever seen.
CRUCIAL TEST OF SUFFRAGE.
Now we come to the crucial test of uni
versal suffrage. Can the ballot box sus-
tain the law and uphold the hands of the
executive? Are THE people yet to be trust
ed with universal suffrage and sovereignty?
Are to-day in the name of the true
Democracy-of the conservative, radical
Democracy--to construct a system of
government? We are here to see that
party name and that no party of masque-
raiders. using honored name and
honored flag, take from the ballot box
the authority of law, and to uphold liberty,
keeping anarchy under foot. (Applause)
1t is not even national question. AS great
as this imperial Republic is, it is inter
national and world wide question. We
here to uphold the principles of lib
erty and peace to which we have been ac-
customed, We are to maintain liberty in
the midst of order. The world has tried
the experiment by three fierce democracies
like Athens, with forms of despotism such
as have not been, known before in the
worlds history. Are to try the same
experiments here upon our own continent,
and in the midst of the world, the ,cyno
again the great problems that have been
evolved from the experience of other ma
tions by trying TO establish form of gov
eminent that cannot maintain peace, lib
erty. law and order?
MY fellow-D Democrats. we are radicals
rather than conservatives. We the men
who have changed the whole political his
tory of the world. We have taken the thin
fringe along the Atlantic coast and in less
than $50 years We have extended cur do
is lt9 and i not advenfurers We are 1.-The the
builders of empires. and here in this land
we have builded upon foundations that we
believed to be as absolutely stable as the
granite rocks upon which God has placed
great ranges of mountains. And has it
teenth century we are to redscuss all the
problems of the last twenty-five centuries?
Are we again TO discuss agrarianism and
Fourierism and the vagaries of Rienzi and
the foolshness of Jack Cade.-are these
tation and settlement at the bar of Ameri-
few of the haif-educated people of this
country. who have the gift of eloquent
speech. reopen all the settled problems
that craftsmanship has at this time put be-
hind it? (Appause.}
THE convention at Chicago and the con
vention at St. Louis Were like two unequal
parts of one story. of which the introduce
ton is at Chicago and the conclusion of the
story at St Louis. It is story of destruc-
tion and dissatisfaction (applaI SCI: il is the
doctrine of hate and discord il is the doc
trine of dissatisfaction and dissension. and
upon these two Platforms honestly saying |
that he stands upon the one at Chicago |
have
suffered loss of their liberties and the |
other teaching the principles of dissatisfac- |
ton. dissension and dscord
is II true that in America there are d. |
visions which might be called a division of |
the classes against the masses? Are we nor |
rather all American citizens with equality |
before the law? tApplauseD Is Ii true that |
We have come TO countenance caste and /
that we must organize the Democratic /
party to wipe out these caste regulatiousP |
Is ii not true that every boy in America !
has fair living chance for everything |
that life can give when he is frugal hon !
est. brave and wise? (Cheers)
The Democratic party has always been |
the preacher of the gospel of fraternity |
Our great founder-no. no. he is not our I
founder-our great apostle jefferson
taught that whenever man felt in his
heart that he was free and could look an !
into the face of God and with the nj Of
his intellect understand what God had told
hin-that he a free agent and thar |
he was endowed with equal rights and
that he could accept reject any political
doetrine-he taught that he was a Demo-
crat. / say to you wherever there is a free
man there is the Democratic party IAN
plause.) our great apostle preached Tia
gospel of universal fraternity because upon
it was based the idea of liberty upon
which has been founded this great party
Of universal peace. Has il come to this
hat in his name and under the pretense