The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-07-14

9SY0os oOuDuD0Ss&$2 ~ SUbS
Donoeratie party yesterday was -
DncA : tosegoes conclusion - had
49, Ar. AeKialey's By the Re-
pu6llcan party two weeks ago. It
was a rational. ~ logical. and, il
possible. even more inevitable. The
Republican organization. thanks to
Mr.. Hanna's heroic, methods. 10
well-nigh pesfect. Il 10, in fact, .
rigidly constructed aud smoothly
running. If remorseless machine,
operating With absolute precision, il
Without human weakness or emo
tions. Mckinley was nominateG
not because the party depended
wholly ON his leadership, but rather
because the members Of that party,
despite its almost despotic disci
p1ine. love aid honor the man, be-
heve in him, and are fond of him.
Uuquestionably he will receive
few hundred thousand more votes
than any other Republican candi-
date would receive, but the fac, re-
mains that the comfortable vote, the
drilled and regular vote nf the
party. could. under the present
management, be delivered to any
candidate whatever. In Mr.. Bryan's
case it is entirely different. He is
the one Democrat alive who can
develop the party's utmost strength
this year. Not only do Democrats
give him their unreserved respect
and confidence; they nor recognize
his absolute honesty and his ma9ni-
ficent. answering courage. With
him as the leader all is not harmony,
but without him the Democratic
party would be an incohereni and
heterogeneous mob. He does not,
like Mr. Mckinley, appeal to the
sentimental side.of men. He does
not, again like his distin euished
antagonist, WIN personal affection.
He is strenuous, dominant, COM
polling. He does not consult or
seek advice or lean upon another.
He is captain, a commander, a
law unto himself.
Four years ago he leaped from
comparative obscurity to the leader
ship of party which Mr. Cleveland
had practically wrecked. In the
eyes of the country at large he
seemed an accldent-the grotesQue
fruit of divided counsels; the prod
uct of despair; the caprice of an
idle and hopeless mood. He vas
young, his political experience had
been very brief; his record limited |
at no special brilliancy, and his
achievements warranted but verv
modest expectation for the future.
Nevertheless, he maRnetized ten
thousand men assembled in the
Chicago convention hall as, surely,
no similar audience was ever mag
by any gift of rhetoric or trick of
eloquence than by the overwh Ginning
passion of his earnestness and the
irresistible force of his convictions.
LAID scheme. He was not the re-
split of carefully contrived conspir-
acy. He was the spontaneous
choice of every Democrat within
hearing of his ringing words-w,:hin
he influence of his tremendous per-
'onality. The astounding campaign
which he conducted subsequently
las NO parallel in the chronicle of :
American politics. Almost un-
Known, backed by no party organi-
.ation worthy of serious appraise-
nent; without money; abandoned
~ the Cleveland faction; ridiculed
md misrepresented; fighting against :
he most desperate odds, including
he Democratic administration and +.
Ill its hirelings and beneficiaries,
his youthful stranger from the far
Vest brought out nearly a million
,otes more than Mr.. Cleveland,
With all his Eastern millionaires be-
md him, had been able to sum-
non to the pollSfour years before,
nd forced the Republican party to
evy on every Gad's Hill in the land .
or its salvation.
No one to-day affects to hold Mr.