Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-04-12

paper publisher In the United States. |
would say eloquent, but that presupposes, |
however, capacity to write editorials The |
party on the other side was NOT willing in
structions should be given for that partic |
ular candidate. 1t would be amusing to |
you as republicans to hear how those breth- |
rem disagreed. 1t would be amusing to |
nave seen the spirit Of Inverted harmony
that there Is In that organization. They
are abusing one another now to the full |
extent of their limited knowledge of oh
9urgatory adJectives. Qaughter) If there
Is one that has not been used the fellow
that discovers the fact will be sorry for
the omission. naughter.) With great corr
diality would Mr. Cleveland support Mr..
Hearst; how lovingly in this contest Mr..
Hearst would take Mr.. Cleveland to his
bosom. d.aughter) So we so through the
wnoie ilst. III there is any object that each
| one of them hates more than the other
candidates or possible candidates, they
nave not discovered it, Then how, pray
VIII they agree in their platform? 1t is
true, 1t does not matter much what the
platform is. Q.aughter.) We can all re-
member when they nominated Mr.. Cleve-
land Nineteen years ago l was present in
the house of representatives Mt the time
| OF the writing of that celebrated letter Of
Mr.. Cleveland. He then expected to be
inaugurated in less than ten days as the
president of the United States The letter
4 Il
was read In which he made the argument
against free silver coinage, and 1t was
| the best state paper that ever emanated
\ from his pen. That bill was then pending
In the house and supported by the great
mass Of the democratic party in the United
States and In the house. Three times af-
forwards, In his annual messages he reit-
Grated the substance of that Letter de-
nouncing the coinage of free silver and in
sisting upon the gold standard, taking the
position that he occupies today; and the
| democrats, with all this knowledge before
them. afterwards nominated Mr.. Cleveland
for their candidate, twice. and placed him
upon free silver platform, that he re-
pudiated They voted the ticket however,
candidate and PLATFORM and so say 1t
! does not matter much what the platform
is to the rank and file But we found In
1896 that there were hundreds Of thousands
Of democrats from principle, from honor,
who would not, at the behest of the popu-
| listic element In their party, support a
doctrine that they knew to be inimical to
| the best interests of the nation.
| But they were like other people and had
to have platform that appealed to their
conscience and to their sense Of integrity.
Would they have in it plank upon their
| position as to expansion? In this year of
| all years, when we are to celebrate by the
| most magnificent spectacle that the world
has ever known, at St Louis, the doc
| III,
| have plank In opposition to expansion?
| Will they still insist that we republicans
who have the powers, who legislate for
this country, who have made it all that 1t
Is at least during forty years: who are so
| filled with pride at our achievements in
government, who challenge the attention
of the world, will they still insist that we
republicans shall forego all this, shall fore
go all the personal participation that we
have had In bringing about these grand
results; that we will forego all of our
qualification: that we will cast them all
aside and have an imperial government,
an emperor, after the pattern of the car;
that we will change our methods of legis-
lation for that of the ukase; that we will
1 give up our courts, juries and judges, and
4 all that that implies; give up the just ad-
ministration of justice; give up the just
and proper settlement Of disputes among
4 men, give up a fair and impartial trial
after Indictment by grand jury, by jury
Of our peers; that we will surrender all
that to the lpse dixit of the imperialst?
do not believe they will repeat the
folly that was so scoffed at, so scorned,
by even the scullions Of their party. Will
| 1t be free silver? am told, do not know
how truthful 1t Is, that the great apostle
off free silver will not be able to control
the convention In his own state / think
his emancipated partisans are everywhere
in revolt at the nsolence Of his further
sway. do not believe that after this ex-
| perence free silver will be n part of their
platform. Gentlemen, there is nothing left
for them to do but to wait until after an
| announcement of republican principles and
| then say with such euphony and such vigor
as they may be able to do: I'VE denounce
each and everything that the republicans
have said" You can always count with
absolute certainty upon this one fact that
the beginning Of each alternate paragraph
at least In the democratic platforms will
have the uniform declaration, 1--WE de-
nounce." They have got into that bad hn-
bit. Gentlemen, 1t does not matter what
they say. 1t does not matter what they
declare. 1t does not matter what their
platform is. 1t cannot be in harmony with
the liberty loving spirit of our population.
They cannot even go back to the Declara-
tion of Independence. / can even remem-
Der the time when a democratic platform
was largely made up from stolen and plum
dered extracts from the Declaration Of In
dependence. And think how 1t would
sound even to their ears, the declaration,
eve believe in the equality of all men be-
fore the laws; we believe in universal lib
erty." How would declaration of that
kind sound in democratic platform? Ev-
cry man of intelligence in the United
knows that there are nine millions of men,
citizens of the United States guaranteed
their rights under the constitution, who
have been plundered of every right that
the constitution gave to them, save and
except the bare right to live, as they could
live In q community where ostracism was
the rule. How would that look in n dem
Ocratic platform? ] confess they are going
to have some trouble of their own If they
have any regard for that which we some
times call consistency, or If they have any
desire to rcprove the rising risbes of an
intelligent world.
! again tthnk you for the nomination
. Won have given me today, i know of no