coinage of gold and silver at the present ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth. We regard the right to issue money as an attribute of sovereignty and believe that all money needed to supplement the gold and silver coinage of the Constitution, and to make the dollar so stable in its purchasing power that it will defraud neither debtor nor creditor, should be issued by the general Government, as the greenbacks were issued; that such money should be redeemable in coin, the Government to exercise the option by redeeming in gold or silver, whichever is most convenient for the Government. We believe that all money issued by the Government, whether gold, silver, or paper, should be made a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and that no citizen should be permitted to demonetize by contract that which the Government makes money by law. The platform also declared in favor of the income tax, arbitration and the foreclosure of the Pacific liens. In fact, in 1894 the Democrats of Nebraska contended for substantially the same policies which were embodied in the Democratic National Platform of 1896. To carry the parallel a little further, it may be remarked that the Republicans won in Nebraska in 1894; in 1896, however, they lost. In 1894 they secured a two-thirds majority in the Legislature and elected all the State officers except governor; in 1896 the fusionists secured a twothirds majority in the Legislature and elected every State official. But to return to the convention. After the adoption of the platform and the nomination of a candidate for the United States Senate, the convention proceeded to nominations for State officers. Hon. Sila's A. Holcomb, who had been previously nominated by the Populists, was, by a large majority, made our nominee for Governor and several other Populist nominees were placed upon our ticket. A few of the gold Democrats, after taking part in the convention during its temporary organization, during the adoption of the platform, during the nomination of a candidate for the United States Senate and during the selection of the State committee, left the hall as soon as Mr. Holcomb was nominated. These, together with a few who had, at the primaries, failed of election as delegates, assembled in a room of the Paxton Hotel and organized a new party. They called themselves "straight Democrats" and their candidates for State offices were placed upon the official ballot by petition. It is interesting to note that the course pursued by the gold Democrats of Nebraska was the same as that pursued two years later by the gold Democrats of the United States and, it may be added, that in Nebraska, as later in the United States, they sought to secure the election of the Republican candidates. The following year the Democrats met in convention, readopted the platform of 1894, and nominated candidates for supreme judge and regents of the university, these being the only officers voted for at that election. The bolting Democrats continued their organization and placed a ticket in the field. This year they dropped the word "straight" and, taking advantage of a court decision, placed their candidates on the official ballot as "Democrats." According to our ballot law, the names of candidates are arranged in alphabetical order and it so happened that their candidates came before ours on the ballot and since both their candidates and ours were marked "Democrat" with nothing further to distinguish between them, and as there was no State campaign to bring the matter before the voters, their candidates received more votes than ours. In the following spring, our State committee sent a letter to the State committee of the bolting Democrats, proposing to submit the silver question to the Democratic voters at a primary election with the agreement that the delegates to the National Convention should represent the sentiment which prevailed at the primaries. This proposition was refused by the bolters and two delegations sought admission to the Chicago Convention. Our State convention, held in the spring of 1896 to select delegates to the National Convention, adopted a platform substantially like the one in 1894. As will appear later, the bolters occupied seats in the National Convention during the temporary organization, while the regular delegation (the one advocating free coinage at 16 to 1) was afterwards seated by the convention. CHAPTER VI. IN THE SILVER SENTIMENT DEVELOPING. N NOVEMBER, 1889, a National Silver Conference was held at St. Louis, Missouri. Hon. A. J. Warner, of Ohio, was chosen perma nent chairman, and addresses were delivered by Senator William M. Stewart, of Nevada, Hon. Richard P. Bland, of Missouri, and others. This was virtually the beginning of the American Bimetallic League, although the organization was not actually perfected until May, 1892, when, at a second conference, the name was chosen, and an Executive Committee appointed, consisting of: Hon. A. J. Warner, President. L. M. Rumsey, of Missouri. Richard Lacey, of New York. Senator A. H. Colquitt, of Georgia. W. J. Cheney, of Pennsylvania. National conferences were held from time to time under the auspices of this league, the principal ones at Washington, Des Moines, Iowa, Chicago and St. Louis. The Chicago conference was held in August, 1893, just prior to the opening of the extraordinary session of Congress. I attended this conference, and served upon the Resolutions Committee with Hon. Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota, whom I then met for the first time, and with whose great ability I was at once impressed. The platform adopted declared against unconditional repeal and, quoting the language of several prominent Democrats and Republicans, demanded the immediate opening of our mints to free and unlimited coinage. Among the educational influences at work in behalf of bimetallism during this period the most potent was "Coin's Financial School." This little book was written by William H. Harvey, of Chicago, and published in June, 1894. Mr. Harvey began, in 1893, the publication of an illustrated paper called "Coin," and soon afterward published "Coin's Hand Book," but "Coin's Financial School" surpassed all of his other publications, and reached a wonderful sale. The argument was in dialogue form, and the book aptly illustrated. The discussion was so elementary as to enable a beginner to master the principles involved. It is safe to say that no book in recent times has produced so great an effect in the treatment of an economic question. This work was followed by "A Tale of Two Nations," "Coin's Financial School Up to Date," "Number Seven Coin's Financial Series," "Number Eight Coin's Financial Series," and the "Patriots of America," all by the same author; the last named being the manual of a national order of the same name established by Mr. Harvey for the study of political and economic questions. He also published and circulated in pamphlet form an argument of remarkable force and clearness in defense of bimetallism by Archbishop Walsh, of Ireland. Notwithstanding the number of publications issued by him, he found time to deliver many lectures and to take part in several debates, the most important ones being with Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin, of the Chicago University, and with the late Hon. Roswell P. Horr, of the New York Tribune. Mr. Harvey attended the convention of the National Silver party held at St. Louis, and took an active part in the campaign. On February 22, 1895, a conference was held in Washington D. C., attended by a number of the leading bimetallists, at which an address was issued declaring that action favorable to bimetallism was improbable in the Democratic and Republican parties and calling upon the friends of free silver to unite in the formation of a new party with the money question as the sole issue. The conference suggested the name of Hon. Joseph C. Sibley, of Pennsylvania, as the proper person to unite all the forces favorable to bimetallism, and invited expressions upon the subject from the people. Hon. A. J. Warner, of Ohio, Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, and Senator William M. Stewart, of the same State, were the leading spirits in the conference. Mr. Warner, who, as chairman of the American Bimetallic League, called this conference, deserves to be mentioned as one of the most able and earnest advocates of bimetallism to be found in the country. No one has surpassed him in unselfish devotion to the cause. Mr. Jones was a member of the silver commission appointed during the Forty-fourth Congress and was one of the delegates from the United States to the International Monetary Conference at Brussels, in 1892. It may be said without disparagement of the efforts of others, that his speech in opposition to the repeal of the Sherman law is probably the most complete and comprehensive defense of bimetallism ever presented in any language. Mr. Stewart has for many years been identified with the silver cause. He has attended every National conference where the subject was under consideration, and has devoted all his energies to the restoration of the bimetallic standard. I had frequent occasion to visit the United States Senate during the prolonged struggle which ended in the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law, and I shall never forget the earnestness with which he pleaded against the passage of that act. Not only has he availed himself of every opportunity offered by his official position, but he has been constant in his work outside of the Senate, having for more than a year past been connected with the Silver Knight and National Watchman, a paper published at Washington and devoted to the restoration of the money of the Constitution. Mr. Sibley was elected to the Fifty-third Congress by the Democrats, Populists and Prohibitionists, and in a single speech took a foremost place among the advocates of free silver. This speech was very widely circulated, both at the time and during the last campaign. He is a man of deep convictions and a speaker of great force and eloquence. I mention this conference more at length than others because it marked the transition from educational work to political effort. Early in 1895 a conference was held at Salt Lake City, Utah, out of which grew the National Bimetallic Union, with headquarters at Chicago. This organization established a weekly paper called the "Bimetallist," published at Chicago. Hon. H. F. Bartine, for many years a member of Congress from Nevada, was installed as editor of this paper, and under his guidance it became a great educational power. Its editorials were widely quoted by the daily and weekly press. During the closing days of the Fifty-third Congress the writer assisted in the preparation of an address which was signed by Messrs. Bland of Missouri, Coffeen of Wyoming, Fithian of Illinois, Cockrell of Texas, McLaurin of South Carolina, Maguire of California, Ikirt of Ohio, Whiting of Michigan, Richardson of Michigan, Snodgrass of Tennessee, Smith of Arizona, Ogden of Louisiana, Capehart of West Virginia, Moore of Kansas, Money of Mississippi, Fyan of Missouri, Morgan of Missouri, Grady of North Carolina, Shell of South Carolina, Lane of Illinois, Donovan of Ohio, Latimer of South Carolina, Arnold of Missouri, Denson of Alabama, Talbert of South Carolina, Williams of Mississippi, Strait of South Carolina, Joseph of New Mexico, Caminetti of California, Bower of North Carolina, and myself-all Democratic members of Congress, and Col. Evan P. Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, and Hon. J. Floyd King, of Louisiana. The two |