Omaha daily bee., 1900-10-18
INSULTING THE NATION.
Brynn's Assertion That the Presi-
dency Can He Purchased.

Philadelphia Press.
Mr.. william ]. Bryan, in a speech deliy-
cred in Salem Ill, last Monday, flung this
insult into the face of the American peo-
pie:
"The republican managers are now coll
lecting from the monopoles a large cam
paign fund. They will buy every vote that
can be bought. They will coerce every
vote that can be coerced; they will intimi
date every laboring man who can be in
timidated: they will bribe every election
Judge that can be bribed; they will corrupt
every county that can be corrupted. | do
not understand how it is possible for the
plain, everyday republican to close his
eyes TO what is going on"
This Is an arfront 10 the American people
who have been tolerant OF Mr.. Bryan and
his theories for years. great majority
OF them believe that what has come 10 be
known as Organism is thoroughly perni
cious and that the success Of its namesakc
would result in disaster to the country.
An emphatic plurality of over 100000 votes
against Bryan four years ago was evidence
Of this belief. That plurality would have
been more than doubled had not Mr.
Bryans party disfranchised by force and
fraud nearly 1000 900 of legal voters in the
southern states Repudiated by the nation
before the people as a suppliant for Office,
and at the same time he ventures to insult
them by the charge that their suffrage can
be bought. No man with the self-respcct
and equipoise necessary to ft him for the
high offlce OF president would venture to
affront the American people by such a
charge. And the fact that Mr.. Bryan has
stopped to tell the free voters OF this coun-
try that they can be bribed will be the
last and convincing proof of his unhtness
for the presidency.
No greater insult than this can be flung
into the face OF a nation. AS the BROOKLYN
Times says: THE man who believes that
an election for president OF the United
States can be determined by the corrupt use
OF money is unworthy TO stand as candi-
date for any office. He ISLANDERS the fair
fame Of his country and brands 1t as cor
rupt and rotten before the defamers of pop
ular government all over the world, Only
once in the history OF the republic was an
| attempt made to change the result OF an
election for president by the use OF money.
That was in 1876, when Samuel J. Tilden
, lacked only one vote TO be elected president,
| and his agents, Colonel Pelton, his nephew,
! Manton Marble Smith NJ Weed and the
rest, strove with desperate energy to buy
tho vote Of one republican elector in Ore
gon in South Carolina, in Louisiana or IN
Florida As was proved by the cipher dis
patches that passed between Colonel Pelton,
then living In Tlden's house in Gramercy
Park, and his agents south and west, there
was 81 600 900 waiting for the elector who
was willing TO be bought, and II is to the
eternal glory Of the American nation that
not one accepted the bribe,"
Every move Mr., Bryan makes now. proves
the desperate nature Of his cause. He Is
beaten and he knows It. But he should he
defeated so badly that no candidate will ven
ture to come before the American people
again advocating his theories, The majority
against him should be emphatic, crushing,
humiliating, by the nation whose !ntelll-
gence he has insulted.