The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-30

AS the campaign progresses to its
close the shifting of issues goes on,
and all the great questions that are
involved in this election begin to as
sumo their true relative Importance.
At the last it will be neither the silver
issue nor the tariff issue that decides
the direction in which the vote of
very large portion of our citizens is
cast. 1t will be one that as the days
go by. has commended itself more and
more to thoughtful men as vital not
only to our credit or our business pros
perity, but to our national existence.
The country could live under any kind
of tariff or without any tariff at all.
The country could live, doubtless, al
though in a disgraced and unfortunate
condition, under the free coinage of
silver But the country could not live
If the Union were virtually dissolved
by Annulling the power of the federal
government to enforce it's own laws.
There was comparatively little talk
or thought about this on the day after
the Chicago convention. The surpris-
ing success of free silver filled all
minds to the exclusion Of other mat
tiers, and brief reference to the IAN
archy' plank was all the mention made
of the Difference of that body to mob
law. Day after day the folly and the
crime of that proclamation have writ
ten themselves more plainly before the
eyes of the American people, until now
men everywhere are ready to sink all
other differences in going back to the
old and immortal declaration that 1.-The
Union must and shall be preserved"
Cen Tracey, in his speech at Car
negie hall on Monday evening, struck
the note of the central thought Of a
great part of the American people. AS
he says, all the rest of the Chicago
platform Is harmless when compared
with this one plank You cannot
change the character of the supreme
court. nor can you repudiate the debt
of the nation, without the concurrent
action of congress. But 1t is within
the power of the president, in case of
armed resistance to the laws, to de-
stroy the government by inaction."
This is the solemn truth. Put in it's
mildest and least offensive form. the
position taken by Mr.. Bryan is that
the national executive has no right
to enforce the laws of the United
States until he has been requested to
do so by the governor of that state
within which they may chance to be
resisted and def1ed. This involves two
conclusions. The first is that the man
who accepts such position contracts
in advance to violate his oath of Of
flee. AS president of the United States
he is obliged at his Inauguration to
swear solemnly before God that he
will protect, defend and uphold the
constitution of the United States, and
viii see that it's laws are faithfully.
executed. Among these laws is one
whose enforcement requires the exer-
else of all the military authority at
the command of the president when
ever the passage of the federal mails
is INSTRUCTED. To carry this into effect
was all that Mr.. Cleveland did during
the Chicago riots. For doing this he
was denounced by the Altgeld con-
vention and this plank was adopted
expressly to prevent the candidate
there nominated from following such
example. Therefore, Mr.. Bryan an
nouDces in advance that he will take
a false oath upon his lips If he shall
be elected.
The second and weightier considera-
ton. as pointed out by Gen. Tracey
and as dwelt upon by hundreds Of
thousands Of patriotic voters through
out the country, is that the carrying
out OF this doctrine would be as eff
fectual a disbandment of the United
States as would have been the success
full adoption of ordinances OF secession
This is no imaginary case. We are
not putting a hypothetical condition
never likely to arise. The thing has
happened in the past. A great state
like Illinois has elected for its gov
ernor a man so heartily in sympathy
with anarchy that he exercised the full
power OF his Office to prevent inter
ference with mob violence with riot.