Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1900-09-11
Wendling's Introduction of w. j..
Rrvan.

in 1896, introduced Hon. W. Bryan
to the immense audience. Mr.. Wend-
ling said
My countrYmen The forces that are
rallying to the support of the present adj
ministration are the forces that at one
time in New England and New Y York sup
ported the Slave Trade because it was
profitable. They are the same forces that
in England compelled China to buy
opium from India because there was mo-
ney in it. The men who find their con-
sciences in their pocket books, their prin-
ciples in double entry ledgers, and their
patriotism in the profits of 2 high protec-
tive tariff, are all, openly or secretly, for
this administration. They are men who
believe not only in an imperial army and
an imperial colonial policy, but also be-
lieve in the imperialism of wealth. When
a man devotes his life to making money
for the sake of money he is a curse to any
community, and when great political
party is controlled by avaric ious money
makers in the interest of money making,
that party becomes a great menace to the
Republic. Theimperialism that am most
afraid of is the Imperialism of the dol
lar. The exact form that the issues take
in this campaign is very clear to my Wis
ion They all have one thing in common
and are all involved in this one question
Shall manhood and character, or shall
wealth dominate our politics?
That supreme question makes every
thoughtful man ask what is the remedy
for the evilit discloses 2 Letus remember
then and deeply ponder a great fact in
American history; in every crisis God
has given to our people the right man at
the right time-a man. 1 say, and not
merely platform. l speak for large
element when say that care very little
aboutplatforms. As the great preachers
of the world have always been broader
than any dogmatic statement of religious
faith, so the men who have led our peo-
pie up to higher political life were men
who were greater than any platform.
Their platforms were always stepping
stones to higher things Our hope in this
country must therefore always be more
in men than in the planks of a platform.
Politicians can give us platforms, God
alone can raise up and train and give us
men. In the dark days of 70 the coionists
put their earthly trust in one man, and he
became the Father of his country. 1t
was even so in Andrew Iackson's time
when that infexible Democrat took the
United States bank by the throat, and
while the Mark Hannas of that day were
predicting panic and financial ruin, he
flung the corpse of the monster at their
feet. If you wish to find an embodiment
of the spirit that gave freedom to the
slave you will not turn to the conclaves
of the scheming and place hunting pol
iticians of the Republican party, but you
will look up into the sad and careworn
face of the great and noble Lincoln. If
1 seek the very incarnation of the bravery
and the devotion of the South, her man
hood, her chivalry, will not turn to
Slidell, and Tombs and Yancey, but 1
go and stand with uncovered head
in the presence of the immortal Robert
Lee. If you wish to see an embodiment
of the grim and relentless determation of
the north to save the union, look at the
immovable figure of that silent soldier,
the magnanimous Grant But will any
man in this vast assemblage or anywhere
on this wide continent say that if we
wish to find a champion of the people, a
friend of the oppressed. and an earnest
antagonist of corporate greed and merci-
less avarice, we will find him in an ad-
ministration that has had unlimited pow
er for four years, and yet has never
struck single blow against any
of the tryranicaI trusts or schem-
ing syndicates in all the land j?
Again say, we always want men more
than we want platforms. A poet laureate
of England once gave voice to the feeling
which controls many Americans to-day.
when he cried ont:
All God. for man with heart. he d. hand
Like snme of the simple great ones gone
Forever aud ever by,
Whatever they call him. what care I,
AristOcrut, democrat autocr it-one
Who can rule and dare not lie
Such man will speak to you now.
have known him from his boyhood. He
is of the people and for the people. He
fears no living man. and all the money
in Wall street cannot buy him. A great
writer recently said OF him. in words alb
soluteiy truthful His life is simple, his
tastes are ideal, his characters above re-
Proach, his eloquence is powerful, his in
dustry untiring.8
In 1896 he was fighting the exclusive
claims ofone kind of money and advocat-
ing the equal rights of another kind of
money, and I did not agree with him.
But to-day, without sacrificing his honest
convictions. he has broadened the strug-
gle and is fighting the undue influence
of all kinds OF money. and am for him.
In the war that he is now waging for this
Republic, and for the welfare of this
people. may the God of our fathers be
with William ]. Bryan.