Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1896-08-29
SENATOR DAVIS VTEV.
The Democratic Platform Strikes
at the Governments
Foundation.
FREE SILVER NOT BIMETALLIsM,
Condition Of Affairs Worse than War
Would Result from Dem.
ocratc Success.

In speech delivered at st. Paul Au-
gust 4, Senator g. X. Davis pointed out
very clearly The fact that free silver is
not bimetallsm and showed what evil
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
at ChlcaSo in convention in July suffered
a, a wonderful change in that convention.
The old oracles and guides of the party
were rudely turned aside. 1t was occu-
pied and Economically possessed by new
spirit-something which has not raised
ITS head in the political conventions of
either party for thirty years. If there
was any one thing which the 100000
OF men who went out to defend this coun-
try, thirty years ago thought that they
mad entirely obliterated when they re-
turned, 1t was the malign doctrine of
state rights, which lay at the bottom
and was the impetus of the greatest
rebeliion 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
md the declaration of the same state
rights, in the same spirit as in the an
cient time, and done in n connection, my
IiON NltiHeus' WHICH must appear 10 tne
resentment and repugnance of every lib
erty-loving and country-loving man. Ev-
eryone who knows anything about me
KNOWS that L am not q political admirer
OF Grover Cleveland: but if there was
any one act of his administration which,
after the contentious of history have
ceased to rage about his acts and his
memory, that will remain star-bright
forever, it was his action, when the
pulse OF business beat low, when COM
mercial intercourse was cut off by rioters
IN Chlcago, by which, upon principles and
lngton 100 years before, he evoked the
strong arm of the United States to re-
store law and order in this country.
lApplause and cheers.1
Ihis act is covertly land covertly is
too mild a word) denounced in the Chi
caSo platform. More than that. If there
Is anything in this country or in any ma
ton upon which the stability of the gov
ernment depends, the very keystone of
the great arch upon which the ranged
empire stands. the ultimate principle of
nbsoluteism that must exist somewhere
IN all governments, it is the courts of our
iand, 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
States has sat in that exalted position,
midway, in the capitol of the nation be-
tween the Senate and the House of Rep
rssentatives, typical object lesson of
their position and of their sublime ca
pacity to restrain either, and has done
high plane which it occupies, l 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-
of that court and of any other
court II necessary, to register the fitful
and passionate and repudiating edicts of
and misguided men, of mistaken
and misguided parties.
A Crisis is Impending.
And worse than that, my fellow citi-
Zens-worse than that! If there was
another thing which the veterans of tbe
last war thought they had achieved and
which the loyal sentiment of the North
thought it had achieved. it was the oh
liberation of all sectionalism in this conn
try; we were TO have no South, no North.
no East, no West. any more. The whole
country was to be unity. But in these
later days, we see the solid South com
ing up to the banks of the Ohio and rho
as before the war, and with
sectional demands upon an economic is
sue precisely such as was made before
e-e rebellion. And now, with the pirch-
tork OF Illlman stirring up the doctrine
OF state rights. with the bomb of AltpcId
N the denunciation of our courts and of
President Cleveland thrown under the
very fabric of our government, they have
CHOSEN to put forward as an issue some
,ihlhS winch touches more Immediately
Ihe c0nVictlon, the passions, the cupility
and the honesty of men, and which in H.
self contains more disintegratinp inHn-
ences to our prosperity than all the
m causes combined that have mentioned
Ihe Democratic convention, or the
iDem9cratic party, as now organized, has
lolhed the Populist party in bonds of un-
molly Wedlock upon the demand that the |
United States shall take position unon
the currency of this country which I
speaking to you under the responsibility
ot a man who is speaking TO his neigh |
DOTS, say that | believe is fraught with |
greatest foreign war could possibly b-jnp
about (Applause) 'As
And that is the subject that T b,ve
been asked to talk to you tonight about
am going to do so, as said in the he |
ginning, not with any attempt at deco
ratiVe speech, not denouncing any men
who may choose to differ from me. for
tell you, my fellow citizens, that many |
and many thousand men who differ |
from us today on this matter one year |
from now viii be wondering why and |
how they came to do it. (Appiause1
And so | shall go on. 1 may be tedious,
am going to give, you facts and fig
nres. l am not going to draw ON NV
own imagination for my facts at ali.
The facts that l shall give you will be- |
impregnable. 1t is for you to Judge |
whether the deductions / shall draw
from them can be refuted.
Now what is the question? For n cor
rect understanding of the question is nj. |
ways the first step towards the solution
ot the controversy. The question is not !
whether there should be the free and
unlimited coinage of silver in the minis |
Of all the nations, by the consent eff the |
commercial nations of the globe
upon a ratio to be agreed upon. That il
not the issue. We all might agree that
when this is brought about, as Il viii he
4 the United States conducts itself with
Judgment upon this question, / sav @ wa
might all agree that that would he nm
excellent thing. The Republican marty
has pledged itself in successive Mat forms
to labor to bring about internat tionaI
agreement. The most advanced think.
ers upon financial questions in both |