Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1898-08-23

Mr.. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE
CONVENTION
For the CONSPICUOUS, the commanding
honor you have conferred upon me,
thank you with feelings of gratitude
which finds words inadequate to their
proper expression. Thanks, it has been
said by the philosophers, is little word,
but it means much when there is heart
behind it. To stand as the invested
champion of this districts imperial De
mocracy, to be worthy of such an honor,
and to receive it in such a manner, is a
distinction which no man is big enough
to decline and few small enough to fail
in its proper appreciation. This senti-
ment gathers on its way as it emphasizes
the fact that no act of mine has con
tributed to this result.
In accepting the results of your action
and assuming the responsibility which it
entails, 1 can only promise you the full
measure of such abilities as a good God
has given me, and pledge you that the
standard which you today place in my
hands shall have inscribed upon it no
neutral principles, but fearless and a
vigorousD mocracy-aD Democracy which
rejoices in the history of its past as par
ty, and looks with no pessimistic views to
the future.
To be Democrat to-day, Jefter-
sonian Democrat, should be the proudest
badge of American citizenship, because
its resignation represents party which
has resisted the empire of decay, and
given to immortality record which has
added, with each recurring year, new
lustre to the American name. and con-
tributed so much to the greatness, the
grandeur and the perpetuity of the Amer
ican republic. AS party its illustrious
founder stood sentinel at the birth of lib
erty in the western world and breathed
the breath of enduring life into the dec
laration for freedom, while he welded in
to organic form the great charter of pop
ular government. Its principles and its
administration of public affairs gave, by
conquest and by treaty, to the American
people, domain which extends from the
eastern to the western seas. and from the
tropical base of Southern commerce to
the frozen waters of the great northwest.
1t successfully met on land and sea for
eign invader and domestic foe, while it
extended to every port American com
merce in American ships under the aegis
of the American flag.
By the action of Democratic Presi-
dent, it promulgated, years before the
Republican party wore its swaddling
clothes, the Democratic doctrine, affirmed
here to-day, that no lsingly power should
find resting place on this continent; and
the devastated plains of Porto Rico and
deserted battlements of Santiago are to-
day telling the story of the affirmation of
that Democratic doctrine.
Always the champion of the people, it
has stood, as Jackson stood, stone wall
against constitutional encroachments,
protecting the rights of individual citizen
ship against the aggressions of aggre-
gated wealth, while at the same time it
shields corporate rights and vested inter
ests against the red-handed drone who
would loot the industrial hive
From its ranks, as party, has been
drawn, 1iberally drawn, the blood and
treasure which has written the best pages
of American history. The halo of glory
which now surrounds the American sol
dier and sailor, is the promptings of that
patriotism which her teachings inspire.
When humanity revolted against Spanish
brutality on Cuban soil, it was Democra-
cy's voice which was first heard in de-
manding belligerent rights for the patriot
sons of that island and when Spanish
treachery caused the widows and mothers
of American sailors to wear the weeds of
mourning, it was the Democratic party
that proclaimed that blood alone could
wipe out the crime committed in Havana
harbor, and that the lives of American
citizens were above and beyond the price
which mere money could repay. Such
are the teachings OF this old party, ever
ancient and ever new, at whose shrine
we to-day renew our allegiance and whose
perpetuity of our national character as
they were at the formation of the govern
ment She has stood at the cradle, and
shed the tear of the laureled conqueror
over the grave of all the other parties
and has listened frequently to the predic-
ton of her own death and speedy disso-
lhtion, but
THE snow white hind
So often doomed to death
Is fated not to die"
She stands to-day redolent in the men,