The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 51, No. 205, Ed. 1 Saturday, October 15, 1892 Page: 6 of 8
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G
THK GAI.VKSTON DAILY NEWS. SATURDAY. OCTOBER 15. 1892.
WOOTEN'S SPEECH.
Discusses the Controlling Is-
sues of Money and Tariff
IN
Arrcisrns the Self-Constituted Oligarchy of
Texas and Its Treachsry to De-
mocracy Made Manifest.
PURITY AND STRENGTH
Of the Party Debauched and Weakened by
Cohabitation with Alien, Hostile
and Delusive Heresies,
THE FOLLOWING OF HOGG
In Open Revolt Against Democracy and
Threatening the Inestimable Eight
of Local Self-Government.
be cuii r
dWlOUtl
II tl.i
ily unit uulicidtutlUKij
ell'
had
rii*i
Ittlii
iiijiI
phrawnluti
uinblguoti'
daclnred will of thf
might luivti been v»
; 1 *■*•!Iti!<*■ I r
ol»
IllOUUing ot
olontbl* in
1 IlllllOlial 'Ii
■ 111 it I ihhI ii
not unvo
Hut in t
part of tl
illlM
'll |>
1 it »
ii tin-
In
uxpo«Hd aud
reason of any
coition in tliu
.Ih. or friun nil
elation of tli"
ra»"y. tin* error
ortaiice would
h a* to justify
III! U
Pi I I
loll.
at ion <
ithor ob
convent i<
ui ion
! foi
orgitni/od;
the liuancii
ami which
upon whirl
fori- !!««» lb
ofttbio fore
nt l.umpa
repudiat
ntlio
r ami
tho liotMoli
Their mutiny
lion of the Chicugo
iiiumI .inili ••iliiloiiflv
• Mr. Cleveland ami
h hi* wu- noiiiinati'il
: !5
bio ) >lll 11 k -
kviM of loiter i»ta
will and decbn
i-delibcrut'ly |'I
iheli Inutility
1 policy upon wl
• -'Xpii'Hhls ■ n illicit I i«il in t In* platform
Ih> Htamlf. 'viiii''"! Hfi'If mouth* !>«•
ii-toii iiif tin*. It developed coiiidd-
• among ih" mii port or* ol Gov, Hogg
i .i». it i ip.'iii'il into oiMin ami ay
t 'i in the platform commit ten at
1 tho don
I In
»n it V
I
IlotlM-
>tic dictation of tin* governor
rouble rpokOHllOII in tin- c..n-
.1,- almost forcibl> incorporated into
Dallas, Tex., October 14.—Hon. Dudley
G. Wooten, in the auditorium of the city
hall last night, addressed a large au-
dience, all the seats being taken except a
part of the section on the south side of the
hall. In this section sat several Hogg men
who had come to learn wisdom. On religious
occasions its seats are used for mourners'
benches. Before .Judge Wooten begau
sneaking Mr. Sam E. Hurlock observed to a
News reporter: "If Wooten comes out for
Clark his head, as a candidate for elector,
will lly next Saturday with that of Brown and
any other electors who have declared their in-
tention to vote for Clark. 'J In* executive com-
mittee will meet next Saturday at \\ aco for
that inupose, and you may look out for
squalls." It. was Mr. Hurlock who predicted
that Par O'Keefe's head would be the lirst to
fall into Robert E. Cowart's waste basket, and
his prediction was verilied.
Judge Wooten's speech was applauded
throuuhout. Having been introduced by Mr.
Lafayette Fitzhugh, the democratic chairman
of this congressional district, he proceeded:
Fellow citizens: On tlm 7th day of .June. 1S92,
iu pursuance of an unbroken custom which lias
obtained iu Texas as well as the other states of
the union for nearly fifty years, the delegatos of
tho democratic party of this state assembled in
convention at Lampasas to elect delegates to the
national democratic convention, to promulgate
the will and opinions of the democracy of Texas
on questions of federal politics and to nominate
electors tu cast the vote of this state for president
and vice president of the United States. By the
unwritten lav.- of party politics and hyth"iu«i
form and universal precedent;? of convention
history, that convention had the supreme aud
exclusive right .and authority to declare the
choice of the organized democracy of the state
between rival candidates for the presidency and
between debatable issues of policy and principle
in matters affecting the legislation and adminis-
tration of the federal government.
It:- jurisdiction over these questions was un-
doubted and its determinations thereon are sub-
ject to no revision or reversal except by subse-
quent conventions of equal dignity and called tor
tlie same purpose, Or by the democracy of the
union in supreme and final council assembled.
These propositions have never been seriously
questioned and cannot be successfully contro-
verted.
On Aug. 16 of this same year the state dome
cratic convention of Texas met in Houston to
nominate candidates for the various state ofli
to proclaim the will of the party on matters of
state policy and legislation, and to provide for the
party organization for purposes of domestic
and local perpetuation and success. Its jurisdic-
tion and authority did not and could not extend
beyond these subjects, and its utterances upon
all federal questions at variance with those of the
Lampasas and Chicago conventions were and are
absolutely usurpatory and utterly without bind-
ing force upon any democrat in Texas. These
propositions are likewise indisputable and con-
clusive. Never in the history of political conven-
tions since IN'.*, when they first became known in
the United States, lias a state convention called
for the nomination of state officers and the
declaration of domestic policies, assumed to pro-
mulgate a separate platform of principles upon the
vital issues of national politics which constitute
the basis of division between the two great
political parties, whose existence was coeval with
the formation of the federal government, and
whose struggle for supremacy has beeu coexten-
sive with its development.
In what are known as "off years''—intervening
between presidential elections—state conventions
have sometimes declared upon matters of gen-
eral concern to the politics of the whole country,
but even then always in harmony with the well-
known tenets and policy of the federal democ-
racy. Sometimes new questions have arisen not.
formerly passed upon by the highest tribunal of
the national organization, and upon those the
local conventions of the states have felt war-
ranted in advancing their owuvietfsand wishes.
But in presidential years the universal rule here-
tofore prevailing in Texas anil in every demo-
cratic state in the union has been to indorse
without qualification the embodied w ill of the
national domocracy as expressed in its current
platform, somotimes reiterating and emphasizing
some particular portion of it which was believed
to be of special or local importance.
Never in any year nor under any circumstances
prior to the August meeting in Houston, has a
state democratic convention, called for state pur-
poses, deliberately refused to indorse a declara-
tion of the national democratic platform upon
one of the vital and absorbing issues of federal
politics, and with emphasis and eclat adopted
and promulgated a doct rine upon the same sub-
ject intentionally and palpably repudiating the
highest and final decision of the democratic party
of the United States.
This is not the first time that a political plat-
form. federal as well as state, has contained
false, vicious and heretical declarations. It is
not the first time that a cowardlv placing of ex-
pediency above principle has led the democracy
into espousing the vagaries of other and discord-
ant political factions. Before now,the temptations
of temporary advantage, the hope of party suc-
cess, the conflict of opposing views among party
leaders and the immature results of compromise
and concession, have engrafted upon the organic
deliverances of democratic conventions many
crude, inconsistent and untenable professions of
)>olitical belief. But this is the first time in the
listory of the party, state or national, tout a de-
liberately planned and sedulously cultivated
spirit of hostility and insubordination to the car-
dinal principles of democracy in its practical ap-
plication to governmental affairs lias triumph-
antly overridden the necessary limitations of po-
litical faith, spurned the authoritative judgment
of the tribunal having the highest and exclusive
jurisdiction of the questions at issue and defiantly
promulgated a declaration of vital and controll-
ing importance, at war with the express policy
and declared will of that tribunal, besides, adopt-
ing and advocating other political and economic
heresies destructive of every, canon of correct
government as established by democratic precept
and practice since the party was organized.
The action of the Houston convention in adopt-
ing the platform upon which the ticket headed
by'Gov. Hogg is seeking election, was the culmi-
nation of long and laborious effort upon the part
of those who framed the controverted portions of
that platform. This effort has been consistent,
persistent and progressive, and moreover, it is
only a fragmentary and local manifestation of a
similar movement which has been going on for
years throughout tlie country, .weakening, disin-
tegrating, corrupting aud demoralizing the vir-
tue and value of democratic ideas and principles
of government everywhere among the people of
the United States.
The history of the methods by which this revolt
against the Chicago platform was matured and
the manner in which it was finally accomplished,
demonstrate the deliberate and intentional na-
ture of the rebellion, and they do more than
that. They raise this matter above the mere
question of a convention having exceeded its
authority by declaring adversely to the authorta-
tive deliverances of the national democracy. If
that were all, we might simply ignore the lieu-
ton platform on federal questions as nugatory
and irrelevant, and support the nominee without
regard to the platform. But in this instance the
heretical and rebellious spirit and letter of the
platform were inspired by the chief nominee
they are the matured product of a radical am
revolutionary contempt for the principle.-, tra-
ditions and policies of the democrat ic party, and
as sucn they deserve and will receive the open
and avowed opposition of every democrat who
understands the faith he professes and values
the existence of the party to which he belongs.
The evil cannot be passively endured, but must
tin' platform, auuim-t the best Judgment of every
coiifi-natjve man who u'uh ;Vood iff. meaning
an.I a- I veiil. believe against the will of a ma*
joril v of the delegate-, bad they been left to mi
intelligent and untraiiimeled choice. Kvery dele-
gn'.ea' Lampasaf will rotnoinbu- the f'-rlit that
took place iu that convention and the rancorous
ho.-tilit\ wiili whi h distinctions for Mr. Cleve-
land w«tc oppon-d by a certain faction in the
ii-K-inbly. purely and avowedh on account of his
opposition to the free and unlimited coinage of
silver at its present ratio. He will also recall the
fact that aln.yst without exception it was the
Horn: element in that convention which was
I..ud' t in it- deuui. iations of Cleveland and
ab;d in its advocacy of the free silver
heresy.
Lat'-r on, when tho < 'hicago contention noiidn-
ati d its candidates and promulgated its de.dfiru-
ti..n in favor of an honest dollar of both gold ami
ilver. interchangeable and equal upon the same
unit <»f vale • and without discrimination or
charge for mintageof eitlu.r metal, theno same
acinic- of Mr. Cleveland and his financial policy
continued their warfare. A leading newspaper,
whose course for months had been on.* of bitter
amity to the Chicago nominee for the presidency
ami of the wilde-t clamor foi the unlimited coin -
tgeof silvor and which had been to some extent
regarded as the organ of the state administra-
tion, made a savage attack uson the Texas uieiv
bi-r of the plat foi in committee at Chicago
for his vote in favor of the silver plank
as it now stands. Among other violent and ob-
jurgatory utterance.* this paper denounced that
plank as "an outrage upon the democratic seu-
timent of the country." and demanded with
threatening emphasis. "W hat does the democracy
of Texas think of it?" Shortly afterward a so-
called agricultural paper, which boasts of its
chamnionuiiip of the present governor, thundered
it- threats against those in Texas who favored
Cleveland and the Chicago platform and said:
"If they dare pursue such a policy let them reap
tho result of their own folly. * * * As it is
thousands of people in Texas will vote the i-tate
democratic ticket who will not swallow the na-
tional, and this number could be increased
amazingly by a well directed effort to this end.'
'Ii .. . .IV..... ... .Im» t i iiki iiiwl if if vv:m lift
The effort came in due time, and if it was not
"well directed" it is not tho fault of the Hogg
leaders at Houston.
CThis disposition to rebel against the well-
settled policy and declared principles of the over-
whelming majority of sound democrats in tho
United States was clearly manifested among tho
acknowledged representatives of administration
sentiment in Texas whenever they spoke or wrote
on fouoral politics. Tho readers of the news-
paper- in the state cannot have forgotten the
political vagaries of a veteran ex-senator ex-
ploited in letters and speeches preceding the con-
vention in August: and tho "swing round tho
circle" of the administration brevet ex-senator
for some months of the spring and summer had
no obvious purpose beyond tho propagation
of these seditious and undemocratic the-
ories. The occasion then was ripe for ac-
tion when the convention assembled. As you
know 1 was a member of the platform committee,
although when I was finally admitted to its ses-
sions there was little left to bo done but to polish
off the work which had been matured by its dii
tinguisbed leaders. It is a treat pity that tho
debates on the platform in that committee wero
not reported and preserved. There could then
liaie been no doubt as to whether tho ninth plank
of the platform was intended to repudiate the
('hicago silver declaration.
I remember well the speeches of Judge Ilutne
of Galveston, and Col. George Todd ol Marion,
both of whom are conservative supporters of
Gov. Hogg, in opposition to the ninth plank as it
was finally reported and adopted, and seeking to
make it less inimical to the utterances of the na-
tional democracy on the same subject. I like-
wise remember the eloquent and earnest efforts
ot Messrs. Reagan and Chilton iu which there
was no disguise of their sentiments of hostility
to the declared will of the Chicago convention on
the money question, and an avowed intention to
place Tex i- iu line against it. Neither was there
any concealment of the purpose of such open
mutiny, it was distinctly claimed that such a
course wou:d appease ami bring back to the party
the voters who were gathering into the third
party ranks.
The graduated income tax and state banks
planks were incorporated into this olla-podrida
of political and social heresies and inconsisten-
cies labelled ' democratic platform" for the same
reasons and in the same spirit of contempt, and
defiance for the established traditions and doc-
trines of the democratic party, state and federal.
Protest, argument, appeal, were alike unavailing.
In fact those gentlemen, thus boldly leading the
democracy ot Texas into a deliberate bolt from
the platform of the organized party of tho union,
in a year when harmony of views and integrity of
organization are indispensable to its success in the
struggle for tho rights and freedom of tho whole
country, and more particularly of tho south,
seemed to regard those ot us on the committee
\> ho differed with them as spies and interlop -rs.
The fact that wo happened,to favor the candi-
dacy of George Clark for governor was enough
their estimation to mark our ideas as trai-
torous and our opposition as personal to him
they called master. Even tho timid protest of
their own followers was treated with evident im-
patience and displeasure, and I noticed that not
one of the number had the hardihood to resist
the inexorable fiat of tho administration spokes-
men. ,
The question of tho free and unlimited coinage
of silver being one that is finally disposed of by
tho platform of tho federal democracy, aud as
such requiring a more extended discussion at my
hands, 1 will defer it to a later period of my re-
marks. 1 now wish tn conclude what 1 havo to
say upon the state platform adopted by the Hous-
ton convention.
It is not necessary to enter into a lengthy discus-
sion of the graduated income tax for federal pur-
poses and state banks. In the form in which
those questions are presented to our people they
are and should be considered distinctly federal
in their nature, and there is not a well informod
man in Texas or jinywhere else who does not
know that the declarations of the Hogg platform
on these subjects are at war with the traditions,
the principles and tho policy of the domocracy
since it has had an organization and wherever
those matters have been issues for public discus-
sion and party action, Upon tho first, tho grad-
uated income tax, tho democracy of tho union
lias never declared its position in a party plat-
form so far as 1 can find out, for the
simple reason that never before m tho
history of the country was it considered suf-
ficiently tenable and pertinent among democrats
to requite a declaration by them. Iu any other
than a Hogg convention such an issue would be
as irrelevant and impossible of discussion at
would be the doctrines of "transubstantiation'
and the "infallibility of the pope" in a protectant
religious congregation. It is an outworn and dis-
carded expedient of republicanism, adopted dur-
ing the war, repudiated by its authors years ago
and held in abhorrence by every true democrat
who considers liberty of person aud security of
homo sacred from tho inquisitorial tyranny of
despotic government.
Income taxes originated in England under tho
ministry of the younger Pitt and were revived in
P'-!2 by Sir Kobert Peel. They have been tho
source of endle-s controversy in that country,
have been universally condemned by the wisest
economists and writers on finance, and are not
attempted to be defended even by their advo-
cates, except as temporary expedients to relieve
fiscal necessities, and always with the promise of
ultimate repeal. They are rendered practicable
in England by the prevailing system of annuities
ami stated incomes on permanent investments,
w hich does not exist in the United States. The
first income tax levied by the federal government
was imposed by an act passed iul862, by the same
congress that re-established national banks,
adopted the internal revenue system and abol-
ished the fugitive slave law. It was strenuously
opposed by th<» few democrats then in congress
and was weakly apologized for by the republi-
cans as a necessary war measure, it was con-
tained in a bill taxing aliuosteverything reported
from the ways and means committee, by Con-
gressman. afterward Senator, Justin S. Morrill of
Vermont. In discussing it he said: "This in-
come duty is one perhaps of the least defensible
that on the whole tho committee concluded to
retain or report. Tho objection to it is that near-
ly ail persons will have already been taxed upon
the source from which their income is derived. *
* * The income tax is an inquisitorial one at
best, but looking upon tho considerable class of
state officers ana tlie many thousands who are
employed on fixed salaries, most of whom would
not contribute a penny unless called upon
through this tax, it has been thought, best not
wholly to abandon it."-
This was a simple, not a graduated, income tax
of 8 per cent on incomes over $&0U on citizens and
5 per cent on non-citizens. Texas herself once
had au income tax law, as one of the iniquitous
legacies of the late war. It was burdenosmo, vex-
atious and impracticable and was abolished as
soon as our people regained their right to legis-
late for themselves. The name of ex-Gov. O. M.
Roberts has been used in this connection to givo
countenance to the propriety of income taxes.
He has been publicly quoted in a letter to the
papers in a garbled extract from a lecture of his
iu which he was neither thinking nor speaking of
income taxes. Let us see what he really has said
on the subject. In a little book of his recently
published, entitled, "Our Federal Relations,"
pag* 116he says:
There was one measure adopted in Gov.
TUiockuiorton's administration, by au act of
Nov. 0. isM. (hut continued for u number of y
ui.idi require^ not re, because It wn* an ex
llie it ilieu for the tli«t time tried iuthi-'f
though it had long been authorized by the cou* | m
•tituHon. \ law was puspod •atablishlug u»ax
on income*. I in* required investigafion of the
private affairs of pernon* to ascertain the annual
profits of their biisiiiens, which proved• to be
annoying and troublesome. In a new country like
i ur tbore wom fi w perfoni who lifoii upon an
income derived (r un au investment in pronerty.
Nearly all of them that had property used it in
connection with their own skill and labor to earn
a livelihood ami. when practicable, to iii.rrcaro
their property. It might harp*n, howover. an it
did in some instances, that flier > would b.i a losn
instead of an increase of property; for some
meichants and otheM who handled large amounts
of property in hm-iuos , returned no income,
meaning surplus increase, aud consequently paid
no income tax. That tax was abandoned aft- i it
wan shown to be impracticable, bocause it was
not adapted to our conditio!!."
Witli a system of federal taxation already
onerous ami vexatious beyond measure, au in-
ternal revenue force ptaeticlng inquisitorial
tyranny over our lieopln iu their daily occupa-
tions and private busbies#, and a yearly surplus
in the treasury beyond tho necessary expense.* of
government economically administered, consti*
tilting a perpetual temptation to corrupt and
extravagant legislation, the man claiming to be
i« democrat who would advocate a federal in-
oine tax is either too ignorant to be consulted
too reckless and revolutionary to be trusted iu
tie- formation of a democratic plntform.
Ti e establishment of ftate banks, if it proposed
to make them banks of issue, is also, according
to the clearly announced views of the founders
>f American democracy, properly a question of
federal politics. It was tho opinion ol the earlier
democratic statesmen and has been the cumula-
tive judgment of their mccessors, fortified
by experience and the stern lessons of our
financial history, that the circulating medium of
i lie country should be exclusively under the con-
trol of 'he general government to insure a sound
ami stable currency. State banks were the
special horror of Mr. Jefferson and his sagacious
colleagues in the formation of our institution-;
their operations were the causo of immeasure-
ble disa-'ers luring many years of our fiscal af-
fairs. and they have never beeu countenanced nor
their revival suggested by any deinociatic plat-
foiin. state or federal, since the war until now.
In I 'xa- especially havo the fixed policy of
our people and the reiterated prohibitions of
our state constitutions from the very first, beon
unalterably opposed to state banks. The home-
stead law itself is not more thoroughly imbedded
iu tho civilization and public policy of this state
than is the hostility to tho establishment of
banking institutions under the government. The
larkest and most desperate straits to which our
people were ever reduced were the direct conse-
quences of these "wild-cat" banks, and no sane
man. much less a democrat, can want, to restore
that era of gloom aud ruin among our citizens.
There were those whose own experience ex-
tends back to that dismal time, who contended at
Houston and are still maintaining the fatuous
and delusive proposition that our immense
progress and practical achievements in social and
political knowledge will enable us to avoid tho
evils of former experiments in this line. No
student of political economy and fiscal Fcienco
ever entertained such an idea. The laws of
tlnanco are as immutable as those of pure
mathematics and as little susceptible of being
juggled with by cunning devices. However
their application may bo varied by more
complex conditions and their operations more
definitely determined by observation aud experi-
ence. tlieir results are tho same in nil ages and all
countries. What is known as "Gresliam'slaw."
first formulated a great financier in tho reign
of tho great Elizabeth, is t he same to-day as it
was thou and had beon from tho time Abraham
bought the cave of Macpelah with "current
money among tho merchants," and our free sil
r and state bank friends will do well to study
its moaning and application at this time.
When, after strenuous opposition by those of
us who could obtain a hearing and under tho
absolute tyranny of the administration lash,
theso and like violations and repudiations of
democratic faith wero finally consummated by
t he adoption of the platform as it came from tho
brain and hand of the few men who wielded the
power of tho party organization, I felt that the
time had come when revolution reigned in tho
democratic councils of tho stato, and that suc-
cessful mutiny had dissolvod the bonds
ot party discipline, relegating each in-
dividual democrat to the exercise of
his own sovereignty according to his
sonso of right and his convictions of duty. 1 be-
lieved then, as 1 do now. just what is stated in tho
Dallas protest, which I signed, viz: "That tho
platform adopted by the convention is so utterly
subversive of all democratic idoas and principles
f government that no true democrat could ac
cept a nomination upon said platform." and
further "that tho convention, by its act of open
rebellion against tlie democracy of the union in
repudiating the platform adopted by the national
convention at Chicago, has released every demo-
crat in Texas from all obligations to support the
nominees of that state convention."
Believing thus, it would in my judgment havo
been an act of voluntary stultification tor mo to
participate further in the deliberations of tho
convention and I accordingly withdrew there-
from. 1 did not go with those who organized the
Turner hall convention, nor did 1 over enter that
assemblage, for tho reason that 1 did not consider
their action in attempting to elect a temporary
chairman justifiad by the circumstances attend
ing that event. 1 remained in the regular con-
vention, as I considered it, in good faith, dot:
mined to abide its results so long as 1 could do so
with any show of self-respect consistency or rec-
ognition of political principle. Tbore cam; a
time whau to me a rogard for all throe seemed to
forbid further acquiesconco in the proceedings of
the body.
In acting upon this conclusion, arrived at after
careful thought, 1 cau truthfully say that 1 never
performed any act with as sincere a feeling
of desperation and regret; desperation that
a democratic convention, composed of
many men of triod and unquestioned patroit
ism. discernment, democrat?}' and public
virtue, should have so far fallen under
the infiuomfo and dictation of a little cabal of de-
luded, designing, ambitious and rocklass poli-
ticians as to stultify its intelligence, forfeit its
faith and dishonor its historic and heroic tradi-
tions: regret that the cowardly and contemptible
supremacy of such counsels should disrupt tho
party jind exilo from its active membership valu-
able and devoted friends of its every precept and
aspiration, and that, too, at a time when its in
togrity, harmony and enthusiasm are so much
needed in defense of the rights and freedom of
the whole country, and more especially of the
■■■■■■■■■■■■j
A fow days after tho convention adjourned a
reporter of The Dallas-Galveston News called
on mo at the Beach hotel in Galveston. His in-
terview with mo was published in The News of
Aug. 21, and you will permit me to read one or
two sentences from it:
"Well, whom will you voto for?" was the next
question.
"Do you mean me personally, or mo aud tho
other gentlemen who filed tho protest?"
" I mean all of you."
"1 can speak positively for myself only, thougl
knowing the other gentlemen as 1 do, 1 can judge
ctly to
■ idi liti.
the
ide
re»i
lOM
two
lit)
ill it
llWoiv.
Bill tie
ICC'tit event-
imperative
'lit to speak
'tig!
1 in
•u<
I election
g audt ec
red it
•ct .ng deuioc
y. at I «a»t to iuh ii
e w> I have witnessed tl
tate perverted in if. (unction
purpose*, by umleni
tin
Ih
Ifee t
in my jiultf•
a every self.
only and fear*
1 friend-. Cor
•i.\ eranient of
and corrupted
and unstated
manlike policies and practice*. I have seen the
iltiintioUs rule ot demagogs a'ul destruction
rotating the prosperity ami the , respects ol the
ire»t and most fruitful Juml in e l our imperial
intnion . liiftfi oft peaceful ind contented
opln lashed into sense|e-.s fury "id excited to
testilie clainot'by the reckless an I revolutionary
rusade of an ambitious and designing dema*
I have seen the purity and streiu'th of the dem-
ratic party gradually debauched ami wo ik-
ed by cohabitation with alien, l.ostile and de-
si ve horomo*, With all these we were fain to be
itient and await the inevitable loiiiedy that is
ven to democrat* in thl« countr. Men are moi •
I ami their influence is temporalv and evaues-
nt. but principles and tlieir iil'unate siiprein-
v it earnestly espoused and I n'jessly
iiied are eternal and uucomju
•e and intelligent people.
But two months ago we saw the
le state in convention assembled
hip of one man and hi- pit
ommitted to the indorsement of
grant and repulsive political apo-
penly repudiate the platform
f its national candidate's. And
week, we havo recii tho dem
protty well where thoy will bo found. Personally
1 am in a peculiar position and lmv<* little choice
to make, for my duty is plain. I shall vote for
the only man who stands on a straightforward,
unequivocal, in fact the only democratic platform
—George Clark. He is the only standard-bearer
of democracy in Texas, and no true democrat can
voto for any one else.
1 am a democrat. I would not allow technical
errors of ruling on the part of a chairman or any
trifling thing to cause me to leave a democratic
convention, one that was democratic in name,
until its acts had stamped it otherwise. 1 and
my friands stood by tho Hogg convention just as
long as we could do so, aud when wo did loave
wo left for cause, and causo, too, which will ap-
peal directly to tho hearts and minds of all good
democrats.
That same interview represented me as saying
that as a presidential elector I would advocate
the candidacy of George Clark for governor. This
was an error which I corrected in a letter in Tut
News of Aug. 22, and used tho following Ian
guage:
"As a presidential elector I shall advocate
G rover Cleveland and the Lampasas and Chicagt.
platforms and have nothing to do with either
Hogg or Clark. If in the advocacy of tho caudi
dates and principles of the national democracy 1
shall necessarily antagonize or favor either of tho
candidates and platforms placed before tho peo-
ple at Houston, that is the fortune or misfortune
of the situation, and is a situation into which I
have been forced against my own will and m,
earnest protest by the Hogg convention."
Now, my fellow citizens. 1 have spoken thus at
length to you in explanation of my views, and
with a degree of freedom which 1 would not feel
warranted in exercising elsewhere, for tho roa
son that you are my personal friends and most
immediate constituents. I was one of your dele-
gates at Lampasas aud at Houston. This is the
first time I have addressed you politically sinco
those conventions met, and' I feel that you have a
right to a full, tree and courageous expression of
my attitude and feelings in this emergency. By
your influence and indorsement largely I was
nominated as presidential elector for tho state at
large aud to you I have chosen to deliver tho first
speech in the very brief canvass which I shall at-
tempt in that capacity.
1 was honored with that nomination by the un
qestioned and undivided democracy of Texas in
convention assembled, vested with supremo and
exclusive state jurisdiction over the questions re-
ferred to. That convention declared its will upon
federal issues, unawod by intimidation of any
character, uninfluenced by passion or projudico
and uncorruptod by the seductions of alien and
hostile heresies. As one of its nominees, long be
fore the Houston conveiftion met. 1 was commit
sioned and charged to defend tho platform and
candidates of the federal democracy, aud I am re-
sponsible for the freedom p.nd fidelity with which
I shall discharge that high trust, neither to the
Hogg nor tho Clark convention, but to tho in-
telligent and patriotic democrats of Texas who
have espoused the faith of the democratic party
of the union from an understanding of its poli-
cies, a devotion to its purposes and a belief in tho
indestructible quality of its principles.
To these iuy proper constituents in the race
they have chosen me to run I owe my first and
most binding obligation, and I had determined
in whatever I should publicly say during the re-
mainder of this caiuyaigu to contiue myself
mam-
ble among a
democracy of
nder the dicta-
it supporters,
tho most Hil-
ary and forced
and principles
now, within a
f our own
>unty deprived of its autonoiii) and iudepend-
nce by the insolent invasion o'the unauthor-
ized minister of this grasping and despotic power.
ry right of local sov -re .ruty and self
government is denied to the banner democratic
unity of the state, its chairman and committee-
men elected by a convention v.-hose regularity
as proclaimed by the Houston invention itself,
tave been deposed without wan ant of political
>r justice, and in their pi,unm are installed
lie very men who were brand -d as bolters and
leuied recognition by the same authority that
now elevates tliein to place and power in demo-
atic organization.
It is time that every man who professes to re-
tain even the slightest respect for his political
riuciples and consistenc) t" -k himself how
>ug and how far shall we indorse this tyrannical
and dogmatic usurpation of power by supporting
lie author of it? I tell you • • -ir has cio-sod
he Rubicon aud is marching on Rome. It
heso outrages are quiety submitted to by the
democrats of Texas those iu wnoso interest they
are perpetrated will have succeeded in perfect-
ing a means for perpetuation in olllce. compared
with which the machinery of tho infamous "force
f lifted and Harrison is a mild, beneficent
and patriotic measure.
in the presence of this sy-t rnati'* stretch of
arbitrary ami lawless political authority every
democrat, every citizen, who values his personal
freedom and the inestimable ri^rht of local self-
.. ivernnient can no longer hold his peace. If
this thing is permitted to go unchallenged no
limit c in be set to tho despoti.* powers of tho
faction fhat to-day claims the i i :!•: to rule and is
ruining the democratic party of lexas. None
will bo spared the Intolerable tyranny of such
dictation. Alike, the highest and the lowest de-
partments of our political organization are
hreatenod by this unauthorized and moddlc-
•uio interference with the freedom of thought
and action of tho people. Already it has assumed
to abrogate tho establishe I local organization of
the county democracy throughout tho state and
there are uot wanting muttered throats and inti-
mations of an attempt rcvi-e the democratic
electoral ticket. To fit tho Procrustean stand-
ard of this self-constituted oligarchy both the
iioad and the foot of democratic organization in
Texas must bo lopped off by the administration
xecutioner, aud lie that protests is denounced us
a traitor and denied the privil re of even living
in a land thus cursed with drunken demagogy C
and misrule.
For one I protest, in tho name of the great
>arty iu whose ranks Texas h for twenty years
K»rne tho undimmed standard of tho foremost
phalanx of that splonded host. 1 protest in tho
name of tho illustrious leaders who on every
stump from Maine to California are championing
he cause of pure democracy against tho attacks
of its foes and the delusive treacheries of its
apostate brethren. I protest in tho name of the
democratic ticket of tho Union, headed as it, is
by the grandest figure in American politics a
man who amid the cowardice, cringing and
tergiversation of the hour, maintains tho calm
serenity of heroic devotion to his moral and in-
tellectual convictions of right and duty, and
towers above tho soothing waves of popular
clamor like the last mountain iu a deluge of
demagogy and delusion. As a private citizen, as
a Texan, as a democrat, as an elector commis-
ioned to defend the faith whoso integrity has
been assailed and whoso safety i- endangered by
his reckloss and revolutionary taction, I protest
and declare that I will not ai I cannot go furtiiof
with those who are leading this radical revolt
against all that democracy lipids sacred and val-
uable. To do so would be "-to put our hands over
our mouths and our mouths in tho dust," and, so
help me God, I for one will never do it.
And now my friends, amid all this agitation
and strife, in a year wtien all over this great
union of states tho political battles of a free
people are being waged for the ostensible put-
pose of securing peace, happiness, prosperity and
power to ourselves and our country, are there no
immutable standards of truth, right and justice
to which we can appeal for guidance and safety?
Are there no eternal verities in political science,
upon which to found a basis for judgment and a
criterion of conduct in disposing of the impor-
tant questions requiring solution at our bauds?
There ought to bo and there are. It is tho doc-
trine of democracy and the peculiar virtue of its
tenets that it holds to certain truths for the in-
destructible value that is iu them. It matters
not what may havo been tho inconsistencies
vagaries ami vicious compromises of tho
past, it is tho mission of tho democratic party of
this union, if it has one. to discover the correct
canons of practical government, and to cling to
thom for the eternal virtue and vitality of their
uses to mankind. These, fundamental principles
derive no additional weight J'rom tho indorsement
of former political leaders; neither is tlieir force
impaired by tho desertion, delusion and denial of
men who may have enjoyed the confidence and
rospect of tho party now or in other years. Tho
ideas, utterances and conduct of public men, be
thoy tho nion of 1192 or of 1^92, are valuable and
trustworthy only as thoy conform to those nn-
.hanging laws and verities of political and
economic science which have beon the samo since
organized society made rational liberty possible
among men. and which will continue to operate
with undiminished force and unvarying applica-
tion so long as human governments shall exist.
These cardinal truths in social and political
life are susceptible of discovery and understand-
ing by every intelligent reading and reasoning
man, and when they are once comprehended and
their binding force is realized tho men or combi-
nation of men who willingly and consciously
abandon or violate them, have forfeited their
claim to tho esteem and trust of their fellow citi-
zens and are not worthy to participate, much less
to speak authoritatively iu the public councils of
their country.
It is- not enough to say to mo or to you that
Senator So-and-So, Gov. This-and-That, Congress-
man Afraid-of-His-Constituonts. has declared
thus and so upon a given political question.
Neither will it suffice in this roading. reasoning
age to quote as conclusive of a great economic
truth that some "grand old war horse of de-
mocracy," some "gallant standard bearer of the
party" or "the illustrious son of an illustrious
sire has proclaimed such and such a thing to be
the "time honored" doctrine of tho true faith.
Too often and too long havo our people witnessed
the timid, timorous, time sorvingcomplaisance
of their would-bo loaders upon tho vital issues of
the day. How many times have thoy seen the
cowardly concessions of principle to expediency
and demagogy? How often have conventions and
candidates trimmed and twisted their policies
and practices to suit the prevailing heresy of tho
hour and sacrificed at once consistency and con-
viction to catch the wind of some now and nox-
ious delusion? For the sake of tho barren re-
demption of renegade deserters from democratic
ranks, the solid and eternal virtues of democratic
faith liavo been time and again repudiated and
disgraced. The stalwart ship of party honor and
historic devotion to right and duty has repeatedly
beon forsaken to chase the rotten and worthless
flotsam and jetsam of the political ocean, until
at times it has ridden tho waves without rudder
or pilot. It is time such miserable, vacillating,
veering and vagrant conduct should cease, and
when better than under the leadership of a man
who. in his personal and public career, has fur-
nished so striking an example of what his party
and many of its leaders in recent years have not
been?
Now let us see if we can arrive at an under-
standing of what the truth is on some of the
questions involved in the pending federal can-
vass. The two controlling issues are finance and
taxation—the money question and the tariff
question. For the tirst time in the history of this
country those two subjects are being brought
together and discussed in the light of their bear-
ings on each other. Heretofore they have been
treated as separate and distinct topics of national
concern, aud consequently tho legislation and
policy of the government in referenco to them
nave beon incongruous, vague and productive of
great confusion and error in the management of
our business affairs. They aro both inseparably
interwoven with each other and with tho poli-
tical events of American history, and no at-
tempted comparison of iho statistics of either
can bo satisfactory without taking tho others
into account. The history of the United States,
in the matter of its policies and legislation on
currency and tho tariff', suggests very strongly
tho propriety of tlie formation and reformation
of political parties around theso great issues as
they vary with our practical necessities, rather
than an attempt to settle them within the lines
and organizations of the old parties.
Tho "silver question," as it is now called, is
very easily com pre)tended, provided only we un-
derstand a few fundamental principles and defi-
nitions in political economy. Money is not capi-
tal, nor is it wealth, if considered as money. It
is merely a medium of exchange, whereby the
operations of trade and business are enabled to
be transacted conveniently and speedily and with
the minimum of loss in the exchange of com-
modities. Instead of tlie - primitive system of
barter of the articles bought and sold, some fixed
and reliable standard of values is adopted and
the various articles of commerce are measured
by it. And tlii# is called money. From the ear-
t times, by the common couseut of civilized
I n itioni'. gold aud silver have boon recognized as
I the money of the world, Theso ruetaU were no
I adoptffl NOIUN tllOl potMII tho (ilialitlM of be-
j dig comparatively eon-taut iu quantity, easily
divisible, intrinsically valuable us being useful
I and costing labor ami skill to produce
| them, durable, portable aud containing
j great value in small bulk, of llxed pur*
j ity aud little liable to fluctuation. They aro
uJ«o malleable and easily coined aud stamped.
The act of coinage a ids no value to the motal
beyond attesting its weight aud fineness and
pledging tho faitti of the coining government to
rncognizo and protect the same, These metals,
in addition to thoir value ana measuro or me-
dium of exchange, are valuable as commodities,
being used in the arts and for various purposes
besides as money, and thoir value fluctuates ac-
cording to the supply and demand like other ar-
ticles of comtnoree. When used in this way they
aro known as bullion, and if no charge is made
by tlm government for coinage, the bullion value
ami the coin value of tho metal* should always
be exactly oqnivulont, barring alloy. If there is
a mintage rhargo ox acted the coined metal is en-
hanced in value by just tho per cent charged for
coining it.
At in» tiino in the world's history have gold and
silver beeu equal iu valueln proportion to their
weight, either as money or bullion. Gobi being
the scarcer, more ponderable in proportion to
bulk, more malleable and more esteemed in tho
arts, has always boon tho more valuable motal of
tho two. The adoption of either metal exclu-
sively as a money standard by many or powerful
nation-of tho earth also adds to its value both
in bullion aud as coin, and this becomes an addi-
tional source of fluctuation in tlie proportionate
Value of tho two substance*.
All these circumstances contribute to regulate
and to vary the relative value of gold and silver,
ami enter into tho question of their use as money.
Whenever a nation hasudopted either gold or
silver as the prevailing standard of exchange
value- tlhat is, money) to tho exclusion of
the other, it is said to bo a mono-
metallic. country. When it adopts > both
at the same time it is called bimetallic. Now it
is perfectly plain that ii a country desires to use
ami recognize the bimetallic standard—both gold
ami silver it must establish the proportionate
value of the two metals by weight, and this is
called fixing the ratio. A great commercial na-
tion. having intercourse with tho other countries
of the globe, iu whose markets it wishes to buy
and sell and to whoin.it extends the attractions
of its own markets, must necessarily establish
thia ratio iu accordance with the uniform aud
universal value of tho two metals prevailing
throughout the business world. If it tails or re-
fuses to do so or at tempts to set, up a bimetallic
standard with a relative proportion between gold
and silver at variance with that of its commercial
neighbors, it must either cease to have business
intercourse with tliein or submit to tho inevitable
disorder, confusion and losi coiiseuueiit upon its
anomalous financial system.
I'he democrat who favors the free and un-
limited coinage of silver at tho ratio of Jdtol
must logically go further than tho protective
tariff system of McKinlcy. Harrison and Reid and
absolutely closo our commercial relations with
European countries in tho interest, not of Ameri-
can manufactures and domestic labor, but for tho
benefit of the third party and republican silver
barons of Novada and Colorado. VN hy is this? Why
are we not able to establish our own money stan-
ardsT They tell us wo are tho greatest silver pro-
ducing country on earth and ask why wo should
consent to see the white motal debased by the
•gold bugs" of Europe? I will show you why.
There has for more than a century past beon
a tendency toward a universal currency among
the commercial nations of tho globe a common
medium of exchange between the brotherhood of
civilizotl Btates—just as there has beeu
growing sentiment in favor of uni-
versal freedom of trade and unrestricted
business intercourse. Thoy are both tho
dream and the destiny of modern civilization,
and it will, in the fullness of time, bo the proud
mission of true democracy to accomplish botu.
The same reasons that induced mankind to adopt
gold and silver as tho money of the world point
to their inevitable recognition as tho universal
currency of humanity. They are God Almighty's
money and thoy will ultimately become tho coin
of all his intelligent creatures. The great ob-
stacle to tho realization of this unity of exchange
values among the great governments of modem
times has boon tho jealous and cautious fear that
some ono of thom for selfish or deluded reasons
of its own might adopt a standard of money
values at variance with tho true and real stand-
ard fixed by uature and by the conditions of
trade, thereby entailing confusion and loss upon
all. There is no question but that this dread
upon tho part of tho European countries toward
tho United States largely led them to succes-
sively adopt the single gold standard, and the
free silver agitators in this country aro doing
more by their senseless clamor to prevent the
spread of bimetallism than all othor causes com-
bined.
Thoro is a law of finance as old as civilization
itself and which has beon verified in every age
since time began and it is this: Where thoro are
two kinds of money or mediums of exchange in
existence at tho same time and in tho same mar-
kets, one inferior in value to tho othor, the in-
ferior will always drive out the superior. It is
tho grossest error possible in finance and one ex-
posed a thousand times in our own country to
attempt to preserve a double circulating medium
with ono form of currency inferior to the othor
Tho poorer medium will inevitably drivo out
tho better one. Nothing could be more natural
and reasonablo. If a man can pay his debts or
buy the necessaries of life with two kinds of
money, one less valuable than the othor. ho will
unquestionably uso tho cheaper currency and
eventually the better medium is driven out of
circulation—is hoarded by speculators and en-
hanced in value.
This simple law was first expounded among
English speaking people by Sir Thomas Gresham
'.t'»0 years ago and has borne his name ever since.
Its operation was demonstrated all through our
colonial history. It bore sad fruits during the
days of "wild-cat" stato banks before tho war,
it made tho poor confederate soldier curse tho
government ho fought for, it runs through the
whole current of our coinage laws from the be-
ginning and it contains tno solution of tho silver
question to-day. Owing to the combination of
tho causes just mentioned the ratio of value be
tweon gold aud silver has slightly fluctuated
during tho past 200 years. 1 he highest valuothat
silver has reached in that period was 14.14 to I of
gold by weight. The present ratio, based upon
the average fiscal regulations of the great com-
mercial governments, as well as upon the natural
proportion in quantity and cost of production of
the two metals, is to 1 and this ratio has
practically continued in force for 100 years in
spite of the discovery and development of new
mines.
England demonetized silver, that is, adopted
tho single gold standard in 1816, Germany in
1*71-73, Franco in 1875, Russia iu 1876. Austria-
Hungary legally has tho silver standard, but no
gold has boon coined there for individuals
sinco 1879. So that for thirteen years no silver
com of full debt-paying value has been struck by
European mints and practically thoy all havo tho
mono-metallic gold standard. The United States
has always boon, until 1873, theoretically a bi-
metallic country, with both gold and silver
legally adopted as standards of exchange values,
but in reality and practically our coinage legisla-
tion has resulted in establishing at all times tho
single standard of either gold or silvor. Strange
as it may seem we havo come nearer having tho
double standard since tho so-callod demonetiza-
tion of silvor in 1S73 than ever before in our his-
tory as a government. The first coinage act was
adopted by congress in 1792 and it established
the ratio of 1") to 1 between gold aud silver. This
was not tho true ratio because silver was
really only worth about 15; j to 1 of gold, and in
obedience to Gresham's law, just explained, tho
more valuable metal was shipped abroad to pur-
chase commodities, and silver became practically
tho prevailing coin and the virtual standard. To
remedy this in 18:14 the ratio was attempted to bo
adjusted, not by changing tho amount of silver
in tho dollar unit, but by decreasing the amount
of gold in a dollar, thus providing a proportion of
10 to 1, which is still tho legal and theoretical
ratio. This again w as a blunder, for silver was
really worth more than 16 to 1. It was worth 1513
to 1, and it being intrinsically more valuable than
gold at tho former ratio, the samo inexorable
financial law drove it out of circulation and es-
tablished gold as tho practical standard of
money.
In lH73the silvor dollar was obsolete and it
dropped entirely out of tho coinage iu the revis-
ion of the statutes. This was t ho famous demon-
etization of silver over which some of our con-
gressmen aud politicians are going wild at this
time. It was no doubt an unwarranted and dis-
astrous interference with our currency system
but that it took from circulation half the silver
coinage of tho world, as is claimed by some, is
flatly and ridiculously false and cannot be demon-
strated. In 1878 the'"Bland silver act" provided
for the purchase and free coinage of silver bullion
into dollars, of not less than $2,01)0,(XX) nor more
titan $4,tXK),000 worth of bullion per month. This
was to be coined free, uot for tho benefit of indi-
viduals as was the law prior to 187.>, but on ac
couut of the government, the mintage cost to
be credited to tho "silver profit" ^ fund
in the trensury of the United States,
Under that law, until its repeal by the "Sher-
man bullion act" of 1S90, the government bought
291.272,018 ounces of silver at a cost of $M8,199,261,
and coined from such bullion 377,246,880 silver
dollars, with a net, profit to the government (the
whole people) of $67,000,000. It is this last item
that constitutes the real secret of tho present agi-
tation among the mine owners of tlie Rocky
mountains, and the great laboring, agricultural
masses of tho south and west are expected to fall
down and worship the "silvor calf" to the tune of
$07,1)00,000 or moro every few years out of the
treasury of the United States into the pockets of
millionaire seuators froru Novada, California and
Colorado.
It is not necessary to discuss the so-called
"Sherman act" of 1890. Its own author has vir-
tually repudiated it and the democratic party
demands its repeal.
Now, with these facts boforo us what will be
tho inevitable result of throwing our mints open
to the world for the free and unlimited coinage of
silver at the false ratio of 16 to 1?
At the present price of silvor in the commercial
world, to coin it in unlimited quantities and free
to individual owners at that proportion between
it and gold, would be to pay $1 29 por ounce for
silver when it is worthless than 90 cents per
ounce the world over. The European countries
uro already on a gold basis and auxiouc to get
rid of their silver. What butter opportunity
would they n-k than to dispose of It ut )l 2V per
ounce, a clear profit of nearly 40 cents ou the
dollar? There in about 10.9 W,000,000 of silver coin
iu the world, of which Kurop'j and India have
$i,000,000,vXM, Kvory oiinco of this foreign illver
would go into the un ltlng pots of the American
mint um! Mvcll the volume of 05 cent dollurs iu
circulation in the United fyutes, while lust as
surely every otiucs and dollar of gold would leave
tho country to nay for this imiMined silver and to
purchase foreign commodities, until we would
have an absolute silver standard aud one depre-
ciated at that below any over known in the his-
tory of the world. Instead of ranking with the
great commercial nations of the old world wo
would sink lower than tho silver-glutted coun-
tries ot India and Mexico, for their depreciated
coin aud bullion would find a market here so
long as our gold In* t/ul. This does not take into
account all tho old. broken and worthless silver
used in the arts, which would also comotoour
mints.
The United States now pays a gold dollar for a
67 or tl5 cent silver dollar because it ha* the gold
to pay with and its financial credit compels it to
do so. Hut once lot the mints of this country
open free to the silver markets of the world at
$1 29 an ounce and it will not take throe years to
1 educe us to the debased and ruinous basis of a
sing!" silver standard :I0 or 40 cents below the
est ablished and natural measure of exchange
values among those great nations of Europo with
whom it is the hope and chosen mission of the
democratic party to inaugurate an era of free and
unrestricted commerce. This attempt of the
government to regulate the value of gob! and
silver contrary to the natural commercial rotes
of tho two metals has been fut lo in the past and
will prove disastrous in the future. Every such
effort only results iu enhancing the price of gold
aud driving m from bi-metullism. which is our
true policy, into a depreciated and fluctuating
niono-metnllifni. We had as well undertake to
gain time in tho United States by passing a law
th t all the clocks should lose au hour a day.
Hut it is said that, it will make money cheap
ami plentiful—it will Increase tho por capita cir-
culation! I never hear a mail talk about per
capita that I uon't think of tho »oniicio»K -quail of
the fool in the comic opera who runs around yell-
ing. "Mascot! Mascot ! What's a Mascot?'
"Cheap money 'forsooth ! l)oes not, every intel-
ligent man know that of all the rauk. rotten and
aconrted deinatoni that ever wrecked a people tho
worst has lioon this cry of "cheap money?" Free
and unlimited coinage of silver will not increase
tho per capita circulation of legul tender debt-
paying money 111 this country, it the circulation
of tno whole world was increased—and it will be
under a bi-metallic system -thepeople would havo
more money. Hut if the United Stat"- should
pay $1 29 per ounce for silver worth but 85 to 90
cents in the inurkots of tho world, though our
circulation would bo slightly increased in the
based silver coinage, it would be decreased
»the extent of tho gold coin which would bo
hoarded and go abroad in consequence. The
balance of trade iu our favor iu merchandise 011
March M, 1892, was $20.V.t<o,803, and properly that
amount of money should have come back to us iu
exchange for our products. But we have actually
•ceived on'y $16,2M,76o iu money. Thodiffereuce
of $193,120,028 consisted of American securities
hich foreign debtors preferred to pay us in
ather tliau send us their gold which they aro
mrding and holding in the hopo of a premium
when the United Stutes adopts free and unlim-
ited coinage of silver. In tho past, two and a
half years we exported in excess of imports $320,-
000.000 of merchandise, and we havo also exported
'75,000,000 excess of gold over imports. This is
an amount equal to $0 per capita of our popula-
tion. Would free and unlimited coinage of tho
entire silvor product of the world at $1 29 per
ounce compensate this loss in go'd?
The Tact is. fellow-citizons, this whole silver
question is a delusion and a heresy, and 110sound,
safe democrat is fooled by it. It is the legiti-
mate successor among popular vagaries of tho
greenback crazo of twelve years ago. You all re-
member that era of insane delusion about fiat
money and a cheap, plentiful circulating medium.
" he w;hoie country was convulsed with it. Tho
.joliticians and tho average congressman—than
whom tho world knows no more pliant and
cowardly creatures of public sentiment—wore
frightened to death and throw out all sorts of
anchors to |tlie windward." The national con-
ventions of the two groat political parties were
besieged and trombled as to their action on tho
subject. It began in 1874, when Gon. Grant ve-
toed tho bill for additional greenback circula-
tion. It ran like wild-fire through tho west and
south, and was indorsed by various state conven-
tions. The republican national convention of
1870 was attempted to bo influenced to indorse it
by such men as Senator Oliver P. Morton,
Gen. Logan and Senators Wright and Allison, but
the party stood firm. Then the groenbackers
appealed to the national democratic convention
at St. Louis, and Senator Dan W. Voorhees and
many other democrats of prominence urged a
surrender to the vagaries of the hour.
But those were tho days of Samuel J. Tildon
and Thomas A. Hendricks, aud tho democratic
party followed thoii- pure and patriotic counsels.
The greenbackers nominated Peter Cooper in
1876 and cast about 80,000 votes for him. In 1878
hey elected sixteen congressmen and kept up tho
fight. In 1880 and 1884. the national democratic
conventions at Cincinnati and Chicago refused to
countenance the heresy, and the groeuback
party ceased to exist until revived by the so-
called third party of to-day and by the deluded
free silvor maniacs who are now trying to cor-
rupt, aud mislead the democratic party of this
state and tho union. At Chicago in June last tho
assembled democracy that nominated Cleveland
emphatically lofused to indorse this free silver
16 to 1 clamor, and its platform is accepted by all
loyal democrats throughout tho United States,
savo and except the Texas contingent under
Hogg. Reagan and Chilton.
Without shadow of doubt or variableness of
conduct tho federal democracy has repudiated
all these spurious and dangerous heresies iu tho
past and will continue to do so in tho future. It.
has nothing to gain and everything to lose by
compromise and concession 011 the financial prob-
lem. Those who havo left it. or may bolt its
decrees on this subject are not of us and the
sooner they depart and tho further they go the
better for tho party and tho country.
The democracy has a great task, a heroic aud
historic dut y to perform, in rescuing this country
from the burdens of a vicious and ruinous system
of federal taxation. This is its true and ap-
pointed mission and tho country recognized it
two years ago by such an indorsement as no
party evor received in tho political history of the
union. It is a question which appeals to the
whole country, but more especially to the farming
and laboring classes of that imperial territory
east of the Alleglieuies and south of tho Ohio.
This momentous struggle began in the cabinet of
Washington between Hamilton and Jefferson a
century ago, and its course stretches, broad as
the Appian way and as impassable as the fabled
nvor of Silence, through all tho subsequent his-
tory of tho republic. We are, 1 believe, nearing
the end of tho struggle. At last tho south and
tho west are realizing their common peril and
tlieir inseparable interest in the great results of
tariff reform. Time was when they wore divided
by necessary social and labor conditions, but now
that slavery has perished they are bound together
by one tie in tho endeavor to emancipate thom-
selves from a commercial and industrial servi-
tude worse than any chattel bondage that over
crushed a people.
It waB thosoutli's high and historic prfvilego
to havo begun this heroic struggle. Whatever
may bo thought of the unlawfulness and selfish-
ness of her conduct in 1832. the fact remains that
South Carolina, selling her products iu a free
market and buying her manufactures in one
loaded by obstructive taxation, sounded tho first
challego of remonstrance and resistance to the in-
iquitous aud undemocratic system. The farmers
of tho west havo inherited the grievance and aro
to-day rallying around the same standard of re-
volt against tho tyranny of a protected eastern
market.
And it is New England wo havo to fight. She
was tho first section of this union to defy itB con-
stitution and threaten its dissolution, and to-day
she comes forward with a measure intended to
rivet her fetters of commercial slavery upon tho
west and south. Tho force bill was not intended
so much to revive the race feelings of reconstruc-
tion times in the south nor to promote negro
domination. It is New England's last desperate
expedient to perpetuate her manufacturing mo-
nopolies by strangling the political power of the
southern and western states in congross. It was
It chart the
head when you
dear the stomach
and bowels. You
cau't think, with
your system all
chokoa up and
stagnant. That's
just the time to
contract
too.
Put yourself In
good condition
with Dr. Pierce's
Pleasant Pol lots.
You won't have to have a struggle with
them, as you do with the ordinary pUL You
won't notico them. Mildly and gently, but
thoroughly and cfTortlvely, thoy cleanse and
regulate whole) system. Hi<*k or Bilious
Headaches, Constipation, Indigestion, Bilious
Attacks, aud nil aerajigementa of tho liver,
stomach, aud bowels aro prevented, relieved,
and cured.
They're tho liest liver pill known, purely
vegetable, perfectly harmless, the smallest,
easiest and beat to take. Thay're the cheap-
eit pills you can buy, too, for they're guar-
anteed to give satisfaction, or your money
is returned. u Value received or no pay"—
it's a plan peculiar to Dr. Pierce's medicines.
framed by Henry Cabot Lodge, a Boston con-
gressman ; it was forced through tiio lower houso
by Speaker Heed of Maine; it was championed in
tho senate by Senutors Hoar of Massachusetts,
and Aldrich of Khode Island, and by
Senator Evarts of Now York, but who wus bom
and roared and lives a part of his time in New
England. Not a single senator, congressman or
prominent journalist of the middle and western
states, unless you can trace his nativity and affil-
iations to New England, has favored this infa-
mous scheme to interfere with tho freedom of
congressional elections. Hut be it suid to his
everlasting dishonor that it is championed by a
republican provident who is a cit izmof a west-
ern state aud tho sou of a southern statesman.
The measure was primarily inspired by the petty
and rancorous hate and resentulent or New Eng-
land toward tho south, but it was intended prac-
tically to retard the growth and strength of untl-
protection sentiments iu cougrctts.
Hut the south and tho we-t united are invinci-
ble. and thoy are bound together in this great
struggle not only by pride uml devotion to de-
mocracy, but by tho strongest link that can bind
a people's hearts and bands and minds—the uonse
ot a common interest aud an unconquerable
determination to bo free. This will be no bottle
of bullets with its rivers of blood and its heritage
of desolated homes. It will be tno struggle of
silent but ludomnltablo resolution, registered by
the ballots of intelligent freemen uml celebrated
in tho annals of liberated labor and restored
prosperity. They confronted ouch other once oa
fields of carnage, but now thoy are united in the
conquest of intelligence, patriotism and do-
mocracy.
At the conclusion of Judge Wooten's speech
Judge E. (i. Bower tpok the rostrum and an-
nounced that on next Monday at Gainesville
the Clark men would have a grand rally, con-
sisting ofa great torchlight procession at
night and good speaking. lie stated that
Judge Dudley G. Wooten, Williatif l'oindex-
ter and ex-Gov. Throckmorton had agreed to
be thero and speak.
Mr. J. W. Callaway of Gainesville stated to
a News reporter that Judge Clark had wired
him that he would bo there if possible.
RATES ON TEXAS SALT.
The Charge Circulated Regarding Grand
Saline Salt.
Dallas, Tex., October 14,—The commission
rate as against tho present railroad rate
on salt, in this section, having been used as
a political lever, a News reporter yostor-
•day inquired of tho traffic department of the
Texas and Pacific, along whose lino the principal
salt works in the stato aro located, as to tho dif-
ference in rates to common Texas points of tho
Itexas, Kansas and Michigan product, it trans-
pires thai, while the rate^ on tho liomo-mado pro-
duct are under 20 cents to tho chief Texas points,
the rate on Kansas salt to the samo points is 26
cent**, while tho rate from Michigan is 31 cents.
It has been claimed by one or two small pro-
ducers that the present rates prevonted their
competing with the Kansas and Michigan pro-
ducers, but it will be seen from tho rates men-
tioned that tho local charges per 100 are largely
yet in favor of the homo producers, and that fail-
ure to compete with the outsiders must be
attributod to some other cause tfyan tho railroad
rate.
The local rate from Grand Saline to Dallas is
12Hc, to Fort Worth. Paris and Sherman
while the rate on Kansas salt is to the same
points, as just stated, 26c, and on Michigan salt
li4c.
A freight official remarked to The News re-
porter, in answer to the charge that discrimina-
tions had been made on account of different pol-
itical affiliations of tho shippers, that every rate
ever made from Colorado or G rand Saline was
open alike to all and that, the Texas and Pacific
traffic management emphatically denied ever
having made a lower rate from' Colorado to
ftQints east of Grand Saline than from Grand Sa-
ine itself, as it seems had been charged.
"Tho commission rates," said he, "were en-
joined aud the old rates had to be re-establishjd,
out we took care of every contract we could
based upon the commission rate but tilled after-
ward."
"1 see Col. S. Q. Richardson of local fame,"
said the reporter, "is charging that he begged for
the continuance of tho commission rate on six
carloads sold before tho present rate took effect,
but not shipped, arid that he was denied reliof."
" As a matter of fact," said tho traffic manager,
"Mr. Richardson's agent was granted or prom-
ised relief in this case, and if it has not been
granted the contract is still to bo tilled. Of course
some confusion resulted from tho injunction of
the commission rate and the establishment of the
rates, and some fow cases of injury or loss may
have resulted, but whenever our attention was
called to the matter and we could grant relief or
carry out the shipment under tho commission
rate, when tho contractor sale was based 011 that
rate, we have striven todo so."
Mr. F. R. Blount, tho Dallas representative of
large salt works at both Grand Saline and Colo-
rado, said, in answer to a question from the re-
porter whether they wero satisfied with the pres-
ent- rate or adjustment, replied that they wero
so far as tho rates had beeu made.
"While we favor a state railway commission."
said Mr. Blount in order to keep up an equitable
proportion between the local and interstate rates
and secure stability in rates, we are by no means
railroad wreckors and recognize the right of tho
roads to make a proper profit upon transporta-
tion anil freight. Wo are not shut out by any
moans and are producing 2500 cars annually of
Texas salt, We want the ratos established to
cover a sufficiently largo territory to enable us to
work off this large product. We can work all
right under the present rates a»d adjustment by
the roads, provided only they will extend the
territory covered by these rates and this adjust-
ment to that covered by the commission. Tho
rates are all right if the territory is exteuded.
They have not, yet beon established for certain
desirable points, and we require a large terri-
tory to work in. We have found the roads so far
disposed to assist the local producers in every
way in their power."
New Katy Yard.
Denison, Tex., Oct. 13.—A number of sheds ancLj
stables tor hay, tools and stock are in course of
erection one and one-half miles west of Denison
011 the site of the new railway yards. Forty teams
and scrapers have arrived and everything will be
ready to bogin work Monday morning. The grade
of tho main line is to bo raised from one to ten
feet for a distance of over a mile, and the work
laid out will be equal to the grading of about
thirty miles of ordinary Texas railway construc-
tion.
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The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 51, No. 205, Ed. 1 Saturday, October 15, 1892, newspaper, October 15, 1892; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth467391/m1/6/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.