The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-04-15
IOHN TEMPLE GRAVES PREDICTS
DEFEAT OF THE REPUBLICANS
A Ringing Review of the Situation Which
Characterizes the Presidents Party as
ssSerf to the Trust and Hanna as the
"Incarnate Spirit of Arrogant and
UnsCrupuIous Politics.

OS OllIlCS.
Party ties are resting very lightly
on the great body of the people these
days. and the organization that thinks
it can command iniquity in the name
of loyalty is going to realize the real
calibre of great and noble people.
Of course the plain idea OF the
trusts is that their money can BUY
back in November the confidence their
selfshness has outraged in March. IL
is the same brutal estimate OF the peo-
ple on which Mark Hanna-lncarnate
spirit Of arrogant and INSCRIPTIONS
politics-has predicated his whole ca
reer.
When that man fallS--as he surely
will fall-te deums should be sung
in the churches, and the day should
be made a national holiday. No tig-
ure more monStrous and baneful has
obscured the political sky in this gen
Grafton. ! should blush for my coun-
try if ] permitted myself to believe
that the money of the trusts could
buy another endorsement of this man
at the ballot box.
In spite of all this fatal error, ] am
not willing to believe evil things OF
the President. | cordially like the
man. | think he is misled and mis-
taken, but not untrue. He has done
too much that is good and kind and
wise and conservative to be condemns
ed for single sin. His original I'M
pulses and his original Judgment are
nearly always right. 1t is evident to
anv observant man that the evil forces
which. holding the strong and noble
cord of his gratitude for services past
reuuital. have acquired a leadership in
his administration, are leading ana
misleading him here. He has been
made to believe that the great issue
on which he has fought and won his
rolitical career is vitality at stake IN
this matter. and that to let go now Is
TO imperil the structure that is woven
with his convictionS-with his fame
and his position. He has been per-
shaded that to weaken in the front of
this clamor is to invite destruction,
and that he must go forward reso-
Iutelv and retrace his steps afterward
by another way.
@ / will risk my whole Judgment on
the prophecy that he will spare no
effort in the future to redeem the in
Justice of the present. | believe this,
and | believe still in the high charac-
ter and good purpose of the President,
and | believe, most of all, that. while
this incident is fresh. the friends who
really love William Mckinley and are
close enough to reach him should take
4 hold of him. and even on the horns OF
the altar, divorce him by surgical
operation from the throned iniQulty
called Hanna, who has Swallowed his
administration and debilitated his
place in history.
] think the recent stir has done
more to weaken the cause of eXpan-
sion than any other thing that has
been said or done against it.
am an eNpansionist MUSICIAN out
and out. six DAYS in the week, mate
rial commercial, sentimental, mission
airy, Presbyterian eNpansionist, but L
am not now and never will be an inn
perialist, and Porto Rico makes an
example sufficiently horrible TO
turn the country from the idea OF
committing the real policy of eNpan-
sion to hands as ruthless and unjust
as those which are driving the Presi'
dent and Congress at the present time.
/ do not see how public opinion can
react-if it does re-act-in time to
save the Republican party.
1t seems to me that all along the
line the skies are Frightening for the
cause that Bryan will lead to victory
in November.
The issues which he represents are
so far above party. or spoils, or mon
ey. or expansion, that no true man can
hesitate where to stand and where to
fight.
| said it ten months ago, and l say
it now, that the issue of this presi-
Dental year is a death grapple, fate
full and final, between the old-fashiOn-
ed power Of the people" and the
throned and blOated insolence of the
colossal trusts.
1t is crisis in which men should go
from their knees to the ballot box.
and. if need be, from the ballot box
to the battlefield.
JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES.