The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-09-22
HIS LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.
Mr. A. A. Blakeney, Republican Nomi-
nee for Congress in the Second Dis
trict, Gives His Views on the Pres
ent Political Situation.

trict, Gives His Views on the Pres
ent Political Situation.
We publish below the full text of the letter
of acceptance of Mr.. Albert A. Blakeney. of
Baltimore county, Republican nominee for
Congress in the Second district:
you have nominated me as your candidate
for Representing in the Congress Of the nnitea
Maryland. accept your nomination. BY your
resolution your convention declared that could
circumstances to support the gold standard.
You pledged me not to go into caucus with its
enemies, and that my vote for Speaker would
never be given to any man who 1s an advocate
of the free coinage of silver, and you declared
that by electing me the Second Congressional
other such period Of panic, distress and suffer
ing as that under which from 1893 to 1877 the
country groaned.
loyal in letter and spirit. II shall be honored
with seat in Congress assure you that shall
dare not. remember what the conditions from
1893 to 1897 were. So do you. You do not want
any return Of them; l do not. Yet you and |
both know that in those years the country was
not actually on the silver basis. The fear that
we might be put on that basis was in itself sufh-
this shall not 10 snvthino which can nossibv
tend to bring that fear back. shall not leave
undone anything which may tend to make the
return of that dread difficult or impossible
"You all understand how great the powers of
the Speaker of the House Of Representatives
are. shall not vote for any man for that posi-
ton who will not use all the powers of that
Office to prevent any new agitation of the silver
question. shall be glad TO know whether my
the Voters Of the district ike promise s'
'.There are in the Second district many Demo-
Gratis who believe in the gold standard. Some
of them, though they have not changed their
talk about something else. They feel somehow
agerieved that they cannot discuss the other
issues for which they think that their party
stands without the perpetual intrusion of this
controversy over the monetary standards. They
want to get rid of the whole question. They
would like the people of the country to divide
on other issues. do not like threshing over
old straw any better than they do. l am as
anxious to drop the discussion of the l6.to-l
dogma as they are. am willing to drop 1t just
so soon as it is safe to do it. but it never will be
dropped until the whole question is settled,
settled right and settled so as to stay settled.
Why will it not be dropped until then? The
answer is simple. The issue raised by an at
tack upon the stability of our currency is q
fundamental one. 1t seriously affects the pros
perity of the country as q whole. and of the
Overwhelming majority Of the individuals who
the people will not allow other questions to be
paramount however much candidates, conven-
tions or individual citizens may assert that they
are paramount.
MANY Democrats that know want to get
rid of the silver issue. do not blame them,
but they must remember that there is only one
way to get rid of it, and that is to beat the pres
ent candidates. calling themselves Democrats,
so overwhelmingly as to make final end of the
whole wretched 16-t0-1 business.
"At the Kansas City convention Mr.. Bryans
personal influence, aided by the vote of Prince
David of Hawaii. again made the immediate
opening of the mints to the free coinage of sill
yer cardinal doctrine of the Democratic party.
The majority of the delegates were ready and
willing to have dropped it. There was no such
enthusiasm for it as there was four years ago at
Chicago, yet the convention put it in. Beat the
party now and its leaders will learn the lesson.
In 1914 there Will be nothing about silver in the
Democratic platform. On the other hand, if
the Democratic candidates this year be elected
the agitation of the question must begin anew
and campaign after campaign will have to be
fought over it,
"Those who oppose the Republican party in
this campaign in this section of the country
claim that another issue is paramount. Why is
it so? Those who claim that it is admit that in
the Philippines we must establish a stable gov
eminent before we can do anything else. Do
they not know perfectly well that to establish
such government will take more than four
years. Is not President Mckinley now doing
the work which must be done by someone before
stable government is established in those is-
lands? What, then, is the difference between
what Mr. Bryan will do, if elected, In the Philip
pines during his term of office and what Mr..
Mckinley will do in the same time? / take it,
nothing. 1t is true that when the stable gov
would surrender all authority in the islands
while assuming to the world all responsibility
for them; Mr. Mckinley says he would ldu have
here discuss which is the wiser course. To me
the mere statement of the two policies is in it.
sell 6uLuclcub W SHOW WHICH OU6 bu6 WISE udLl
would select. However this may be, one thing
is clear and that is four years hence will be
quite soon enough to fight out any difference
there may be between the two policies as to the
Philippines. Until the stable government is es-
tablished nothing else can be done.
LET me suggest another thought to my sound
money Democratic friends who may sympa-
thize with Mr.. Bryan's views as to the Philip
pines. Suppose you elect Mr.. Bryan now and
his election produces that business disturbance
which any renewed agitation of the silverques-
t snpp ss w become Of his Philippine ipolIeS
hhSng he get 4as 46def
to his silver policy produce such revolution of
popular opinion as to make certain the defeat
of his party four years hence? 1t will be at the
election of 1904 that the issue as to what shall
ultimately become of the Philippines will prob
ably be decided If the party who champions
that view of that future which you think is
safer shall then be again freshly identified in
the public mind with suffering and disaster at
home, what chance do you think there will be
for the adoption of that policy, however meri-
torious it might otherwise be considered by the
country.
I'm other words, votes for the Democratic
candidates this year are not votes which are at
all likely ultimately to help in the decision with
reference to the Philippines which the anti-ex-
pansion Democrats desire. If those votes
should succeed in eecting the Democratic
ticket on the platform of the Kansas City con-
vention the most probable result will be to
make the triumph of MIR. Bryan's Philippine
policy utterly impossible. Understand me,
do not want anyone to suppose that | think
that Mr. Bryan's views as to what the future
government of those islands should be are
sound. / do not"