The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-09-28
DENOUNCED
Democratic Party and It's Lead
ers, Past and Present, Sc
verely Arraigned.
The Sage of Nininger Opens
His Campaign With a
Ringing Address.
John Lind's Record Declared
to Be Lacking in Coz
sistency.

1gnatius Donnelly,- the vice presidential
candidate of the mil-road Popul SITS, last
evening opened the campaign Of his party
at Harmonic hall in this city There are
those who pretend to believe that the Sage
Of Nininger" is back number; that his
day has passed and that his tongue has
lost its venom, but his words last evening
showed conclusively that his brain is as
fertile as ever and his tongue just as nim-
BILE. His address was practically an ar
raignment Of the Democratic party. At it's
door he laid the blame for the disruption
of the POpulists. To The followers of Grover
Cleveland he was unmerciful, and of the
believers in Bryan he was distrustful.
The speech was not so long as to tire
the audience, and it abounded in enough
witticisms to keep the listeners in good
humor, while his anecdotes were directly to
the point and told the meaning of the speak
er plainly. Mr. DonnelIy is past master in
the arts of oratory, and he used them last
evening. The expression of his face, his
gestures and the very pose of the man, in
terested the audience nearly as much
his words. The speech abounded in irony,
and verged upon bitter invective whenever
he referred to ex-President Cleveland, the
Eastern wing Of the Democratic party, or
the question Of the tariff. For Mr.. Cleve-
land he had not, apparently. a vocabulary
sufficient for the expression of his thoughts,
although, as Is well known. the scarcity Of
language Is one Of those matters that
pothers Ignatius DcEae,iy least.
While his referenc, Z to Grover Cleveland
were bitter and uro.ssSs.; .sse nj tafy, they Were
evidently relished BY y. crowd, and among
some of the express is which he used in
that connection we ;: THE illustrious
wind-bag,'' This ole humbug," THAT in
famous man, Grover Cleveland and THE
ex-hangman OF Buffalo.
He traced the record of the Democratic
party through the past, and showed that
up till two years ago it was the bitterest
enemy the free silver cause had. He showed
that it was responsible for 1.-The crime of
'73'' insofar that more Democratic votes
than Republican were cast for the Demon
etization of silver. He enumerated repeated
instances in which the Democrats, with an
overwhelming majority in congress, had de-
feated free coinage measures. He blamed
that party for the demonetiZation of the
trade dollars, and said they used the trade
dollar as a stalking horse for the greater
crime of silver demonstration. In numer-
GUS cases the fopuUllCtllS Hdu NOtCu di"
most solidly for free silver coinage, but
the measure would always be defeated by
the Democratic branch of congress. This
continued up to and including action upon
the Bland bill Of 1893
Mr. Donnelly said the Populists could not
trust such party. He showed upon MS
breast a medal which had been adopted by
the Populists in 1891, bearing the inscription,
.'Keep in the middle of the road" and de-
clared: I'VE mid-rCad Populists started
there six years ago, and we are there to-
night
The audience contained quite number Of
BRYAN men and an amusing incident oc-
curred when the sage referred to the
..Youne man from Nebraska" At the men,
tion of Rryan's name these admirers broke
into applause. Mr. Donnelly stood and
waited for the noise to subsde, and then,
with whitening scorn, said:
"Now nv friends, no man is greater
than the party he represents. II you think
he ir. I pity you for you defective intelli-
pence I merely mention the name of this
bright young man and some OF you break
out into measly applause. While the Peo-
p!e's party was agitating the financial issue
MI Bryan was in congress talking about
the tariff Che speaker brought out the Wora
tariff in an inimitable manner, in which
condensed scorn was expressed in drawl of
the Wo~d) Why. a statesman should have
his eyes in the front Of his head not undar
his coat tails Had there been no Peoples
party Mr.. Bryan would never have been
presidential candidate. We put him to
school, and he Wcnhu up ny steal'hS the
school books y
He was bitter in his denunciatiOn of fusion
and said that the first case of it which APP
peared in history was When the devil took
a certain distinguished individual into the
mountain top and asked him to fuse, say
ing that they thought alike, and that there
IN no The Lord had
swered by SAYING. Get thee behind me,
Butler" referring to the Populist national
chairman. Il
In conclusion Mr.. Donnelly paid his re-
spects to John Lind. whom he regarded as
a very respectable sort of man. He took
up Lind's course since he had left the Re
publican party and asked if anyone in the
audience. could tell what were the politics
of the fusion gubernatorial candidate, and
a voice, in fact, several voices, promptly
replied Republican Lind was placed be-
fore the people as a candidate and people
were told that he was an honest ma L."
He wanted to know il honest men were 50
scarce in this state that the only specimen
had to pe nominated for governor. He read
extracts of letters n which Lind had been
asked to define his views upon public ques-
tions and to which he had always refused
to reply, saying that the policies of parties
cut no figure with him, because he was not
a candidate for Office. Summing it, up, Lind
had said he stood upon his congressional
and investigation showed that while
a member of congress Mr.. Lind had thrice
voted against free silver coinage and not
once in its favor Yet Mr.. Lind was willing
to stand upon that record.
Finally Mr.. Donnelly touched upon JUS
tices Mitchell, Canty and Buck. who were
severely criticised because they had decided
against the farmers in the famous elevator
case in which the farmers wished to have
an elevator erected by the state for their
use at Duluth
Although continually interrupted by
choruses of "amens'' and replies to his
questions, he was as alert as ever. and
kept to his theme. Capt. A. H. Nelson pre-