6 Conservative *
SPKECH OF GKNKHAL , ItltAGG.
General Bragg in his speech at Mil
waukee Oct. 10 , spoke in part as follows :
It will bo from the standpoint of a
national democrat , by education , convic
tion and affiliation I may say , and
from heredity that I speak tonight ,
extending in some regard beyond mere
party duty to the more exalted duty of
every loyal citizen in the land , to rally
in the defense and support of his conn-
try in times of danger , trouble or need ,
foreign or domestic , and never by
word , ant or deed "give aid or comfort
to its enemies. "
I have never yet voted for a chief
magistrate of this nation whose name
had not been presented for the suffrages
of the people by a democratic conven
tion. There is no taint of "trimmer"
in my blood or lineage. It has always
been rny pride to be able to rise in place ,
and using the words of a great leader of
the party in Now York , before the spell
of expediency overthrew the convictions
of his judgment , "I am a democrat ! "
But I have a pride infinitely greater
than that that I have always held my
life and service subject to my country's
call , irrespective of the politics of the
head of the government.
The heart of this great people has
always beat loyal to the government
when the war trump sounded , and has
never tolerated , and will never tolerate ,
encouragement to a public enemy , while
he is robbing , fighting , slaying the brave
men , your sons and brothers , whom the
government has sent forth to do its
mission , whether that enemy be an
Englishman or Mexican , a Spaniard era
a Filipino.
It matters not how specious the plea ,
how earnest and honest the pleader ,
charm he ever so sweetly , or ever so
wisely , the American ear may listen ,
but the loyal heart is sealed against its
influence.
Looking over the history of the past
and comparing it with the present in
stincts of the American people as I know
them , it seems beyond possibility that
any party or any candidate , no matter
upon what high plane of morals , of
sympathy for the oppressed , or of con
stitutional rights , he affects to plant
himself , can succeed in reaching the
support of the electors of the United
States , when in the face of bloody war ,
he classifies the treacherous Agninoldo
as a patriot , and his guerrilla bands who
are shooting down our soldiers , as sub
jects of our sympathy , if not of our
open commendation.
Cleveland's Administration.
Mr. Cleveland was the first democrat
to reach the presidential chair after the
war. He was a man not remarkable for
his personal graces , but was possessed
of a clear , well-trained , logical mind ,
and as his state papers bear witness ,
was a statesman , well equipped to as
sume the responsibilities and discharge
the duties of the high office to which he
had been elected. His judgment was
not technical , but eminently practical ;
ais honesty was above suspicion , and he
had the courage of his convictions. He
won his way to the high office as a tri-
aute to his personal character , and to
; he faithfulness with which he had dis
charged the trust reposed in him as
mayor of Buffalo and governor of the
Empire State of the Union. He never
led a crnsado for delegates , he never
vaunted his qualifications upon the
stump ; but believing it contrary to the
traditions of his party , contrary to good
; aste , and repulsive to the better sense
of the people , to travel from town to
town to expose and laud his wares , he
remained quietly at home during the
exciting canvas which followed his nom
ination , and was chosen by the people
upon his merits , without personal solici
tation of the voter for his suffrage.
In his first inaugural address , touch
ing the great financial question upon
which the campaign of 1896 was waged
and won , he said :
"A due regard for the interests and
prosperity of all the people , demands
; hat our finances shall be established
upon such a sound and sensible basis as
shall secure the safety and confidence
of business interests , and make the
wages of labor sure and steady. "
In his first annual message he points
out the results of the compulsory coin
age bill of February , 1878 , under which ,
up to that time , 215,759,431 silver dollars
had been coined , and the fact that only
$50,000,000 had found their way into
circulation. In this message he fully
exploded the theory that cheap money
benefits the wage-earner , and in addi
tion to his own argument , cites the
great Webster , who declared in the Uni
ted States senate in 1834 :
"The very man of all others , who has
the deepest interest in a sound currency ,
and who suffers most by mischievous leg
islation in money matters , is the man
who earns his daily bread by his daily
toil. "
The message recommended that the
provisions of this Act be suspended , and
it was done , and the war to avenge the
so-called crime of ' 78 was renewed by
the silverites against Cleveland , and the
distrust of a democrat was so easily
aroused , that upon his candidacy to suc
ceed himself he was defeated at the
polls , and was succeeded by General
Benjamin Harrison , in whose adminis
tration a truce was affected on the sil
ver question , by the Act of July 14 ,
1890 , commanding the purchase monthly
by the secretary of the treasury , of 4-
500,000 ounces of silver bullion , paying
in treasury notes , redeemable in gold or
silver coin , etc.
Re elected In Spite of Free Silver An
tagonism.
Mr. Cleveland , in spite of his free
silver antagonists , was re-elected in
1892 , and in his inaugural address , with
out regard to the effect to be produced
upon himself , in bugle notes sounded
the alarm in these words :
Manifestly nothing is more vital to
our supremacy as a nation , and to the
) oneficent purposes of our government ,
ihan u sound and stable currency. Its
exposure to degradation should at once
arouse to activity the most enlightened
statesmanship , and the danger of the
depreciation in the purchasing power of
; he wages paid to toil should furnish
the strongest incentive to prompt and
conservative precaution. "
After a careful consideration of the
evils threatened , and of the preventives
to soften , or avoid the effect of them ,
which he saw were sure to come , on the
8th day of August , 1893 , he summoned
a special session to repeal the law , which
was the root of the evil by destroying
jusiness confidence in our financial sys-
; em. No man can read that message
and not fully endorse the foresight and
judgment of the president. The law
was repealed , by a senate hostile , poli-
ically , to him , the correctness of his
views , being so manifest , and the im
pending danger being so great. But it
was too late ; the financial system was
; ottering , past bracing up. The crash
came. It was a legacy bequeathed to
him by his predecessor , but its effects
were charged to Cleveland , and soon
the war dance of Mr. Bryan was pre
pared , and the great crusade , which in
lis book he compares to the work of
Peter the Hermit , to raise an army to
retake Jerusalem and the tomb of our
Savior from the Saracens.
The members of the party who were
unwilling to forswear democracy as it
had been taught them by the fathers ,
organized themselves as National Dem
ocrats at Indianopolis , simply to pre
serve the sacred fires of the faith burn
ing upon the democratic altars , and
keep them burning , to await the arrival
of the bridegroom , when the folly , fan
aticism and madness that led to the lep
rous union of silver republican , socialist ,
anarchist , populist and quasi-democrats ,
should be dissolved , and its tenets dis
carded and the old faith be restored.
That body of national democrats declar
ed their faith and placed at the head of
their ticket that gallant soldier , sound
statesman and good citizen , General
John M. Palmer.
Imperialism.
In his great speech in New York a
few days since , Mr. Schurz ignores Mr.
Bryan and his incompetenoy , and his
dangerous following , and puts his op
position to Mr. McKinley , not on any
newly acquired confidence in the man
he now supports far from it. He has
no new-born respect for and trust in
him , but he casts his eyes to the distant
Philippines , and sees through the mist ,
looming up , a ghost pushing for a seat
at the banquet table of the nations , and
that ghost which he christened "Imper-