Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-10-30
DEMOCRATIC MEETING.


a large audience, including many
ladies, greeted Senator Morgan, of Ala
bama, at the Opera House last night.
The Third Regiment Drum Corps was
present and enlivened the evening with
inspiring music. On the platform were
Messrs. J. T. Sweeney, NJ. B. Harlow,
W. II. Smith, IT. Beckham, ex-Mayor
81. Strauss, Frank Hume, Major r. W.
Hunter, L. Marbury, Mayor Thompson,
and others.
Mr.. Harlow called the meeting to Or
der and introduced Senator Morgan.
The Senator made one of the most log
ical and forceable arguments heard
| during the canvass. He made no at
tempt at oratory or anecdote but gave
convincing facts and challenged con
tradiction. He started out by saying
that the existing state of affairs in this
country was brought about by faulty
and criminal legislation by Con-
gress, led by John Sherman, the
promoter and sustainer of the most dis
astrous policies ever adopted by gov
eminent and his policies had drawn
the line between the masses and the
classes. He eXtolled the Chicago con-
vention, saying it was magnificent
body, composed of brainy, true and
representative democrats, who, by a
two.t thirds majority had nominated
leader worthy the support of all. He
then spoke of Alexandria and of her
past history, as being the home town of
Washington, who was farmer, and
then read what Mr.. Roosevelt had
said of farmers-''the basest set
in the land'. He said Washington had
approved bill for the free coinage of
gold and silver which had stood until
it interfered with the policy of John
Sherman and of Great Britain, and in
speaking of the base epithets that were
being heaped upon the democratic
party, said there must be some hidden
motive behind all this. He asked if
Washington would have paid the
Rothschilds SO, 900, 900 to purchase the
maintenance of the credit of the gov
eminent for q few months and then
censured President Cleveland for so do
ing. He said that Mr.. Manning was
the greatest man of any of Mr.. Cleve-
| lands cabinet officers, and told how.
when the bankers swarmed about him
and demanded that he pay the govern
J ment's obligations in gold, he had re-
fused their demands, Offering part gold
and part silver and threatening to pay
only in silver il they pressed the treas
ury. This. he said, Mr.. Manning had
an undeniable right to do, as the con-
tract stated that the government obi
cations were payable in coin
either gold or silver, and he said Mr..
! Cleveland had issued $21G,000000 in
bonds to secure gold in order that Mr..
Carlisle need not say "no" when de-
mands were made on him topay those
obligations in gold. He said the gold
reserve was the greatest curse to
this country; was without legislative
authority, and it had been created by
Sherman for his own purposes. He
ridiculed the United States for putting
up 500, 900, 000to guarantee its credit
and said no other country had ever re-
sorted to such measure. This much
of the peoples money was locked up
taken out of circulation and did no one
or no industry any good, while it cost
the people vast sum to keep up this
reserve. Cleveland, Sherman, McKin
ley and Hanna were now cheek by
iowl in endeavoring to keep up this
needless reserve by issuing bonds, thus
increasing the public debt, which they
did not intend the democratic party
should ever extinguish, because the
bondholders did not want it eXtin-
guished. Mr.. Mckinley, he said, ask
ed the people of this country to wait
till Great Britain's queen came to their
relief, but told them in the meantime
they must have more bonds or pay
higher taxes. He, Mckinley, had re-
peatedly advocated the force bill and
now held this measure in reserve.
Senator Morgan made humorous allu-
sions to Mr.. Bayard's letter recon-,
mending an asylum for democrats in
the gold bug party and referred to that
party as the "gold cure" In speaking
of the assistance Mr.. Cleveland was
lending that party, he said that as Mr..
Cleveland had three times been voted
for by the democratic party it was as
little as he could do to quietly retire
and not turn against the people who
had 80 honored him. He said the
Senate had been silver for seventeen
years; mad never been beaten and never
would be; it had passed bill prevent
ing the further issuing of bonds without
authority of Congress, but this bill had
been ''lost" in the republican House. lie
then spoke of the danger to the coun
try the power to issue bonds by the
President entailed, and showed how
such power could be used by ambitious
and INSCRIPTIONS men. The adoption OF
the bill which had passed the Senate,
the Senator said, would remopetize
silver, and he then told of the legacies
which had fallen to England by its de.
monetization and of what it had cost
the people of the United States. He
said we needed all the silver tina. could
be mined to meet the demands of the
increasing population and trade, aud
asked why we should shut up our
mines for the purpose of enriching other
countries. Senator Morgan then traced |
the duality of everything from the time
of Adam and Eve and likened this to
the double standard. Gold and silver,
he said, were the two metals which |
were made for money and they should |
90 hand in hand together as such: they |