The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-09-28
MIR. DONNELLY'S ADDRESS.

CT the mid-road candidates upon the stat
ticket The speech in full is as follows:
MR.. DONNELLY'S ADDRESS.
Ladies and Gentlemen-I am glad to Sc
| so large an attendance here at 1e.s meet
ing Of the REAL Populists of MINNEAPOLIS
| The storm and confusion Of the Jesperat
struggle OF the office seeker for place an,
| plunder has passed away, and men ar,
| beginning to think and reason cooly. ant
| am sorry to say. my friends that th
| city of Minneapolis has obtained a baf
| pre-eminence for the most desperate strue
| ele LOT piunder that has ever taken plac,
| IN TINS country. The continual effort tt
combine discordant elements the wrang
| ing, the pickering, the confusion The bar
| gaining, the trading, the committees. tn,
! conferences one after the other, the fear
| iui rows and uproar Of confusion of thes,
| nave astonished the state. and l am sorr,
TO say, have disgraced the parties who
have takeH part in them. Now The rest
| OF US who are not seeking office, VINO are
| not making bargains, who are not trying
! 10 rusn into the embrace of another party
| we believe there is Just as much neces.
sity for the Peoples party of The United
states today as there was in 1892, when i,
! put Its hrst ticket in the field. At that
! time 1T put forth a platform of principles
| II set forth list of objects to be desired
| no one OF those principles has vet been
| 'rlumpnant; not one of those objects las
yet been triumphant; not one of nose cb.
Jects mas yet been accomplished. WHY
tnen are We asked to disband this party
why are we asked to follow the example
" our brethren in Iowa, where they
! merged with the Democracy and reduced
tnelr vote from 5000 to 5000? Why are
we asked to follow the .xample of the
Fopuilsts Of Ohio. where they merged in
10 the embrace Of the Democracy of that
tL sac ana reduced their vote from fifty odd
thousand TO 5000? Why should we do ~
Why' the earnest gentlemen-and some Of
tnem are honestly mistaken and others are
simply struggling for place and power
tne gentlemen l say, who have urged this
thlng upon those people, and who vould
cratic party is now substantially the same
as the Peoples party; that It has aGopted
the the principle of free silver; that, to use
t .helr cant phrase, We all think alike, and
therefore we should all act together
NOW, my friends, | grant you that IL this
We're true. 1t the Democratic party for the
last % years had been the friend of reform !.
IL II mad been at the forefront of prog
ress; II 1t was filled with liberal ideas: if
II had steadily advocated free silver an
Aouhdant currency to meet the wants Of
the people; if there was no .uuesti,n ahou+
their honesty in these respects why then
my friends, would go with these men
ana would say Let us join this honest
plaiahx the friend of reform, and all move
together, but, my friends such is not The
case. l undertake to say here that there
mas peen no worse enemy of reform and
" Tree silver In these United States in
the last 20 years than this same I,a,o-
Gratic party. And L will prove it TO YOU.
- Iuo'e from compilation made by a
TREND aIter q careful examination of ,he
congressional record. who assures mo ~
the accuracy OF every item of these state.
1nehls' % ana II there is any question about
the truth Of any OF thano III, """u.
from the record wa 1--WE II
First, the
ANA that was the direful snrinp of uaos
uiil.inhoered-Was carried by moro Danoo
80, thaH HepubIlcan votes; it wasn't n
strlct party measure, to be sure and ever,,
noni,lee OF the Democratic party since 1879
urlll the last election in 1895 has baa, 900 90
avoWed enemy of the free coinage If siI,ar
NOW let us look at the cOngressIonai
lecoiu. In 1876, with a majority in con
sress' the Democratic party demonati7ad
80, tne liaoe oollar The trade dollar as Won
+ho n, "as uoliaf which was coined under
.ne pretense of meeting the necessities of
tidue with the Orient. China. Janan ana
i!iuid. Ii contained more silver bv con
slueraole than the common standard dol
ldr' put IL was not legal tender 1t was got
ten up before 1873 as a stalking horsa ~
hind which they could attack the stanaa~, pe
uollaf and demonetze it. for whnn 49,
ealle IN that Infamous and nefarious act
10 strike out the silver dollar. the "dol1ar
.! VI tHe 1athers, as they were called. they
~ " !. III express words. There was
nothing In the title Of the bill TO fell What
they We're about. 1t was an "Act for the
regulation OF the mints of the Jrnited
States, and full Of petty details. bu3 when
they came to the point upon which # ali
nlnsed they 1aid ''The gold coinage ,f
the United States shall consist Of the $40
gold piece, and $40 gold piece and 8, odd
piece etc, down, l think, to the 81 gold
piece When they came to silver tbav
SAD, The coinage Of tire silver of the
United States should consist of the trade
dollar, the half dollar, the quarter do1Iar
the 1O-cent piece" and then at the end 81
tne act they put in this umbrella-like
clause: NO coins not enumerated in This
act shall hereafter be coined in the Tinted
states. That shut the doors Of the mints
VI me onlted States surreptitiously and
secretly against the coinage of free sill
yer. "
needn't go over this matter. for Won
are all familiar with it. You remember oil
the leading members on both sides Of the
house, including James G. Blaine and Sono
ators Peck and Kelley, and the other
leaders came out few years afterward
and declared that they had not known until
that moment that silver had been do
monetized by that act of 1873. But in 1875
three years afterward, this silver dollar.
this trade dollar, which contained mora
silver than the common dollar but lacked
the hat of the law which said If shou1d
be legal tender, had performed its function.
the banks refused to take it because IT was
not legal tender, and some of YOU know
how you had to take this big silver dollar
weighing more than the common dollar
and then take it to a bank and sell if for
10 cents less than its face value, and when
the bank had gathered In all these trade
dollars, congress, by a majority of the
Democratic party, by its vote in 1875 do
monetized and struck down that trade dol
lar, wiped it out and gave back to these
worldly bankers legal tender standard dol
lars. That was one of the first steps.
ACTION OF DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSES
Then let US go on. After 1t was discov-
cred that silver had been demonetized by a
trek and fraud, the first impulse of the
great people would have been to have in
stantly repealed that fraud if they had been
honest, congress should have resolved TO
sit perpetually until that wrong was right
ed. When all the leaders on both sides said
it was wrong; when President Grant. who
signed the bill, said for two years he never
knew what was in it, and the very fall
after signing the bill he wrote to a friend
in the West in the mining regions. that
now we could pay the national debt in sill
yer, and thus create a demand for the pro-
ducts Of these great mining states when
the very bill he had signed had shut the
doors in the face of that silver; now I saw
when that was discovered, the first step to
have taken should have been to repeal that
law The leaders should have risen in their
seats and said AN outrageous fraud has
been practiced on the American people We
will never sleep until it is righted." Gap
lause). What did they do? Why, there was
peal until Nov. s. 1877. Mr. Bland, a DEM
md Of