La Junta tribune., 1900-10-17
10 FIRST VOTES
President McKinley's Speech q -Four
Years Ago, Made to First voters NJ
Cleveland, Ohio, October 8. lS96.

President McKinley's Speech o. -Four
Years Ago, Made to First Voters at
Cleveland. Ohio. October 9. 1895.
.T congratulate all OF you upon hav-
Ing reached your majority: congratu.
late you upon having entered into full
possession Of sovereignty In the best
government OF the world. (Applause)
Born in the seventies, you have en-
ioyed the most marvellous advantages
OF the nineteenth century. You have
witnessed the greatest progress OF sci
epce. mechanics and material develop
ment OF any period IN our history. You
have enjoyed the advantages OF the
free and higher schools Of learning.
You have lived In period OF the great
est opportunity for moral and iptei-
lectual growth. and enjoyed moH IA
vorable conditions for forming right
opinions. You have escaped the ex.
treme bitterness OF party divisions and
the passions Of o fratricIdal war. You
carry none OF the scars Of the past
party CONFLICTS.
You witness only as you come TO
your sovereignty. a reunited country
under the Old Flag, blessed in natural
resources beyond any other country
and suffering only because Of the un-
wise policies already inaugurated. and
the dangerous policies yet threatened.
You approach the exercise Of your sov-
ereignty, therefore, under the most ad-
vantageous circumstances, free from
any past predictions and prepared In
calm Judgment to consider without
bias the issues on which parties are
divided. You have. In this campaign,
a. In no former campaign, the advant-
agee Of the most exhaustive discussion.
ssD NP hn havA al.
ready started out for yourselves, have
had In the last three or four years
some valuable personal experience,
which Is quite as good a school in pol
tics as In anything else. You come to
your majority at time when the peO-
pie are engaged In a national contest
that will settle some of tie most i'm
portant questions which ever confront
us, and settle them for long years to
come. You are given the ballot at
time when Its use for good or evil to
country was never greater. You as
sumo this responsibility at a period
fraught with as grave problems as
were ever presented except in time OF
war. 1t is Of little moment, young
gentlemen, that the Union was saved
by the dread ordeal of war II it cannot
be continued In peace with honor
"GoodvD
"No nation can hold its standing be-
fore mankind that will depreciate its
own currency, any more than a nation
can stand before the world that will
not defend its flag and honor. ZAP
plause.) No nation can hold Its posi-
tion that will violate plighted faith or
repudiate any part of its indebtedness
under any guise whatsoever. No ma
tion can command respect at home, or
abroad, il 1t does not at all times up
hold the. supremacy of law and invio-
liability Of Its own sacred obligations.
II cannot be denied that free coinage
under the conditions proposed by our
allied opponents will result In debas-
ing our currency, deprive Us Of the use
Of gold and all paper money based ON
gold, thus contracting our currency,
and leaving us upon 4 silver basis
alone. Its result would be to give us
poorer money and less volume OF circu-
lation than we now have.
Free silver would depreciate invest
ments: shake public confidence; destroy
values: cheat labor: Impair the savings
of the poor. and produce a commercial
revulsion, the like Of which this coun-
try has never known. Our first voters
surely will not want TO use their ballots
to bring about such result. Great
cheering and cries of mo, sirv "Nev-
er!'D
Surely every young voter. who has
his spurs yet to win; his career to
make: his fortune to build, will hesI-
tate before he will give his ballot to a.
party which seeks to create hostility
between classes and sections; between
the rich and the poor: between the me-
chanic and the manufacturer; between
the farmer and the banker Great ap-
plauseJ He will cast his ballot TO con-
tinue the equality of citizenship, Of
privilege, OF opportunity Of possibility,
which has been the boast of our ciu.
zenship. and is the very corner -stc>A
upon which our free institutions res-.
(Applause.l
NO young man will want to place
weights upon his own shoulders, or
raise barriers to his own progress,
which hitherto have never impeded
the progress Of the Industrious, honest,
clean. ambitious young man. (Tre-
mendous applause.) Away with caste
and classes. Such a doctrine is un-
American and unworthy to be taught
q free people. Cloud and continuous.
cheering) He who would inculcAte
that spirit among our people Is not the
friend, but the enemy Of the poor but
honest young man. whose soul IL f1re>
with a worthy ambition for himself.
(Great applause.)
How would LINCOLN, GRANT,
and LOGAN have stood,
i, in their time, they had accepted the
doctrine. which some now teach, that
because they are poor and Of humble
they must 70 Oh by
themselves and shut the door Of oppor-
tunity to the best impulses Of their
souls, and the noblest aspirations Of
their mindsf Continuous applause.)
The ballot Of the young man. a. wen
- that Of the old men, the ballot Of
the first voter. ~ well a. that Of an
voters, should always express the voice