The record-union., 1896-07-29
WHO DARES TO QUESTION {?
Eloquent Speech Of the "SilVer TOngued
Orator."
Why Tom Fitch Will Stand by
the Republican Party at
This Time.
(From the Stockton Record.)

(FrOm the Stockton Record)
The Record" needs to offer no ex-
cuse for the use of it's editorial col
Cmns to reproduce the sentiments of
Tom Fitch, the silver-tongued. He
was a free coinage advocate of the most
pronounced type. His associations
were and are those that induced belief
in free coinage. He was and is the resi-
dent of a silver-producing region. But
when called from the galleries of a CON-
vention hall where he had gone as a
spectator to the platform that he might
testify to the faith that controlled him,
he gave utterance to one of those bursts
of eloquence that has time and again
aroused California audiences to the
widest enthusiasm. We reproduce
from an Indiana paper the main part
Of Tom Fitch's impromptu speech. The
paper from which it is taken compares
1t with the speech which Bryan studied
out with SO much care and delivered at
the Chicago convention. The compari-
son does not fiatter Bryan. Fitch said:
This morning a friend, who is a
member of this convention, and who
now honors me with his audience, said
to me: Mr.. Fitch, you have always been
q pronounced advocate of the free COIN
age of silver what will you do if the
St. Louis convention adopts plank in
their platform favoring a single gold
standard and denouncing the free COIN
age of silver? / did not answer the
question then, but with your permission
/ will do so now. / belong to the Re-
publican party because its history is the
history of the growth, the greatness and
the freedom of this nation; because Its
purposes are patriotic; because it is the
friend of labor without being the foe of
thrift; because it is wise; because 1t is
Just; because its restoration to COM
pIete power will rekindle the furnace
and start the turbines, and fill the land
with the music of contented and we'll
paid toll, and put bread into mems
mouths and hope into their hearts. L
belong to the Republican party because
it is the grandest political organization
OF freemen that the world has ever
known; because under its wise guidance
star after star has been added to our
flag ship after ship has been added to
our fleets, factory after factory has
been added to our resources, millions
have been added to our wealth, city
after city has been developed from mere
villages, and the land has BEEN laced
with a network of iron rails; furnace
fires have illuminated the night, and the
grand diapson of labor has been made
to sound throughout the continent. /
belong to the Republican party because
under its inspiration these United
States, once wrangling and discordant
commonwealths: these United States,
once shamed with slavery and decrepit
with the diSP4S of SSinn-thPSp
United States have become a country
where no slaves presence dishonors la
Dor, where no freeman's utterances are
choked by the hand of power, where no
man dofs his hat to another except
through the courtesy of equals, where
education is free, where manhood is re-
spected, and where labor is protected.
Under the patriotic rule of the Repub-
lican party these United States have be-
come a nation whose credit reigns at the
head Of the worlds finances-whose flag
floats proudly upon every sea, and
whose armies would spring to the drum
beat out of the hives of industry to
swarm in defense of the country on
every shore. Under the rule of the Re
publican party these United States have
become the greatest, freest and most
sun. 1 belong to the Republican party
because it gave land to the landless, be-
cause it gave work TO the industrious,
because it gave freedom to the slave, be-
cause, when the nation was in peril, it
gave armies and treasures for her pres
ervation. Forty years ago. then a lad
of IS, 1 joined the Republican ranks
and, too young to vote, i flung my blaz-
-r- hat oil faY nj
lie Jessie; was present as a newspaper
reporter at the Chicago convention in
1860, when all Illinois shouted Abraham
Lincoln into the Presidency. / heard
the song of John Browns soul sung in
bated breath and in secret gatherings
of his sympathizers, and four years
later on those distant shores / almost
caught the echo of its refrain when
armies chanted it for their battle an
them 1 enjoyed the eloquence and
friendship of Baker and of Starr King,
and Butler, and Bingham, and Garfield
and Conkling, and fhat noblest Roman
OF them all, James G. Blaine. Who
then, is there in all this land that shall
dare to ask me to betray these memo
ries because of a difference of opinion
concerning the conditions under which
SILVER uoiIdfS sildil De coiHSu w no
shall dare to tell me 1t is my duty TO
leave the path along which my youth
and my manhood marched, and where,
when the morning bugle shall sound
the final reveille, my age shall be found
still marching? Rather will / turn to the
Republican goddess the same steadfast
face that / bore when my locks, now
whitening. were black as the ravens
wing, and say to her as Ruth said to
Naomi:
Whittier thou goest, I will go: and
where thou lodgest, l will lodge; thy
people shall be my people, and thy God
my God; when thou diest l will die, and
there viii be buried "