The record-union., 1899-04-24
PERRY BELMONT'S
LETTER TO BRYAN.
CONTINUED from First Page.)
AND REPUTATION IN 1896.

AND REPUTATION IN 1896.
You have clearly indicated in your
recent volume, entitled THE First Bat
tle," When and where was the origin
OF the conspiracy to repudiate that
Democratic policy of 1892. The time
was May, 1894, Omaha the place, and
the first step was cali. to silver Demo-
Gratis to assemble al that place June u,
1874, which led to nominal control of
the ensuing Nebraska Democratic State
convention, on a platform substantially
like the Chicago platform of two years
later. There was a Democratic bolt"
from your silver platform, because it
was in violation Of the national Demo-
cratic policy of 1892. The candidates
of the boilers had, at the next State
election, more votes than your candi-
oates received. In two or three chap
1ers OF your book, it is plain that you
Tons pired with Populists, Republicans
end silver Democrats OF all shades of
opposition to the Democracy and it's
platform of 1892. You mentions Senator
Teller as one of your fellow conspira-
tors both before, during and after the
republican convention Of which he was
member The Nebraska Democrats,
whom you and your fellow conspirators
denounced, declared, in their platform
CT 1888. your financial plan meant
poorer money and less of it, less wages
Tor the lahoring man and bankruptcy
Tor all save the mine owner Did not
that convention sympathize with la
bor?
The New York Democratic State con-
vention of June "a, 1896, adopted a
platform similar to that of the regular
Of Mol
and l was sent to Chicago as a delegate
upon that platform. 1t declared among
other things:
We are opposed to the free and un-
limited coinage of silver in the absence
OF the cooperation of the other great
nations. We declare our belief that any
attempt on the part of the United
States alone to enter upon the expert
ment of free silver would not only prove
disastrous to our finances but would
retard or entirely prevent the estab-
ilshment of international bimetaHism
Until international cooperation for BIZ
metallism can be secured, to which end
all our efforts as a Government and a
people should be in good faith direct
ed, we favor the rigid maintenance of
the present gold standard as essential
TO the preservation of our national
credit. the redemption of our public
pledges. and the keeping inviolate of
our country's honor"
L preferred the declaration on coin
age by that Democratic State conven-
tion of New York, adhering to the Dem
ocratic policy formulated in 1892, over
the language in the Indianapolis plat
form alIuding to gold monometallism
but l preferred either one to the silver
recommendation of the Chicago platform
/ did not write a sentence, or word, of
the Indianapolis platform.
You may reply that you were as
much entitled to stand by the declara-
Tion of the Nebraska Democratic Con-
vention which sent you as a delegate to
Chicago, as | was to stand by the de-
claration of the New York Democratic
Convention which sent me. The reply
would be plausible if one did not take
into account your previous conspiracy
to commit the Nebraska Convention.
whose delegate at Chicago you We're. to
a radical reversal of the Democratic
policy adopted in 1892 You condemn
me because now I advocate a modifica-
tion in 1900 of the Chicago platform.
Yet four years ago this month you were
conspiring with Populists and Repub-
1icans like Senator Teller, and with Sill
Yer mine owners, to overthrow at Chi
cago the Democratic policy of 1892 Is
it not grotesque?
In your convention speech of 1896
you described the conspiracy as having
been begun by Silver Democrats.
You portrayed your doings as those
of "a crusade and declared that YOU
and your allies were in Chicago mot to
discuss, not to debate but to enter up
judgment" a strange, method in a ma
tional convention, of holding together a
great party representing the Democra-
cy of a continent. Your speech was
evidently prepared by one expecting to
bolt" In your recent book you re-
peatedly refer to your antecedent prep
arations to capture the Chicago con-
vention.
Burke defined a political party 'as a
body of men united for promoting by
their joint endeavors the national inter-
est upon some particular principle in
which they all agree
What particular principle" of DEM
ocracy in which we We're all agreed did
you represent by your crusade? Surely
repudiation Of public and private debts
was not such a principle
Il n IL CH1CAGO PLA1EOEM EXAM
INED.
The condition of the country in 1895
and 1896 by reason of business and
commercial depression which began
three years before owing to the Sher-
man silver law, whose repeal you re-
sisted, the endless chain,'' short crops.
long Western droughts. diminished for
eign demand for our cereals and re-
duced prices everywhere, offered a fer
tile field for your efforts. Under the
present changed conditions we can
calmly analyze the novelties of the Chi
cago platform.
1t began by affirming that the first
coinage law of 1892 made the silver
dollar the money unit. That is mat
ter of statute Interpretation and has
been much debated. Jefferson said. as
you have mentioned in your letter to
me, that the unit should ''repose on both
metals and so it is probable that the
oraughtsmen of the law of 1892 intend
ed bimetallic standard