The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-05-25
LIES AND REPLIES.
A Comprehensive Answer to q Mess of
SANDERS.

Sl0nOerS.
We promised. in our last issue to re-
ply to an attack made upon us May 16,
in the Minneapolis Times, over the sig
nature of F. c. Gibbs; but was, as we be-
lieve, the joint production of Owen,
Lynch, Dobbyn, ct al. We feel it is
shame to waste the valuable space Of
newspaper upon such insignificant trash;
but the attack was made to injure all
those who stand by Populism, pure and
simple, and for their sakes, and the sake
of the party, we briefly reply. We give
the whole article and answer it seriatim.
Our readers can then see all that our
enemies have to say, and how baseIess
are their assaults. 1t commences.
To the Editor of The Times.
Allow me the privilege through your paper
of refuting charges made against myself by
certain Minnesota politician. The usual
thing has again happened; Ignatius
Donnelly has seen fit %, to attack the Of
ficials of the Peoples Party and to severely
criticise the call lately issued for state
convention, and inasmuch as ca wrote the
same and affixed my signature to the docu-
ment. l shall unhesitatingly assume the re-
sponsibility for the sentiment expressed
therein. 60 When the learned gentleman
made his attack upon me short time ago.
1 refrained from replying for the sake Of
peace; but in recent issues of his paper, he
has renewed his peculiar and vindictive
abuse to such an extent that patience is no
longer virtue. Therefore shall reply
a. If We have attacked SOME of the
officials of the Peoples party it is be-
cause they are trying to destroy the
party. Our fidelity is due to the party
and it's eternal principles, not to few
individuals, who have been accidentally
elevated to official positions.
CO. All judges of style will perceive
that this article was not written by Gibbs
He could not have penned so long an
article without having set of ideas at
the end thereof totally different from
those he started in with. His backbone
is cartilagenous.
CD He did not reply at once; and
would not now, but the crafty Lynch
perceived that some answer was needed,
and then it took some days of conference
to accumulate the garbage to cast over
us.
Mr.. Donnelly says: ''The peoples party
seems to be cursed in it's officials. Almost
as soon as we elevate a man to office he
turns around to trade off; the latest
revelation is the case of F. c. Gibbs,
national chairman of the peoples party
state central committee" / deny his &C
cusation every word of which is false. (4)
L have not made a single proposition to
the trade, neither has any individual APP
preached me on the subject. l simply
made public my own personal convictions
as to the proper course to pursue, and
having done SO, leave the matter entirely
to the wisdom of the convention to decide
and 60 whatever that decision may be,
whether it agrees with my personal opinion
or not. L propose to most Loyalty stand by
the same, CO thing it seems the learned
gentleman does not propose to do should it
go contrary to his wishes; for in his paper
Of April 81 he says, speaking of the state
convention: Come prepared to organize
at once, if these scoundrels override you'
meaning thereby of course, to bolt the con-
vention if the proceedings do not suit him.
CD By what authority does he designate
myself and other members of the people,
party scoundrels for daring to express our
opinions?
a. Gibbs is made to say in the above
that he has not made single PROPOSE
ton to trade off the party. He did
worse. He declared that he would not
call the state convention until the Ex-
position hall was secured for the Popu-
lists, Democrats and Free Silver Repub-
licans to hold their joint meeting in to
ratify the fusion" of the three parties
into one. And this he calls making
public my own personal convictions!
REFUSING TO PERFORM HIS DUTY
AS CHAIRMAN UNLESS THE PEO-
PLIES PARTY WAS PREPARED TO
FUSE! A more shameful betrayal of
official trust never was heard of in the
history Of politics. Can you conceive
it possible for the chairman of the Re-
publican state central committee to re-
fuse to do his duty until the arrange
ments were made to turn his party over
to the Democrats? And Gibbs own COM
mittee had just resolved to have no Gus
ion;" and had fixed the unprecedentedly
early date of June Is, to escape the pos
sibility of having the other party con-
ventions in session at the same time.
60 And Gibbs says that whatever
our convention of June Is may do he will
stand by it. OF course he will If it re-
solved for the gold-standard and de-
nounced the Omaha platform he would
say amen.
Co. If our convention of June Is is
packed by Democrats, and is therefore
practically a Democratic convention,
should we sustain it, and permit the
Peoples party to die? SIS thy servant
a dog, that he should do this thing"
Are we to be sold out and transferred
from one knave to another by success
full trickery? 1t was for such practices
as this we Populists left the old parties.
The man who would preach such debas-
ing servility should be deprived Of his
suffrage. He is not fit to be an Ameri-
can citizen. He should be a subject of
the car.
CD BY the authority of truth The
| Peoples party official of any state, who
would try to open the doors of our party
| to permit Democrats to flood in and pack
our convention, by simply declaring that
| they INTEND, IN THE GREAT HERE
| AFTER, to vote the Populist ticket, is a
"scoundrel" Of the darkest dye. There