Graham guardian., 1906-12-14
"DREAAERS" OF HISTORY

young men, VINO nave just poOonlo
or are about to become voters, say
that they do not know whether
they are democrats or republicans.
For the benefit of such as these
we publish the following from a
speech delivered at Lincoln, Neb.,
by Mr.. Bryan just before the close
of the last campaign;
"Senator Beverdge, in his
speech in this city, paid the compli-
ment of calling me dreamer. 1t
did not impress me at first, al
though l appreciated the kindly
tone in which this distinguished
representative of the republican
party had spoken of me, A few
days afterwards Gov. Cummins of
Iowa called me dreamer. Then
sat up and took notice. Not
long alter that Speaker Cannon
called me dreamer. This made
the matter look serious.
And then Gov. Hanley of Indiana
followed and brought the same ac-
cusation against me. With these
four witnesses testifying against
me l might find it difficult to
escape conviction, and / have de
cided to plead guilty and justify
Finding that | could not escape
the charge, / began to look up the
subject OF dreams and to inquire of
the dreamer's position in history.
Philosophers tell US that the dream
of today is the reality of tomorrow,
and poet has gone even farther
and declared;
"The dreamer lives forever and
The toiler dies in day"
"But it is not safe TO build an
argument upon poem, for poets
sometimes take license with truth
as with language. l have greater
faith in the bible than l have in |
poem, and therefore l went to the
bible as / am wont to do. If l
quote democratic authority the re.
publicans attack my authority,
and sometimes they keep me busy
defending the democrats quoted,
but when l quote the bible l leave
them to fight it out with my
authority. The bible tells us of
dreamers, the most prominent
among them being Joseph. His
brothers were angered by his
dreams, and when his father sent
him out into the plains of Dothan,
his brothers plotted to kill him.
They did sell him to some mer-
chants, who carried him into
Egypt, aud they reported to his
father that he had been killed by
wild beast. Yes, Joseph the dream
er was put out of the way as many
dreamers have been since, but after
awhile his brothers were glad to
go down into Egypt and get corn
of him.
"The democratic party is some
thing like Joseph in this respect.
1t has had its dreams; its enemies
have plotted against it, and now
it is prepared to furnish the corn
to those who have fought it and
tried to put it out of the way,
"The democratic party has con-
tanned many dreamers during the
last hundred years. In fact, it was
founded by "a dreamer, Jefferson,
and defended by Jackson who was
something of dreamer. Jetfer-
sons mind was filed with vision
of a selfgoverning people, and his
whole life was devoted to an at
tempt to make the dream reality.
His dream was reduced to writing
in the Declaration of Independence
and it breathes through all of his
letters and public documents. He
saw in the future a government
resting upon the consent of the
governed, strong because it was
loved and loved because it was
good. That dream is being real
ized in this country, for the tend
ency is to make our government
more Jeffersonian by bringing it
more and more completely under
the control of the voters. The
effort to secure the election of
United States senators by the peo
pie is an effort toward the realiza-
ton of Jefferson's dream. The
effort to substitute the party pri-
mary for the boss-ridden conven-
tion Ia an effort tn realize Jeffer.