Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-08-29
The Democratic Platform Strikes
at the Governments
Foundation.
FREE SILVER NOT BIMETALLISM.
Condition of Affairs Worse than War
Would Result from DEM
ocratic Success.

very clearly the fact that tree SILVER Is
results would follow Democratic sue
cess He said that for the first
time since the election next preced-
ing the great Civil war, we are
required to guard the very founda-
tons and bulwarks of national stability,
of commercial honesty, of financial con-
duct. The Democratic party which met
a wonderful change in that convention.
The old oracles and guides of the party
were rudely turned aside. 1t was occu-
pied and demoniaca lly possessed by new
spirit-something which has not raised
its. head in the political co0ventions of
either party for thirty years II there
was any one thing which the 100000
of men who went out to defend this coun-
try thirty years ago thought that they
had entirely obliterated when they re.
turned, it was the malign doc ine.o OF
and was the impetus of the greatest
rebellion which ever reared its head
against a civilized government. Lo and
behold, in that convention, from the
state of South Carolina, as of yore, you
find the declaration of the same state
rights, in the same spirit as in the an
Gent time, and done in connection, my
fellow citizens, which must appeal to the
resentment and repugnance of every lib
erty-loving and country-loving man. Ev-
eryone who knows anything about me
of Grover Cleveland; but if there was
any one act of his administration which,
after the coptentions of history have
ceased to rage about his acts and his
memory, that will remain star-bright
pulse Of (bssiness beat low. when com
IN Chicago, by which, upon principles and
precedents laid down by George Wash
fngton 100 years before, he evoked the
strong arm of the United States to re-
store law and order in this country.
Applause and cheers.
This act is covertly (and covertly is
too mild world denounced in the Chi
cago platform. More than that If there
is anything in this country or in any ma
ton upon which the stability of the gov
eminent depends, the very keystone of
empire stands, the ultimate principle of
absoluteism that must exist somewhere
in all governments, it is the courts of our
land, where men sequestered from politi-
cal concerns and political ambitions,
holding the scales of justice even be-
tween contending passions and contend
ing rights, decide for their fellow citizens
what the law is. And for more than 100
years the Supreme court of the United
States has sat in that exalted position,
midway in the capitol of the nation be-
resentatives, a typical object 1esson of
their position and of their sublime ca
pacity to restrain either, and has done
more to conduct the government to the
high plane which it occupies. was going
to say, than all the statesmen which this
country has ever produced. (Applause.)
The Chicago platform strikes at that
court, strikes at all courts, and enun-
ciates its malign prophesy of the reor-
Sanlzatlon of that court and of any other
court if necessary, to register the fitful
and passionate and repudiating edicts of
and misguided men, of mistaken
and misguided parties.
a Crisis is Impending
Nens-worse than that! If there was
another thing which the veterans Of the
last war thought they had achieved and
which the loyal sentiment of the North
thought it had achieved, it was the OBJ
liberation of all sectionalism in this coun-
try; we were to have no South. no North
no East, no West. any more. The whole
country was to be a unity. But in these
later days, we see the solid South com
ing up to the banks of the Ohio and the
missouri as before the war, and with
sectional demands upon an economic is
sue, precisely such as was made before
tue Rebellion And now, with the mich
fork OF Ill!Inan stirring up the doctrine
of state rights. with the bomb of ltreid
in the denunciation of our courts aud of
president Cleveland thrown under the
very fabric of our government. they have
CHOSEN to put forward as an issue some
thing which touches more immediately
the conviction, the passions. the cupiiity
and the honesty of men, and which in If
self contains more G.sintegrating inf1u-
ences TO our prosperity than all the
causes combined that l have mentioned.
! he Democratic convention or the
e'einocratic party. as now organized, has
Joined the Populist party in bonds of nm
holy wedlock upon the demand that the
United States shall take q position 1non
Vie currency of this country which 7
speaking to you under the responsibility
or man who is speaking to his neigh
bors. say that l believe is fraught With
more disaster to this country than the
greatest foreign war could nosSihIy -
about. (Applause)
And that is the subject that I have
oeen asked to talk to you tonight about
am gong TO Go so. as l said in the be-
ginning, not with any attempt at deco
ratlve speech, not denouncing any men
who may choose TO differ from me for
1 tell you, my fellow citizens. that NAM
and many thousand men who differ
from us today on this matter one wear
how they came TO do it (Appiause.1
And so shall go on. l may be tedious
am gong to give you facts and fig
ures- am not going to draw on NV
The facts that / shall give Won viii he
impregnable. 1t is for you TO iudgo
whether the deductions 1 shall draw
from them can be refutcd
Now what is the question: For oo-
rect understa nding of the question is al
ways the first step towards the solution
OF the controversy The question is ROT
whether there should be the free and
unlimited coinage of silver in the mints
of all the nations. by the consent of the
principal commercial nations of tb., rIobe
upon ratio to be greed upon T,bot i
NOT the issue We ali might agree that
when this is brought about. a il will he
If the United States conducts itself With
judgment upon this question. I saw We
might all agree that that would be an
excellent thing The Republican party
has pledged itself in successive platforms
to labor TO bring about internatiopaJ
agreement Tie most advanced thinL-
ers upon financial questions in bo+b
fnrnlOn n nrlC rhe