The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-07-04

locks that are being forged for our lips;
from the national sin and the ven
geance that is sure to follow.
I'm that solemn day" DIR. BigeloW
continued that comes to men and ma
lions and when that destiny shall have
fully appeared, as we are now Shaping
it, may we not have to point for juaIifi-
cation to the affairs raised on the Souls
of our fellow men,.
The unusual spectacle was then pre-
scented of a minister being cheeFed-7
ssI'hank God there's one minister who
loves the poor" shouted a California
delegate, and the delegates cheered and
applauded.
gled Banner by the Poster Military
band of Minneapolis, the secretary or
the convention read the call Tor the
convention and Stanley E-Parkhlfl,- read
the declaration of Independence Several
of the sentiments of the paper were ap-
plauded during the reading. After the
reading of the declaration the delegates
and audience stood while the band rem
| dered America"
Temporary Chairman Towne then in
troduced DR.. Howard S. Taylor, of Chi
cago, as the poet of the new political
movement, who read his poem entitled
''The Liberty BelI.'ss
Preceding the recitation of the poem
the author, to the qualification of the
convention, made a short speech in
which he compared some of the leading
characters of 1875 to those of the last
Republican convention in Philadelphia.
was conspicuously distinguished from
some of those of 1900, in that he could
not tell a lie met with a spirited re-
Spouse from the convention
His reference to the military career of
Roosevelt in which he charged that the
latter was wearing the plume which be-
longed to the Ninth and Tenth (colored)
regiments caused a demonstration
which threatened to delay the proceed
ings of the convention.
Temporary Chairman Towne then de-
livered the following address:
TONNES SPEECH
Gentlemen of the Conventional
congratulate you that it is your privi-
lege to witness the suspicious opening
of the one hundred and twenty-fourth
anniversary of the birthday of the Re-
public, a day so rich in the hallowed
suggestions of our peculiar citizenship.
THE whole circuit of the year
could offer to this occasion no other day
so appropriate to its object as the
Fourth of July. 1t will be one of the
chief duties of these two great convea-
lions to meet the present crisis in our
history due to the recreancy of Repub-
lican leadership to the fundamental
principles of our institutions, by pro-
claiming anew the immortal truths OF
the Declaration of Independence, and by
calling upon the patriotism of the coun-
try to maintain and perpetuate the glor-
ious traditions of the Republic.
"A few days ago the convention of
the Republican party met in the city of
Philadelphia, the date being selected as
near as possible to the anniversary of
the convention of 1856. But marlSe this
startling and most significant fact: In
all the numerous resolutions SO skill
fully framed by this convention of 1900,
there appears not one resolution, not
one word. not one syllable of reference
to the Declaration of Independence
Could anything more clearly illustrate
the decadence of that once splendid and
patriotic organization?
For, gentlemen of the convention IL
needed but this one act of sacrilege
to complete the demonstration that the
party of Marcus A. Hanna stands for
absolutely nothing, in either doctrine
or spirit that chara cterized the party
of Abraham Lincoln. The men whom
we today Immediately represent left the
Republican party in 1896 chiefly because
the cause of bimetallisn and surrender
ing to the banking combination. Fun
damentally that question is as vital
now as it was then. But the movement
towards the gold standard was only
a specific example Of general tend
ency. A money monopoly has been fol-
lowed by all the other monopoHes; and
the resulting plutocracy pursuing the
course of its prototypes in ancient and
medieval history, now seeks further
exploitation by conquest, and to en-
trench its power behind the class dis
tinctions and centralized authority of
militarism. That party has become the
instrument of the forces Of reaction
against the principles of democratic in
stitutions. All men who see the danger
must unite to avert it. If we had not
left the Republican party in 1896, we
should be compelled, as patriots, to
leave in 1900, and forever.
''Bimetallism, an ancient and honor
able faith of the Republican party, has
been repudiated by its degenerate mod
ern leadership, after a course of such
brazen hypocrisy as has awakened the
amazement of mankind. Protection,
declared in Abraham LincolnS plat
form of 1860 to be a policy incidentally
tn he n n N
sary revenue by tariff duties. has been
made an end in itself and distorted into
an engine of oppression and robbery of
the many for the benefit of the few as
represented by the monopolieS and trust
com binations
And recently, as the elimination Of
a long progress of abandonment, we
have seen the Republican party turn
away finally from its most fundamental
faiths and sever the last remaining
link that bound it to a glorious past
1t has repudiated the Declaration of In
dependence. 1t has proclaimed the pre-
eminence of congress-above the consti-
tuition.
1.-The platform adopted last month at
Philadelphia declares that blessings of
liberty are to be conferred upon all
the rescued people by the Republican
party. 1t was the belief of Washington
and Jefferson and Lincoln, it was the
ancient faith of the American people.
that God gives liberty to all races OF
men and that no self Wanted benevolent
despotis n can either confer it or take it
away What God has decreed to be the
inheritance of all men, Mckinley shall
not be permitted to deny to any. We
appeal from the last platform of the
Republican party to the Declaration of
Independence; from the impious pre-
sumption of a perverse president to the
eternal justice Of the Almighty Father
whose judgments are true and right
eous altogether
Mr.. Towne's declaration that the Re
publican platform amounted to a re-
peal of the Declaration of IndeDendence
brought the delegates to their feet and
his statement that the convention had
met to redeclare the principles of that
instrument was enthusiastically APP
plauded.
81 wish now to introduce as tenn
porary chairman said Mr.. Towne in