Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-01-13

Omana, NeD., Jan. l.-EX-GOV. All
geld of Illinois was the principa
speaker at the Jackson day banquet
given by the Jackson Club tonight
The grand old man, who, by consent
ing to run for mayor Of Chicago on the
municipal ownership platform, has
torn the mask of treason from those
who would betray the living issues fol
which the allied forces stand was al
his best and said in part:
The Republic Threatened.
This club has won fame through Its
struggle for higher politcs-for higher
standards of justice. and for more hon.
est economic and financial policies. But
great as are your achievements. much
as you have accomplished, your work
has barely begun. This Republic has been
the beacon light Of the world for more
than century. 1t has not only lifted
the hopes of all men, but by its example
1t has turned the face of nearly all ma
tions toward liberty. Since the first read
ing of the Declaration of Independence
over two hundred and fifty constitutions
that were Republican In form have been
adopted. Most Of them persisted, but they
will rise again. Now the foundations are
being pulled from under our own institu-
lions. The very affairs of liberty are
being betrayed by the men set to guard
them. Two years ago, when we turned
the face of our party toward the sun. we
protested against economic policies that
robbed, against financial policies that
paralyzed, and against judicial usurpa-
tion that enslaved. Every days develop
ment since that time has shown not only
that we were right, but that the situation
was far more serious than We supposed.
Look About You, American Citizens.
Look about you! Nearly all of the
wealth of this land is passing into few
hands, and not one of these hands favor
able to the freedom of the citizen. Every
great Industrial, commercial. mining or
transportation enterprise is passing into
the hands first of corporations and then
by further consolidation into the hands
of trusts which thus have an absolute
monopoly-a monopoly which can. arbi-
trarily. fix prices, fix wages and regulate
output-a monopoly which has no soul
and whose chief purpose Is to plumber
the public. The monopolist and the spec
ulator prosper, but the masses wither.
Men of moderate fortunes and of fair
incomes, who were the bulwark of the
Republic are slowly but surely being
wiped out. We are being reduced to two
classes; in the first stage these will be
known as the very rich and the moder-
ately poor, and in the second stage as
the masters and the slaves. We have
established a monied aristocracy and are
now fastening a yoke on posterity.
standing army is to be enthrontA and
bayonet argument is to govern.
Wealth the Enemy of Liberty.
Republican institutions cannot live amid
these conditions. Wealth has never been
the friend of liberty. ConcurrentlF with
the progress of these changes we hear
the snarling voices of men who deride
the doctrines of Jefferson and Lincoln
that made our country great and mighty.
we see magazine articles urging
the establishment by law of permanent
in our system Of government,
and from high quarters we hear de-
mnnd for Hamiltonism. Hamilton be-
leved in monarchy and aristocracy bot
toned on corruption. He was in love
with the English system as 1t existed in
the last century thoroughly rotten from
top to bottom and he labored to trans
plant whatever he could of that system.
He once said to John Adams: Purge
the British Constitution of its corruption
and give to it's popular branch equality
of representation and it would become an
stands at present, it Is the most perfect
that ever existed" He did
not advance q single new thought, did
not promulgate a single new principle;
and he sneered at the idea that the people
were capable of self-government
Hamilton Was Against Our Constitution.
England herself has since that time re-
pudiated corruption and established
equality of representation. Hamilton
favored the adoption Of the new Consti-
tuition, but was not satisfied with it, and
openly expressed the hope that some fu-
ture war would centralize the powers of
the government. When he was made
Secretary of the Treasury the new Con-
stitution had been adopted, Congress had
been given power to raise money, every
body could see that the Republic could
now easily pay Its debts, and that it was
not necessary to introduce corruption of
any sort. But true to his theory, he at
once secured the establishment of a ma
tional bank and introduced the British
funding and bond-issuing system, coupled
with its llmitless opportunities for plum
der. A short period of unparalleled spec
ulation and population followed. The
sharks and financial birds OF prey made
fortunes and Hamilton became the hero
Of the hour. The whole system collapsed
in a few years and scattered ruin and
misery over the country. Yet for whole
century the men who use the govern
ment to plumber the country have shout
ed for Hamilton. Whether Hamilton
himself shared in the plumber is imma-
terial He expressed his belief in the
system, and deliberately furnished the
to others. During the adj
of Mr.. Adams Hamiltonism
ran wild Almost every principle of
the Declaration of Independence was
under foot, and those provisions
Of the new Constitution that were in
tended to protect the individual were
ruthlessy brushed aside. No man dared
TO criticise the administration. Scores of
good men were denied trial by jury and |
languished in prison for exercising the
tight Of free speech. A tyranny was es-
tablished that surpassed anything exist
Ing in England. Four years of this re-
gime was all the American people could
then stand; theySleclared that they had
not cast off foreign yoke to take up a
more calling home yoke, and in 1900 they
Arose and overthrow 1t so completely that
It has taken nearly century for resur-
fection.
Death of Hamiitonism.
Had Hamiltonism prevailed at that time
1.t14 ~ he 10