The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-27

The signs of decadence in the free-silver
movement are so apparent as to foreshadow
it's early end. Even without the war it
nish an issue for another presidential cleo
ton, and the war will materially hasten it's
ending. 1t is not unlikely that Colonel
Bryan who, with all his crudities in finance
and logic, is a shrewd observer of events
and knows well when to spread or furl his
political sails, may have foreseen the COM
ing dissolution of the movement and sought
to get out from under by entering the army.
where, if he does not make any reputation,
he may at least achieve partial forgetful-
ness of having been the leader of a lost
cause. A few Democratic conventions NAV
initiate the folly of the recent one in this
State by reaffirming the obsolete Chicago
platform and expressing "undiminished con-
fidence in our peerless leader in the national
campaign of 1885,. but these perfunctory ex-
pressions will not affect the course of events
nor arrest the rapid disintegration of the
16-to-1 party.
When the free-silver movement comes to
be classified in history it will take its place
among the short-lived parties in American
politics which have failed either because
they have been based on a single issue or on
pies of government or finance If it is true
that political parties are a necessity of free
government, it is equally true that in order
to be permanent or useful they must be
founded on principles as broad as the gov
eminent itself. Our political history is
strewn with the wrecks of short-lived
parties which have died from vicious prin-
ciples, as individuals often do from un-
healthy blood. Most of these parties have
been founded on a single idea, and have
therefore been unable to appeal to any ma
tional sentiment or deal with any really ma
tional issue. They are the political mush-
rooms of free government, ephemeral
growths that spring up in a night, like
JOnah's gourd. But Scripture records that
God prepared worm when the morning
rose the next day, and it smote the gourd
that it withered." These short-lived parties
are all born with worm at the root The
anti-Masonic party born in 1926 out of
local incident in New York, became strong
enough to hold a national convention in
1881 and nominate candidates for President
and Vice President, who were voted for in
many States and carried the State of YER
mont. In 1895 it elected a Governor in
organized in 1852, thought it had found
broad principle in prescribing foreigners.
The rallying cry, Americans must rule
America was very popular for a time, but
it was too narrow. The party held ma
tional convention in 1856, and it's candidate,
Willard Fillmore, received a popular vote of
about $4,000 and carried one State. In 1857
and Maryland, and had a few members in
Congress as late as 1852 1t died for lack
of a national principle Following these
have been two or three peoples parties, the
name having an attraction for seceders, the
Greenback party, the Labor Reform party,
the Decentralization party. the United La
Dor, or Henry, George party, the Anti
Monopoly party, the Changers, the A. P. A.
organization the 16-to-1 free-silver party,
etc. All of these have had their day in
court, and the causes which they professed
to represent have been ardently advocated
by leaders who thought. or pretended to
think, that the salvation of the country de-
pended on their success. They have not
succeeded. and the country survives They
have failed because they were based on
narrow, sectional or class interests, and
appealed to motives which were either
vicious or not broad enough to embrace all
the people and the entire country. IT is