The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-11-05
IF LINCOLN WERE ALIVE.
Bryan Shows What the Greatest Republican
Would do and Say.
(New York Journal.)

When in 1896, the Silver Republicans
refused to stand upon the st. Louis plat
form, they declared that the Republican
party was deserving its traditional policy,
and that they were not willing to follow
the party in its change upon the money
question. They pointed out that the Re
publican platform in 1888 denounced Mr..
Cleveland's attempt 10 demonetize sill
ver and that the Republican platform Oh
1892 declared that the American people
from tradition and interest favored bi.
metallism. They took frequent occasion
TO quote Mr.. McKinley's speech of 1891
in denunciation OF Mr. Cleveland's at
tempt to make money scarcer and there
fore dearer- money the master. and
everything else the servant"
Each year the departure of the Re
prlblicans from the early ideas of the
party becomes more apparent. Lincoln
often referred to 'the plain people" and
to 1.-The common people" but any one
who thus Classics the people at this time
is sure to be called a demagogue by the
I.epuJlican leaders. When the Republi-
can party wrote its NATIONAL platform in
1856 ii invited the cooperation of all
those who were in favor 'of restoring
the action of the Federal Government
TO the principles of Washington and JEFF
ferson,' and Lincoln himself was q great
admirer of Jefferson. In 1859 the Re
publicans of Boston celebrated the birth
day of Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln
in his letter of regret paid the following
trIDute TO jefferson: '.All honor to JEFF
Aerson; to man who. in the concrete
pressure of struggle for national indie
pendence by a single people, had the cool
ness. forecast and capacity to introduce
into a merely revolutionary document an
abstract truth, applicable to all men and
all times, and so TO embalm it There that
today and i'm all coming days it shall be
d rebuke and a stumbling block to the
harbingers of reappearing tyranny and
oppression" In the beginning Of the
party's existence the Republicans appeal
ed to the naqne and the principles of
jefferson, but ait Republican banqnets
nowadays Jeffersoll's name is spoken
with disrespect. and Haniltoms name
aud ideas are extravagantly lauded.
The significance of this change becomes
apparent when it is remembered that JEFF
ferson was the foremost representative
of the democratic idea, while Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge in his life of Hamil-
ton points out that the latter was the
representative of the aristocratic idea.
Lodge says: THE republic of Hamilton
was to be an Aristocratic, as distin-
guished from a DEMOCRATIC repub-
lie and the power of the separate States
was to be effectually crippled. The first
object was attained by committing the
choice of the President and Senators,
who were to hold office during good be-
hayior, to d class of the community quail
flied to vote by the possession of a certain
amount of real property The second
was secured by giving to the president
of the United States the appointment OF
the Governors of the various States, who
were to have a veto ON all State legisla-
ton. These provisions, as may be seen
at a glance, involved the essential char
acter of the Government, and although
purely republican, came much nearer TO
the British model than amy other by
their recognition of classes and of the
political rights of property, while by the
treatment of the States n highly CEN
tralized national government was to sup
ersede entirely the confederate form.
In 1850 Lincoln, in speaking of the re-
lation which should exist between money
and humanity, said that the Republican