F""r,y!ci,3
The
Commoner,
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER.
Vol. 4i tfo30. I ' '.!
r - 1 I , , , 1 '
Mr. Bryan's
Below. will be found the speeches made by Mr.
Bryan In support of the' minority report presented
by him in the Illinois contest. Mr.' G. D. Caspar,
the Nebraska member of the credential committee,
gave Mr. Bryan 'his proxy in this contest and
Senator J. S. C. B.lackburh of! Kentucky, C. L.
Wood of South Dakota, T. A. Ball of Missouri, E.
E. McCausland of Wisconsin, D. C. Heyood of
South Carolina," J. J. Fitzgerald of Rhode Island
and Win. Buckholz of Oklahoma joined in the
minority report which recommended - seating the
contestees in the. Sixth, Tenth, Eleventh and Eigh
teenth districts and recommended the. seating of
the contestants in the Second, Third, Ninth,
Twelfth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Twenty-flrst,
Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth districts. The mi
nority also recommended the seating of Hon.
Edward F. Dunne of Chicago and Hon. Silas Cook
of East St, Louis as delegates at large in the place
of Hon. John P. Hopkins of Chicago and Hon.
Bsnjamin Cable of Rock Island.
In the argument reference was made to the
petition signed by eight hundred , and seventy
two of the thirteen hundred and twenty-one of
the delegates to the Illinois state convention. The
petition reads as follows: :
"Whereas, The state democratic conven-
tion of Illinois', held at Springfield, Juno 14,
1904, disregarded -democratic precedent and ig-
, nored tUe rlghtsftf the democrats of various
congressional 'districts through their duly
chosen representatives, and
.Whereas, Acquiescence in such a viola
tion of democratic principlea would injure
the party in the state and therefore interfere
with Its legitimate progress, and
Whereas, The. presiding" ofllcer of said
convention by arbitrary and unfair rulings and
by refusal of roll calls on all questions, ex
cepting on instructions for president, pre
vented the delegates from giving expression
to their wishes and the wlfches of their con
stituents, Therefore, I, the undersigned, having been
a duly elected delegate to said convention,
join in petitioning the democratic national
convention and the democratlo national com
mittee to seat and recognize as delegates to
the democratic national convention only such
persons as received a majority of the votes
of the legally elected delegates as cast in cau
cus of their respective congressional districts,
at said state convention, as shall be shown by
evidence presented In proper form.
I also respectfully petition that the fol
lowing delegates, at large be given seats In
said democratic national convention: Hon.
Edward F. Dunne of Chicago, Hon. A, M.
Lawrence of Chicago, Hon, Samuel Alschuler
of Aurora, Hon. Silas Cook of East St. Louis.
Signed, Delegate.
From County, Illinois.
Postoffice address
In support of the minority report Mr, Bryan
said:
Mr. Chairman: I move to substitute this mi
nority report for. the majority report in the Illi
nois contest, and I ask a separate vote on tho
delegates at large and the district delegates. In
order that both sides may be heard, I ask. that
fifteen minutes on a side be given for the dis
cussion of the merits of the contest.
The Temporary Chairman: Gentlemen of the
convention, you, have heard the motion made by
the gentleman irom Nebraska. The chair Is ad
vised that later on the gentleman will renew his
motion In a different form. The chair now recog
nizes the gentleman from Nebrasua to speak in
favor of the motion he has made.
Mr. Bryan: , I want to open and close.
The Temporary Chairman: The . chair will
give each side equal time. The gentleman from
Lincoln, Nebraska, August 13, 1904.
Whole Number 186
Speeches
1
in Convention on the Illi
nois Contest
Nebraska supporting-the affirmative has the right
to open and close the debate. The chair will mark
the time which the gentleman takes on his fin
speech, and. will ask him afterward to state how
much time he wants for his second speech, and
will glvo tho sum total of tho time occupied by
his two speeches to ho other side In tho middle.
Tho chair now recognizes the gentleman from
Nebraska (Mr. Bryan).
Mr. William Jeijnlngs Bryan of Nebraska: Mr.
Chairman and Gentlemon of the Convention: I
came to this convention in the hope that we would
be able to agree on a platform and on candidates,
and have nothing to stir up feeling or arouse
contention. (Applause.) I still hope that wo
shall be able to agree upon a platform that will
represont the sentiments of all of us, so that wo
can present It to tho country as the platform of a
united party. (Applause,) I will go further than
that. I still hope that we shall bo able to present
to the country a ticket behind which We can stand -as
a united party. (Applause.) ) And, I regret
that J am compelled to cpme In at this time and
present a subject upon which your votes will bo
asked, . But, if therp is qno democratic principle
more fundamental than another it la that tho
--majoTityh'aa a, right to rule. (Applause.) If you
destroy, the binding force of. that principle, ,thoro
Is nothing that can hold a party together. (Ap
plause.) It is because I want the democratic
party to stand on the Jefforsionian principle of ma
jority rule that I present the minority report In
this case. (Applause.)
In the state of Illinois the majority was not
allowed to rule. (Applause.) That convention
was dominated by a plique of men who deliber
ately, purposely, boldly trampled upon the rights
of tho democrats of Illinois. (Applause.) Tho
evidonce shows that no band of train robbers ever
planned a raid upon a train more deliberately or
with less conscience than, they did. (Applause.)
And tho men who planned it and who carried it
out, have the audacity,, the impudence, and tho
insolence to say that, because they certified that
what they did was regular, you can not go be
hind their certificate. (Applause.) If that Is
good law in a democratic convention, it ought
to be good doctrine in a court; and if it is good
doctrine in court, then tho only thing train rob
bers" will have to do in .the future Is to make a
report of their transactions, and certify over their
own signatures that it was a voluntary collection
taken up for religious purposes, and deny the right
of the robbed to go behind the returns. (Ap
plause.) They tell you that the law of tho party in Illi
" nois permits the state committee to present tho
chairman, and they deny the right of tho con
vention to override the wish of the committee.
Such a rule would be undemocratic if in force for
such a doctrine would permit a- past committee to
fasten itself upon a new convention and domi
nate a new set of delegates. tApplause.)
But, my friends, that is not the law, for two
years ago John P. Hopkins, the same chairman
of -the same committee, presented tho recommen
dation of the committee and asked a vote upon it
and submitted tho committee's recommendation to
thov convention. Two years ago he recognized tho
right of the democrats in the state convention to
elect their temporary chairman. This time ho
did not dare to do it, for if he had done it ho
would have been repudiated by the convention
there assembled. (Applause.) The minority pre
sented a minority report, or wanted to, but tho
chairman of the committee, Mr. Hopkins, brought
Mr. Qulnn up to the cpnvention platform and
handing him the gavel said that he was the chair
man of tho convention, and Mr. Quinn, seizing tho
gavel, began his rule of unfairness, tyranny, and
despotism. (Applause.)
Then they had a sub-committee of the stato
committee put on the temporary roll tho dele
gates whom they wanted, but when the credentials
cominlttoo brought In a minority report they re
fused to consider it and refused to allow a vote
upon it. And yet, in spite of tho fact that that
convention was not allowed to act upon tho
credentials of Its own members, was not allowed
to decide upon its own delegates- m spito of all
that, the committee did not unseat enough, for
more than half of the men actually seated by tho
Hopkins commltteo have signed petitions asking
tlia ttho contestees be sent home and that demo
crats who represent the people of thai state bo
substituted for them in this convention. (Ap
plause.) In the hearing before the commltteo It was
asked, "Why did they not present a minority re
port from tho committee appointed to select dele
gates at large?" Thero was a contest in that .
commltteo; there was opposition to Hopkins and
Cable; but why should they expect a minority re
port to bo voted upon? Why should they expect
it, when the chairman had already hold that a
minority report was only advlrsory ana could be
put into the waste basket, and need not be acted
upon? They are estopped to ask why a minority
report was not, filed.. .
They ran3gttptTlTroytrcclared no pur
pose to substitute delegates for the delegates se
lected by the various districts, Wo admit In tho
report that if they had legally substituted other,
men for the men selected by the districts, they
might have done so, but it must bo the act of tho
convention. The convention never attempted It;
tho convention Was not asked to do it; and tho
evidence shows that the resolution which Is a part
of the record and upon which they rely was never
inlroduced and was never passed, but that it ia
a fraud pure and simple, presented hero In defense
of their claim. (Applause.)
Now, my friends, what is the duty of this dem
ocratic convention? These democrats of Illinois
are not llko the democrats of the south. Down
south the democrats have all the local offices, and
they can reward their workers for their loyalty
to tho party. Up in Illinois there is a strong re
publican majority and the democrats of Illinois,
in many parts of the state, at least, are struggling
against overwhelming odds; they are actuated by
love of principle, not by hope of ofneo.
But, what will you tell those men? Will you
endorse the action of that convention? Will you
approve the methods employed? If they had a ma
jority of the convention, why did they not permit
roll calls? Would they deny the opposition that
right if they had had tho votes to control by fair
means? Men do not do wrong, as a rule, unless
they think it is necessary to do so to carry out
some object, and the only ground upon which you
can decide that these men did wrong unnecessarily
Is to decide that they were so perverted in con
science that they did wrong from choice rather
than from necessity. (Applause.) Their whole
conduct shows that their purpose was conceived
in sin, brought forth in iniquity and carried out
to the destruction of democratic hopes in that
state.
Give the democrats of Illinois something to
hope for. Do not tell them that when they go to
a democratic convention, they must go armed as
to war, prepared to fight their way up to the
chairman of tho convention. Let the republican
party stand as tho representativo of physical force,
if it will; our party stands for government by the
consent of the governed. (Applause.)
What could they do? They could either re
sort to force and risk the killing that would result,
or, it is said, they could bolt. Yes, three-fourths
of he convention could have walked'out and 'left