The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-04-11

ton which | am now 10 take | have
neither the record of ever having
held "a public office or the hope or
expectation of ever wanting one |
have fought the battles of my party
for the principles that ii carried and
not lor the rewards which it had the
power to bestow. All my life l have
realized and believed that the highest
and noblest opportunity that could
ever come to citizens or parties wdH
to vindtcate by personal sacrifice and
lofty conduct their supreme and IN.
selfish loyalty to the professions
which their platforms make
We have found where We did MOI
seek him a man to do the things the
people sOrely need. We do not know
if we could succeed in placing in
power the man our partisan loyalty
would prefer We do not know
whether in this environment our par
tvs choice would change the ma
chinery and win or lose the fateful
battle of our economic life. In sound
logic and in clear common sense we
must recognize the tremendous start.
the tremendous prestige. which the
president has made. He is every
inch leader and by ali the records
he is a predestined winner in the
fight. Can we. the peoples party. al
ford to risk the peoples vital interest
by changing leaders IN the very crisis
OF the great battle that is on?
The times may change and men
may change as well before the cam
paign of 1908 begins. But - the con
ditiOns then are as they are today-if
Roosevelt rides the storm that is
brewing in the realm of corporate
capital, then our way seems open and
our duty clear.
Nominate Roosevelt.
Speaking here deliberately for my
self, and in my fair judgment of the
great majority of the plain and honest
Democrats of the EMPIRE Southern
state, from which l came, 1 believe
that we should put the party then
below the people, the principle above
the man. We should rebuke the
spirit of spoils and the hunger OF
faction. We should affirm our princi-
pies, confess our faith, recite the ne
cessity of the reform of corporate
capital as the supreme and transcend
ant issue Of the times, pay tribute to
the great and typical American who
has proved himself the dauntless and
cOnquering captain of the peoples
cause, and then and there in that
great convention of our own. William
J. Bryan. the one unmatched and in
comparable evangel of our faith
speaking for the whole plain people
of this republic, should put in nOmina-
ton Theodore Roosevelt lor one more
undisputed term of power to finish
the work that he has so gloriously
begun.
l am prepared, Mr. Chairman and
F1II -sI i
reserve in your hearing of this propO-
sitiOn. There could be no other
answer to it now.
While you accord me the great
tesy of your patience for one mo-
ment more, may I tell YOU what 1
foresee as the resultant if our great
party and its leaders could rise TO
this superb and thrilling act?
What it Would 10.
1t would Vindicate the spirit and
the reality of representative govern
ment upon the earth.
1t would send a pulse of inspiration
through the ranks OF freemen every
where.
1t would unite the country as it
has never been united since Hamil-
ton and Jefferson wrangled over the
opposing theories of the constitution.
The nobility of the act would put
the partisan out of the pulses of the
president, remove the wrangIe of OPP
posing political theories for the time,
and free one chief executive for an
administration as unselfish and as
broad as WashingtOn's.
1t would Vindlcate and glorify De
mOcracy in an act Of patriotism and
of unselfish principle that has had
no parallel in the history of parties
in our times.
In its grand unselfis--ness it would
enthrOne the Democratic party in the
hearts of the people, and in its TEN.
porary and heroic surrender, would
provide beyond doubt or question for
its triumphant and glorious reSurrec.
ton in the next campaign.
1t would establish our incompatible
leader who presented that proposition
in permanent and enduring fame as
the one great cOmmOner of our times
and would place him upon a pedestal
in history above that of Gladstone in
England or of Bismarck beneath the
German throne.
1t would give this great country OF
ours one miIlennial period in which
factions and partisans should be still
and the spirit of representative gov.
eminent should be given new birth
and new cOnSecrauOn to its great
ideals-tO the glory of the people and
the admiration of the world.
And when this period of splendid
unity was over, when the people had
won their majestic and enduring vic
tory in the great and -transcendent
economic problem of the times. then,
at its conclusion, parties which are
always helpful in a republics life,
might separate once more into their
separate camps behind real shibbo-
leths in which every line of sectional
ism should be buried. every bOgie OF
forgeyism and of graft should be OBJ
liberated, and in which men who have
followed for twenty years in slavish
loyalty of faction behind platforms
which they did not indo~se and lead
ers in whom they did not belIe--e-
might align themselves once more
and honestly behind theories of gov
eminent which carried their SiOcaro /