but I know that some of them insist that the New York financiers would make a great profit out of free coinage if they could only permit themselves to enjoy the profit. When they tell me that the financiers will profit by free coinage, then, my friends, I conclude that the time has come for the masses to pay back a debt of gratitude which has been accumulating for twenty years. For twenty years these financiers, if we can believe their own report, have been legislating for the good of the people even to the neglect of themselves. I do not think we ought to permit them to make this sacrifice for us always, and when they tell us that the free coinage of silver will help them I say that we should give them the advantage of free coinage and permit them to enjoy it to their hearts' content. If it brings disadvantage to us we will endeavor to bear up under the disadvantage with that fortitude which they have displayed in enduring the gold standard for so many years. If, as a matter of fact, they believe that the free coinage of silver is going to enrich them, why is it that they call us anarchists because we are attempting to do something for them?

Leaving Wheeling in the night we reached Point Pleasant at an early hour. My father's parents were buried near this spot, and a number of relatives were present at Point Pleasant. I came near missing this meeting because Mr. McMillan was trying to protect my sleep. The Tennessee Congressman was one of the most considerate guardians whom I found during the campaign, and when he was endeavoring to secure rest for me his humor supplied any missing links in his logic. He was the life of the party and never spared himself if there was a joke to be related. As an illustration, I may suggest the following: My speeches were for the most part brief, and he sometimes followed me. On one occasion, when I understood that he was to speak, I was surprised to find him in the car soon after I entered, and said to him, "I thought you were going to follow me." He replied, "I did follow you-and so did the crowd."

But to return to the narrative. I came to the rescue of the Point Pleasant committee and, in accordance with a promise made the night before, addressed the audience assembled. I here met ex-Congressman James Capehart, one of the signers of the address of March 4, 1895.

The next meeting was at Charleston, followed by the last meeting in the State, which was held at Huntington. Both were largely attended. In fact, the trip through West Virginia was a very satisfactory one, and gave me an opportunity to meet many of the prominent silver advocates of all parties. Governor McCorkle was with us during a portion of the trip.

In the ride through Northern Kentucky we found the people assembled at every place where the train stopped, but there was no incident of special importance. Upon arrival in Cincinnati our party

repaired to the Gibson House, where the proprietor, Mr. H. B. Dunbar, one of the best bimetallists, had arranged a little banquet for us. The evening's work began with a speech at the Music Hall and ended with an outdoor meeting at Covington, Ky.

The former ranked among the largest of our indoor meetings; beiow will be found a portion of the speech:

Cincinnati Speech.

Let me call your attention to the language used by Abraham Lincoln in criticising a decision of the Supreme Court. When you hear his words you will understand how much more emphatic his language was than our platformand yet there are many people in this country today who think that Abraham Lincoln was not only a great man, but also a good man and a patriot. He said:

We believe as much as Judge Douglass, perhaps more, in obedience to and respect for the judicial department of the Government. But we think that the Dred Scott decision was erroneous. We know that the court that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this.

That, my friends, was the position taken by Abraham Lincoln, and that is exactly the position which we take today. We expect that at some time in the future that decision will be overruled; we expect that at some time in the future it will be possible to make wealth bear its share of the burdens of government. It is strange how suddenly some of these people who have been in court all their lives as defendants, charged with violating the law, it is strange, I say, how suddenly they have come to respect a decision of the court. The men who, under the income tax law, will be compelled to pay a tax, instead of telling us that they are not willing to pay the tax, charge us with disrespect to the court. If these men, who want the protection of government, and yet want others to bear all the burdens of government, were frank and honest, they would tell us that what they object to is not our criticism of the court, but the law itself, which would compel them to pay their share of the taxes.

It was late before we reached Covington, and I only spoke for a few moments at that meeting. While there I was the guest of one of the electoral ticket-Judge James Tarvin.

Leaving Cincinnati next morning, we passed through Indiana, stopping, among other places, at North Vernon, Seymour, Mitchell, Loogootee, Washington and Vincennes. The veteran Congressman, W. S. Holman, accompanied the party during a portion of the journey. The principal stops in Illinois were at Olney, Flora, and Salem. Mr. McMillan sang my praises at Salem, my early home, and as an evidence that his remarks made a deep impression upon the people, I record the fact that the Democratic majority was largely increased in the town and county.

After a brief stop at East St. Louis, where an open-air meeting was held, we again entered the trans-Mississippi territory.

CHAPTER XL.

T

MEETING OF THE DEMOCRATIC CLUBS.

HE meeting of the Democratic clubs of the United States was held at St. Louis on the 3d of October. Having promised

some weeks in advance to attend this gathering, my dates were so arranged as to enable me to reach there that evening. The Reception Committee took our party to the Southern Hotel, where we met Hon. Chauncey F. Black, of York, Pennsylvania, President of the National Association of Democratic Clubs, Hon. Lawrence Gardner, of Washington, D. C., Secretary of the Association, Senator H. D. Money, of Mississippi, and a number of others prominent in the work.

The public sessions were held at Convention Hall. At the afternoon session, Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson made a very strong speech, which was widely circulated during the campaign.

At the evening session I delivered an address, which is reproduced in full:

St. Louis Speech Before the Democratic Clubs.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: For just a little while I ask your attention. I desire to address a few remarks to the members of the clubs here assembled.

The clubs can be of more service in this campaign than in any previous campaign, because in this campaign the work is being done by the people themselves. These clubs have adopted a button which presents the likeness of Thomas Jefferson. If you had searched through all history you could not have found a man more worthy to be taken as your ideal statesman, because in all the history of the human race there has never been but one Thomas Jefferson. Of all the constructive statesmen whom the world has ever seen, Thomas Jefferson, in my judgment, stands first.

At a time when representative government was an experiment, he wrote that immortal document which declared that among the self-evident truths were these: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with inalienable rights, that governments are instituted among men to preserve these rights, and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. In stating those four propositions, he stated the Alpha and the Omega of Democracy. Men may write books, men may fill libraries with volumes, but they can never improve upon that simple statement, recorded in a few sentences and yet comprehending all that there is in a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

In my opinion, no statesman ever lived who more fully understood human

nature than Jefferson did-no one who more fully understood the capacity of the people for self-government-no one who more fully understood the dangers to be guarded against. He stated the principles which underlie Democracy, and then he applied those principles to every question which arose during his time. We today are inventing no new principles; we are seeking to discover no new truths; we are simply applying to new conditions those principles which must forever live if the people still retain their love for our form of government.

Since you have chosen Jefferson as your ideal, let me read to you the creed, the articles of faith, set forth in his first inaugural address and for years recorded at the platform of the party which he organized. It does us good to re-read these principles and renew our allegiance to them:

Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.

That is the first, that is the fundamental principle-“Equal and exact justice to all." Show me an abuse of government, show me a law which is worthy of criticism, and I will show you a law which violates that principle of equal and exact justice to all.

The greatest danger which government has to avoid is favoritism. Favoritism is the curse of all governments, least, to be sure, in a government like ours, but it creeps into our government even, because our government is administered through human beings, and human beings are human.

My friends, if you would have government just, if you would have government fulfill the idea of a perfect government, you must have a government which is no respecter of persons, a government which deals with an equal hand, a government which gives to none, which takes from none, and a government which, in the making of the laws and in the administration of justice, treats all alike, and punishes the great transgressor as it does the petty offender.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliance with none.

Our position makes it possible for us to be more independent than any other nation; our position, our situation, our surroundings make it possible for us to have peace and commerce and honest friendship with every nation, without forming entangling alliances with any of them.

The support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-repub

lican tendencies.

Our form of government recognizes the right of the States to do certain things, and the perpetuity of this nation depends as much upon respecting local self-government as it does upon recognizing national supremacy.

If we neglect to preserve the local self-government provided by the Constitution, we encounter the danger which threatens this Government, as it has threatened all others, namely, the concentration of power in the hands of a few and those few remote from the people themselves. If we depart from the idea of local self-government we will lessen the watchful care of the people over the government and place them in a position where they will become the victims of any tyrant who seizes the reins of government and uses force to subdue a people already half subdued by indifference.

The preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad.

That, my friends, is the statement of the other half. Jefferson believed in preserving the rights of the States, and yet he did not abate in the least the power and vigor of the Federal Government which extends over all. And so, today, we who follow him will earnestly preserve those rights which remain with the States, and we will as firmly enforce those rights which belong to the nation.

A jealous care of the rights of election by the people-a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided.

My friends, elections by the people are the safety valves in a republic. It is here that all discontent can expend itself, it is here that all criticism can find an outlet. Stop elections by the people, and discontent must express itself in characters of blood. Jefferson did not say to preserve with jealous care elections by corporations; he did not say to preserve with jealous care elections by a few syndicates, a few trusts, or even by a few banking corporations. He said "Elections by the people," and he meant by all the people.

Absolute acquiescence in the decision of the majority-the vital principle of republics from which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and the im. mediate parent of despotism.

Do our opponents say that we believe in lawlessness? I tell you that the followers of Thomas Jefferson are the best preservers of public order, because they believe in absolute acquiescence in the will of the majority.

A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till the regulars may relieve them.

Far better this form of protection than an enormous standing army, supported by the taxation of those who toil.

The supremacy of the civil over the military authority.

Economy in the public expenses, that labor may be lightly burdened.

The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith.

My friends, the followers of Thomas Jefferson stand as squarely upon that plank of his platform as they do upon any other plank that I have read.

The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith. That does not mean that after you have contracted a debt you shall lessen the volume of standard money and drive up the value of the dollar and then compel people to pay in larger dollars than they borrowed.

Both houses of Congress, in 1878, declared by resolution that it was not a violation of public faith to pay coin obligations in silver coin as well as gold coin. We have sold coin bonds, and some of those bonds were sold at a lower price than they would have brought had they been payable in gold; and yet, my friends, those who bought those bonds, and who made allowance for the fact that they were payable in coin, now insist that the Government is bound, in good faith, to pay them in gold, so that that allowance can be profit in their pockets. We believe in the payment of our debts according to contract—not according to the wishes of those who hold the contracts.

Encouragement of agriculture and commerce as its hand-maid.

Jefferson recognized that agriculture is the great foundation industry in