Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1908-05-29
Col. McGravv For Bryan.


4 The following letters will explain
themselves and Will be read with much
interest since some of the politicians
have been trying to crowd the colonel
off the Bryan band wagon.
Lincoln, Neb. April IL 1908.
NV Dear McGraw:
i am very glad to receive your letter.
/ had not seen the Abbott article and
was not, of course, responsible for it. |
have always had confidence in your
friendship.
| had heard recently that you were
opposeu to instructions, bat could
not believe it for the opposition to in
structions comes from Wall street.
The voters have right to select. |
/ am their choice am entitled to in
structions and if they are against me,
some one else should havethe instruc.
| tions.
| hope you will try to get all of our
friends together against the New York
influence. They are working as they
dio in 1896, 1900 and 1904, not for sue
cess but to keep the Democratic party
from injuring predatory wealth
Yours truly,
(Signei w. j. Bryan.
Mr.. McGraw's reply to the above
was as follows:
Grafton, w. Va, April 20, zoos.
Hon. w. J. Bryan,
Lincoln, Neb.
My Dear Mr.. Bryan; ! am under
renewed obligations to you for your
kind letter and would nav e answered
earlier, but from the newsp apers | see
you nave been away from home, NOV
ing about from one place to another,
and | knew letter would not reach
you until your return.
| thought you could not be responsi-
BILE for the Willis Abbot letters, be-
cause throughout your publlc career
you have had few who have followed
your political fortunes more earnestly
| than i; and the personal friendship
| you have always manifested is, to me,
the source of the ke5 nest qualification,
AS told Mayor Dahlman, of Omaha,
ar the meeting of the National Com
mittee in Washing ton, | have always
opposed instructions, on principle,
because | think them undemocratic,
destructive of minority representation,
and think they have been, in many
instances, the fruitful source of much
of the ills from which our party has
suffered. Had it not been for the in
structec delegates to the st. Louis
convention of 1904, with your vigor-
GUS opposition to Judge Parker, he
would not, in my judgment, have
been nominated there, but the party
would have respected your protest and
selected another candidate.
My position at Parkersburg, before
our State Committee, was not opposi-
ton to you, as you well know after our
talk at the Eutaw House in Baltimore
last October, but it was prompted by
my conviction that State Committee
should not, from my viewpoint, usurp
the powers of convention, which
alone possesses the right to instruct
those whom it commissions to execute
its Will. With the convention, how
ever, it is radically different question
because the exercise of the inherent
! ht 30 inst rt1.a re M IG mn ~
the vital and legitimate functions of
the conyentioa which appoints item.
Besides, tits well known, and general
ly conceded, that the Parkersburg re-
solutions We're not. il their origin, in
tended to promote your interests, but
to subserve another and entirely differ
emf purpose.
The Dem ocratic sentiment of our
state is now, and has been since 1896,
for you, and, as you suggest, l have
seen number of our friends, and the
Wheeling convention, which convenes
on the 18th inst, will, l have no
doubt, be of the highest character COM
mandatory of you, and your long
and continued fight for Demo
cratic ascendancy, and the dele
gates there will be instructed to vote
you. | shall certainly contribute all
L can to that end.
As am not sure this letter VIII
reach you at home, have taken the
pIecaution of sending an additional
copy TO you, in care of Hon. Norman
E. Mack at Buffalo, as | understand
he expects to see you soon, and one or
the other of the letters will surely
reach you.
Very truly yours,