The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-21
BRYAN |MPALES
GOLD DEMOCRATS
Continued from page ~

mont tonight gave out the following
reply to letter received during the
day from Colonel William J. Bryan:
William J. Bryan:
Dear Sir-I have just received your
letter of the 10th inst. in which you
describe those who declared in 1895 that
your election to the presidency on the
Chicago platform would endanger the
nations welfare, as the Republican
allies who masquerade as Democrats
between campaigns in order to give
more potency to their betrayal of DEM
ocratic principles on election day.
Mr.. Belmont thcn goes on to say that
before answering the unwarranted
letter. he had Instituted suit against
a New York newspaper on account of
an alleged libel in which he was char
acterized as "a higher-priced man than
the fioater who sells his vote for 81
on election day." and continues: Your
purpose to be equally defamatory is
obvious. Your skill in the use of words
forbids the plea that in your letter you
misused them through ignorance. The
design is plain, and were it not that
you have interviewer in your abuse
reference to opinions upon public
questions as opposed to your own, to
the Democratic club of which l am
president, and to its proposed celebra-
ton of Jefferson's birthday, 1 should
have left your offensive statements I'M
answered.
1.-THE Democratic club of New York
has a membership of nearly 5000 Dem
ocrats, who all hold to the main prin-
ciples of Democracy, while their opin-
ions may vary in regard to such po-
litical questions as are not fundamen-
tall but merely local or transitory, like
many of the vain conceits you have
yourself espoused. But none of these
5000 members is a Republican. As for
myself, I never voted for a Republic
an candidate for either a great or a
small office.
THE board of governors and the
president of so large a democratic or
ganization endeavored to represent Of
ficially the wishes of the majority
which was that the coming anniversary
of the birthday of Jefferson should be
celebrated this year by the organiza-
ton as in previous years. To recall
those principles and traditions with
which his name is so indelibly associ-
ated, tends to bring about revival of
democratic control based on public
questions, the conditions of which are
not transftory.
INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS.
ITO the explanation made to you that
individual opinions have not been con-
sidered,' you replied that you do not
understand how individual opinions
can be ignored in political gathering.
Then you proceed to contrast your
opinions with mine, to emphasize their
antagonism and finally declared that
YOU and I cannot with propriety join
in a political banquet given in honor
of Democracy's patron saint
Your contention is that the Chicago
platform applies Jeffersonian principles
to present conditions and that because
I criticised that platform in its applica-
ton to conditions existing three years
ago and then resisted your candidacy
for the presidency, therefore my pres
ence at the proposed dinner would not
honor the worlds greatest Democrat.
THE course of events Will probably
prove your understanding of the rela-
lions of Individual opinions to Demo
cratic gatherings, and it is therefore
not required of me now to indulge in
long discourse on the relations in your
politics of temporary to permanent
questions.
"On returning from the Chicago con-
vention | explained my course IN
public address to my constituents and
justified my protest on the ground that
LEGISLATION and executive action in en-
forcing the Chicago platform would be
an assault on wages and savings, bring
on silver monometalliSm and impair
the obligations of contracts. ! there
fore contended wherever | had oppor-
tunity that insistence by the United
States on the coming ratio OF 10 to
would be the grave of international bl-
metallism, and that if Europe opened
it's mints at 151a and this government
persisted in the ratio of 1G the result
would be as in 1884, and the United
States would be left with only sub
sidiary currency.
Il answer you as an individual and
not as committing the organization of
which / am president.
mo copy of your letter or this reply
has been seen by any member of the
Democratic club and will not until after
the reply has been mailed to you.
ut is not practical for me to recall
in this letter the substance of what l
have written or spoken during or since
the last presidential campaign in regard
to the Chicago platform and its many
phases, and although 1 do not in any
way recognize your right to question
my Democracy, 1 am sending you by
this mail a volume which correctly
gives the list of everything which has
been published, and you are at liberty
to indicate and expose any portion that
is unpatriotic, unDemocratic, un-Am-
erican or in conflict with the Demo-
cratic creed as set forth in jefferson S
first inaugural address.
(SigneD PERRY BELMONT
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