Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-08-15
SPEECH
of
HON. JOHN w. WESCOTT
Of New Jersey
SPEECH
Nominating Woodrow Wilson as the
Democratic Candidate for Presi-
dent Of the United States.


New Jersey, once bound, but by the
moral energy and intellectual great
ness of a single soul now free, comes
to this historic convention in the glory
of her emancipation to participate in
your deliberations, aid in formulating
your judgments and assist in execut-
ing your DEGREES. The New Jersey
delegation is in no sense empowered
to exercise the attributes of proprie-
torship On the wreck and ruin OF a
bipartisan machine master hand
has erected an ideal Commonwealth
in less than two years. (Applause.)
New Jersey is free Therefore, the
New Jersey delegation is commission
ed to represent the great cause of
Democracy and to offer, as its mill
tant and triumphant leader, a scholar,
not charlatan; a statesman, not a
doctrinaire; a profound lawyer, not a
splitter of legal hairs; political
economist, not an egotistical theorist;
a practical politician, who constructs,
modif1es, restrains without disturbance
or destruction; a, resiStlesS debater
and consummate master of statement,
not a mere phrase-maker; humani-
tartan, not a defamer of characters
and lives; a man whose mind Is at
once cosmopolitan and composite OF
all America; a gentleman OF unpre-
tentious habits, with the fear of God
in his heart and the love of mankind
exhibited in every act of his life (ap-
plause); above all a public servant
who has been tried to the uttermost
and never found wanting-peerless
matchless, unconquerable in the per-
formance of his duty, the ultimate
S Democrat, the genius of liberty and
the very incarnation of progress. Gap
plause)
New Jersey has reason for her
course. Let us not be deceived in the
essentials of the premises upon which
this convention will build, if it builds
successfully. Campaigns of villifica-
tion. corruption and false pretense
have lost their usefulness. The evolu-
ton of national energy is toward
more intelligent morality in politics
and in all other relations. (Applause)
The line of cleavage is between those
who treat politics as game and those
who regard it as the serious business
of government. The realignments OF
political parties will be on this princ1-
ple. The situation admits of no dis
pute and no compromise. The temper
and purpose of the American people
will tolerate no other view. The in
difference of the American public to
its politics has disappeared Any
platform, and any candidate on that
platform, not fully responsive to this
vast social, political and economical
behest will go down to ignominlous
defeat at the polls. (Applause.) Plat
forms are too often mere historic rub
bish heaps of broken promises. Can
didates are too often the unfortunate
creatures of arrangements and cal
culations Exigencies, conditions, ma
tional needs and necessities make bet
ter platforms and produce greater
leaders than does the exercise OF pro-
prietorship (Applause) Hence it is
that disregard of the premises will
bring our dreams crashing in ruins
next November.
Again the eternal conflict between
equal opportunity and special privi-
lege is upon us Our fathers wrote
the issue of that struggle in our Con-
stitutions. They declared all men to-
be free and equal In a single century
that principle developed the North
American continent, leavened the
world with its beneficence, inspired all
nations with hope and made the United
States the asylum of all mankind.
(Applause.) Yet America, at this very
hour, presents the most stupendous
contradiction in history people
politically free, while economically
bound by the most gigantic monopolies
of all time and burdened with a sys-
TEN of taxation which exploits mil
lions to enrich few. We have pre-
served the forms of freedom, but are
fast losing its substance. The evils
of this condition are felt in thousand
ways throughout the land. Therefore
it is that America is awake. There
fore it is that a mistake in our premi-
ses will be fatal Therefore it is
that the situation, the national exigen-
cy. the crisis, call for the right man.
Therefore it is that silent and resist
less revolution demands our patriotic
and best Judgment. Individuals are as
nothing and personal ambitions are
worse than nothing. Impersonality
should be the majesty of this conven-
2 Jl0Q. II the GlOS0u Cduu1QdLS ldllso III
any sense or in any degree fully and
completely to meet the call of the ma
ton, he is doomed to defeat. Cap
plause)
Men are known by what they say
and do. Men are known by those
who hate them and those who oppose
them (Applause0 Many years ago
the distinguished Executive of New
Jersey said, ssNo man is great who
thinks himself so, and no man is good
who does not strive to secure the hap
piness and comfort of others" Cap
plause) This is the secret of his
life. This is, in the last analysis, the
explanation of his power. Later, in
his memorable effort to retain high
scholarship and simple democracy in
Princeton University, he declared,
The great voice of America does not
come from seats of learning. 1t comes
in murmur from the hills and woods,
and the farms and factories and the
mills, rolling on and gaining volume
until ii comes to us from the homes