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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1912)
JUKB 21, 191J The Commoner. - The Convention of 1896 BY FRANCIS E. LEUPP in the Outlook Tho democratic national convention of 1912 moots at Baltimore on the 25th of Juno. Tho fact that up to tho present writing no one of tho several candidates whose names will be pre sented for the first place on tho ticket has enough delegates pledged to his support to as sure his nomination lends a special reminiscent interest to tho proceedings of the democratic national convention of 1896, which likewiso opened as "everybody's race." Grover Cleveland was president, serving out his second term. Nominated and elected in 1892 by a genuine popular uprising, and in spite of the opposition of the democratic machine in his own state, he had entered office with freer hands than any predecessor in many years. For the same reason he was also an object of more vindictive hatred among the sordid and self seeking element in his party. These gentry could not endure tho thought that he felt In dependent of them, and in their resentment they were willing to wreck the party for the sake of damaging its titular head. Ho had called to tho chief seat in his cabinet a man who had been a republican until recently, and filled most of the other chairs with non-bourbon democrats, two of his selections being, besides, New Yorkers of the "silk-stocking" variety. As soon as he had got his first string of execu tive appointments off his hands, Mr. Cleveland found himself faced with a country-wide cur rency panic. The ingenuity and energies of tho administration were taxed to the utmost to weather this storm at all, and before it was over the president convened congress in extra session to consider legislation for the repeal of tho Sherman silver purchase law, which, in his judg ment, had proved the most serious menace to the public credit. The repeal was put through only after a long, hard fight, the loaders of the hostile force and most of its rank and file being democrats, while not a few of the republicans were unpatriotic enough to treat the whole mat ter as a mere, democratic family quarrel, in which they were not morally bound to give the president more than a grudging support. A struggle of that sort can not fail to stir up a lot of bad blood; and before Christmas of 1893 the party supposed to be behind Mr. Cleveland had broken in two, only the .smaller fragment clinging to his fortunes, while the members of the other faction were hardly on speaking terms with him and had cut the White House off their visiting lists. . A tariff controversy came in at this juncture to help widen tho breach. A fairly good reform bill having passed the house of representatives, the democratic leaders in the senate proceeded to rip it to pieces and make it over into. some thing which was neither flesh nor fish, and was foul only in that spelling of the word. By his fight for decency in tariff-making, concluding with his refusal to sign the act as it finally emerged from the hurly-burly, President Cleve land alienated the strongest of the senators in his remnant of a following. Meanwhile the people's party, which had been organized just before the close of President Harrison's term, had grown and waxed truculent, and a large contingent of southern and western democrats had struck hands with it as allies, claiming its support in exchange for votes in congress for every sort of fad and wildcat scheme on tho legislative calendar. To make matters worse, a treasury depleted of its gold reserves had to be strengthened by extraordinary means; and President Cleveland, having exhausted every re source of appeal for an act of congress which would enable him to recoup at less expense, was at last compelled, on his own initiative and re sponsibility, to purchase gold with a special issue of interest-bearing bonds, depending for his authority upon an almost forgotten statute, on whose language his advisers were willing to put a liberal construction. This was the story of the derelict bearing the name of the democratic party, and consist ing of only a few broken timbers held together by a historical tradition, which was drifting helpless on the sea of American politics at the beginning of 18 9 6, having neither a captain to command nor a rudder to guide it, and at the mercy of all the winds and waves of popu lar caprice. Every one wlio was keeping track of current events knew that the national con vention called to meet in July was going to bo the scene of a memorable "battle. The south, once tho stronghold of blue-blooded conserva tism, had passed under control of a Jacobin ele ment. In the west thoro was a condition of social and economic unrest duo largely to tho premature settlement of vast strotches of raw prairie country by migrant farmers from tho east, unequipped for coping with refractory con ditions of soil and climate, and infected with tho then prevalent mania for falling back upon tho government for relief from tho consequences of private mistakes. Mr. Cleveland cherished no ambition for a third term, and tho split in tho party was al ready so complete that it was obvious that no democrat of his school could command a ma jority vote in convention, to say nothing of tho two-thirds required by ancient usage to secure a nomination. But the fact that sixteen names of one sort or another figured in the first ballot taken for a presidential candidate shows that, even after this exclusion, there still remained a largo amount of "recoptivo" material within easy call. The first test of strength between tho fac tions occurred on July 8, tho second day of tho convention. Tho question was on tho admission of sundry delegates whoso right to seats was contested. Among these was the delegation from Nebraska headed by William Jennings Bryan; and one is tempted to wonder how tho course of history might have been changed if that decision had gone against these men. The roll-call was dispensed with in the Nebraska case, and reserved for a contest in Michigan which involved clearer technical considerations. The footing of the totals revealed a geographical alignment with tho upper Atlantic slope, and a few states most closely allied with it in com mercial Interest, on one side, and tho west and south on the other. The former group, repre senting the moderate wing of the party, fell 190 votes below the radical group, settling in advance tho commitment of tho party to tho free coinage of silver, which was the chief hobby all the radicals could unite upon. The next morning tho news spread that the platform was ready, and that it contained an unequivocal pledge to this heresy. Within five minutes of the opening of the session I wrote tho following dispatch; "Now York Evening Post: Put on your bul letin board that William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, is looming up as a candidate for president." The telegraph messenger in front of my desk reached for the sheet of copy, when two detain ing hands were laid upon it. They were those of my neighbors on either side, who asked per mission to see what I was sending. One was Henry George, tho father of the single tax move ment in the United States; tho other was John Russell Young, the veteran journalist. Both were there to write their Impressions of the convention for New York papers. When they had finished reading my dispatch, the messenger made off with it. A half-hour later, as I have sinced learned, my announcement was blazoned forth in front of tho "Evening Post" office. Up to that time, as far as I know, no suggestion of Bryan's candidacy had been published. My neighbors made no comment at the mo ment, but exchanged significant glances which I interpreted as reflecting a trifle on my sanity. Mr. Young was first to break the silence. Ho was not sure that he knew Bryan, and wanted to learn something about him. Mr. George supplied the desired Information as to Bryan's antecedents, and I pointed him out to Mr. Young. "Follow the direction of my finger back to the Nebraska delegation," said-1, "and you will see in ttio aisle chair in front a youngish man with a smooth face, high forehead, and pronounced jaw, not so very unlike Samuel J. Randall in his best days. Ho has on a short black alpaca coat, and is sucking a lemon." "I see him," said Mr. Young, quickly, "but why on earth should you pick him for a winner?" "Oh," I answered, "what you would call a Sherlock Holmes guess. He's evidently going to speak. He wears that coat when ho is about to address a popular gathering; he is sucking that lemon to clear his voice, which is a sign that his speech is going to be one of some length, probably prepared with care and com mitted to memory. This convention is dead locked. 'Of the dozen candidates or so there Isft't one who can draw any considerable num- ber of delegates away from his rivals. Feel ing Is already running high, and tho wliolo crowd aro in a moro or loos hysterical stato. They aro looking for a Mosos to load thorn out of Egypt. Jf Bryan gota beforo thorn whllo thoy'ro In this condition, thoy'ro gono." Mr. George rominded mo that Bryan had not stirred tho houso of representatives groatly with his one" notable effort at a freo-trado speoch, although tho speoch itself was eloquent. Mr. Young nodded. "I roraomber that," said ho, "now you mention It." "Tho difference between that occasion and this," I explained, "Is twofold. First, I need not remind eithor of you that it is the fort of ono orator to speak on a floor with his audionco surrounding him, and of anothor to speak from a platform looking down at them. Fow speak ers can do equally well In both places. Bryan Is essentially a pulpiteer, not a floor wrangler. "In tho second place, his audionco is quito an other thing hero from what it was thoro. In congress ho was addressing a body of shrewd debaters, mostly lawyers, in an unomotlonal atmosphere. Circulate about In this crowd, and you will find that it is made up in groat part of men to whom politics Is not an occupation in Itself. The element ho is going to appeal to especially aro farmers or village oracles men of meagor education, who learned what they know of books at tho llttlo cross-roads school house, where they did their spelling and cipher ing on week days and gathered on Sundays to listen to an oxhortor. Their homo libraries may consist of a family BIblo, a one-volumo history of America, and some agricultural publication. "Bryan has history and tho scriptures at his tongue's end. Ho has also a positive genius for picturesque gesture that is, tho illustrativo kind which lures you almost into imagining that you see before you a person or scene described. You'll discover what happens when ho turns his gifts loose on this assemblage." Tho silence with which this conclusion was received made it seem a bit lame; my companions obviously were too courteous to risk wounding my feelings by unflattering comment, and I was piqued into playing my trump card. "Now," said I, "I will go down and see what tho candidate himself has to say about it." Proceeding to tho Nebraska seats, I greeted Mr. Bryan with tho remark: "I have bulletined you at tho corner of Broadway and Fulton street, Now York, as tho coming man of this convention." He looked up sidewlse with a half-smile which seemed to mo to moan that this was not the first occurrence of tho possibility to his mind. But ho only made a little deprecatory gesture with the hand nearest me, as If he were waving away any such idea. "You're premature, you're premature," ho protested, with a mingling of modesty and humor. "It may be," I replied; "but I'm right, never theless." "What makes you think so?" "You are going to make a set speech " "Yes; Senator Jones was slated to speak in support of tho resolutions, but he has a sore throat, and has asked mo to take his place." "And that will settle it. If you talk a half hour to this convention in the condition in which it is now, nothing less than a miracle can pre vent your nomination!" With another wave of the hand, a slightly broader smile, and a wag of tho head demure rather than negative, Mr. Bryan gave me my dismissal by bending forward to listen moro attentively to an announcement from the chair that Mr. Jones, of Arkansas, would now present tho report of tho committee on resolutions. By the timo I had got back to my desk and glvna my neighbors the benefit of my errand the semv tor, who was so hoarse that it was painful to watch the effort he was making, was deep in tho opening passages of tho platform. The his torical review of tho money question in this country excited a continually growing Interest, reaching a sort of climax with the denunciation of gold monometallism as a "British policy," which could be "fastened on the United States only by the stifling of that spirit of love of liberty which proclaimed our political indepen dence in 1776, and won It In tho war of tho revolution." There was a stir In the hall at this point, as if his hearers were all ready to burst Into cheers; but the senator held up an appealing hand, made another attempt to' clear his throat, paused a moment to sweep tho gathering with his eye, and, slowly and with great impressiveness, read on: "We demand the free and 'unlimited coinage (Continued on Page 10.) ft : V TrmriTTrrfwinirTff ' !" '""'??''' " ')"