Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-11-05


CHARLES TOWN, Jefferson county,
w. Va, November BIN his address
here last Thursday night, Hon. Daniel
B. Lucas said:
My Fellow Citizens:--One Of the
greatest English poets has said, in sub
stance, that the man who errs from the
lack of means of knowledge is excus-
able, but the man who errs from want
of an aim cannot achieve greatness:
"An ignorance Of means may minister
To greatness; but an ignorance OF aims .
Makes it impossible to be great at all.
In politics the want Of an aim above
and beyond personal aspirations means
the want of political principle, and the
man thus deficient, according to the
poet. is a criminal.
For myself, | have always entertain
ed and proclaimed certain definite and
fixed principles founded upon mature
reflection and generally based as a fun
damental, upon, our venerated constitu-
ton and the teachings OF Thomas JEFF
ferson, the great apostle of liberty.
Hence, as each question OF national
policy has arisen | have endeavored to
solve it, not by the gauge of party sue
cess nor by the standard of temporary
expediency, but by the criterion of con-
stitutionality and conformity to the ac-
knowledged principles which underlie
our noble structure of American lib
erty.
Thus as elector of the Democratic
party in 1876,
Denounced Troops at the Polls,
and advocated the supremacy of the
civil over the military authority in
times of peace. That was Democracy
then, and it is democracy to-day.
Again, as elector in $780, l denounced
the demonstration of silver by the oc-
cult crime of 1879 | opened up the
campaign in this State early in Sep
TENDER of that year in Charles Town.
My speech was reported by our present
district elector Hon. f. w. Brown, and
among by audience was the late lament
ed William L. Wilson, who applauded
to the echo. The Democratic party
stood there then, and it stands there
now for free coinage of silver at the
ratio of Is to /.
In 1887, as member of the Legislature
of West Virginia, l felt it my duty to
raise a cry of alarm against monopolies
and trusts. l fought the good fight
against powers, principalities and wick
edness in high places And now one of
the strongest planks in this campaign,
in the National Democratic platform,
is opposition to monopolies and trusts
What was Democracy then is still De-
mocracy.
-as the South was relieved, by hen own
IGSertions, jof the thraldom of proscrip-
and carpet bag government, the
amount issue relapsed into one of
blitical economy and commercial in
fterest. The Jeffersonian Democracy
hoisted the banner Of tariff reform,
while the Republicans, led on by Blaine,
Garfield and the rest, raised aloft the
standard Of protection for projections
sake How the hills and valleys of
West Virginia re-echoed with the slo-
gan of Judge Golf, The protection of
American labor under the broad Aegis
of American law With this and sim
liar plausible catch phrases, the Re-
publican party was welded together by
the cohesive power of public plumber
until protection created millionaires,
and millionaires created monopolies,
and monopolies created trusts, and
trusts banked the wealth of the country
into the hands of few, and the gov
eminent took few into partnership,
and said we will tax and impoverish
the many in order to protect and enrich
the few. The loyal Jeffersonian Demo-
Gratis in West Virginia and other States
stood out Against
high protective tariff and in favor of
the revenue standard Of duty, as had
done the Democrats of old in the days
Of Jackson, Polk Van Buren, and
Pierce. The Democratic platform of
1896 adopted at Chicago, af1irms this
doctrine, and the convention Of Kan
sas City has reaffirmed it in 1900; we
stood there then. and we stand there
nQw
pIt how is it with the Republican
Ety? In 1888 they came out flat-foot-
d for the free coinage of silver at the
Patio of 16 to I. In 1896 they still de-
manded free silver at such time as an
international agreement could be
reached for its coinage; While in 1900
they repudiated any other standard
than that of gold, simple and pure.
Bat new issues of startling import
ance have been thrust upon the nation
by the Republican party. II ever the
Democratic party had a mission to fill
1t has one confronting 1t to-day. The
nation seems to have lost their moor
ings. Old things are passing away, and
behold all things have become new,
The traditions of the fathers, the prin-
ciples of the founders, the architecture
OF the builders, the workmanship of
those who laid the keel and wrought
the ribs OF steel of the ship of state
all OF these things are to be discarded
and relegated to the desuetude of lost
principles and the deeadence of ancient
and forgotten arts. A few catch
phrases Of the new era are relied upon
to unwrite history and to eradicate as
useless trumpery the warnings and
teachings of Washington, jefferson.
Madison, Monroe, Lincoln and the rest.
The Declaration of Independence.
Adams, Jefferson and Franklin Wed
with each other in reverence for the
principles embodied in that great in
strument. we hola these truths to
be self-evident," it says. "All men are
created equal; they are all endowed
by their Creator with certain unalien-
able rights, that among these are