The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-06-21
THIRD TERM AND FREE SILVER.
a. Virginia Delegate Declares That the
: Democracy.ha has. l}cen'Drivcn to it by the
Third Term Movement.
(Ncw York sun. E.ditorian.

In another. column of this page we
publish Il letter from one of the VIRGINIA
delegation To Chicago. concerning whose
identity we can speak with authoritV II
shows the truth of the Suns statement,
made some time ago. that the worst en-
envy of the gold standard in the Demo-
cratic party has been Grover Cleveland.
through his craze in the White House.
His treachery to American politics has
driven the Democratic party into the sup
port of free silver as the SureSt means of
remaining politically faithful To itself
Come what may to the Democracy in
the next decade, the name of Grover Cleve-
land will he the lasting synonym for
shame and the name of John w. Daniel.
the leader of the Virginia delegation to
Chicago, which at this crisis has spoken
patriotically against the third term. will
he held in lasting honor.
(New York Sun, News Columns.)
To the editor of the sun:
Sir.-l am a delegate to the Democratic
national convention. which convencs next
month at Chicago. and under instruc-
tions from my State convention must
vote for Il platform declaration in favor
of the free coinage of silver at the ratio
of 16 to l.
While my conviction is strong that the
present currency system Is radically de
fective have some misgivings as to
what would result from II policy of free
coinage at the ratio named But this |
do know: That my purpose To vote for
free silver, even if it he Il made project
has method back of it. There i no man
ncr of doubt that the so-callcd sound
money" campaign. from its inception to
"a very recent date DISGUISED dcliher-
atclN planned schem" To nominate Mr.
Cleveland for Il third term II i morally
certain that the programme would have
been consummated had the propaganda
inauG,lrated 10y his Cabinet officers and
other Federal fu@lcmcn succeeded in the
South and West.
They would have packed the national
convention with his thick and-rhin idol
ators, and made the Democratic party
responsible for the thrd-term infamy.
The only possible chance To break the in
formal spell and rescue the party from the
nightmare which has possessed ii since
the advent of Cleveiandsm was to make
the fight hot for silver
With Cleveland and cuckooism on one
extreme, the unauthorized Democracy
Of the South and West was irrcSistibly
forced To take the other. We feel certain
that the bungling and incompetence and
uncouth methods of Cleveland have
brought the country face To face with Il
great crash and we know that the spirit
of party immunity practiced by him and
taught by his crowd is responsible for the
wrcckage of the Democratic party.
For these reasons many of us have
thought that the first and highest duty
of the Democratic party is 10 rid itself,
once and forever, of Clcvclandism and
its concommitant ills. If ii has been
done. as some of our friends think, at
the expense of large business interests,
1t was necessary to uproot the malady
and tn stamp out the life of it. And
free silver has done this good, whatever
of harm it mayhave done along with it.
If the Democratic party ut Chicago de-
clares for free silver, it is the privilege
of the country To reject it ut the polls 10y
electing Mckinley President Defeat for
the party under such conditions is in
finitely preferable to another triumph
with Cleveland in the saddle. The sun
declared nearly twelve years ago that the
Democratic party would better survive
the election of James G.. Blaine than that
of Grover Cleveland Counting as true
all your prophetic warnings as to the
dangers of free silver coinage. there are
thousands of Democrats in the country
who believe the party would better sur
vive the threat of free silver than another
four years of Mr.. Cleveland AT Washing
ton. One of them is
\ DEMOCRATIC DELEGATE.
Richmond, Va June 10Th.