flourished notwithstanding the civil and foreign conflicts of that eventful period.

"When we were weak, confronted with the embarrassments of distracting internal dissensions, with a government of ill defined authority, with undeveloped resources and a sparse population, our friendship was scorned, our strength despised.

"To-day we are sought by the nations which would utilize our strength and profit by our association. We are reminded of the difference between blood and water, of the identity of mere speech and origin, of the tremendous advantages that must accrue to us through an alliance with kin beyond the sea.

"These and other considerations, continually suggested and favorably received, justify our protest against any bond of international union. It is as true now as ever that 'It is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.'

"We would relieve the people of the burden of taxation. The Treasury is bursting with a plethoric revenue, millions whereof are deposited with favorite banks and the taxation goes on although the Spanish-American conflict ended eight months ago. Notwithstanding these conditions there is no surcease of taxation.

"We would have for our Chief Magistrate a man sprung from the loins of the people, rock-ribbed in his convictions and controlled by the admonitions of his conscience. A man of lofty ideals and steadfast courage. A man to whom his country's constitution appears as a living and sacred reality. A man who exalts the duties, the rights, and the welfare of his fellow-citizens above the sinister and corroding influences of centralized commercialisms. A man whose ear is untuned to the pulsations of the pocketbook, but responsive to the heart-throbs of the masses.

"We want no man of plastic mold, conforming his opinions to passing impressions of popular sentiment, as facile in their abandonment as in their advocacy. We want a man to whom right is greater than expediency, who postpones no duty to the demand of privilege, who is loved by the multitude, respected by the world, and feared only by those who distrust the people.

"The Republican party boast of almost unbroken rule for nearly forty years. The emancipator of the negro, it has fostered those commercial conditions which are fast establishing a system of industrial slavery. More recently declaring for Cuban independence it scarcely disguises its present purpose to absorb that island.

"There was a time when it put its trusts in the people. Since then it has put the people in its trusts.

"Its battle cry years ago was 'Freedom and the Union.' If due credit be given to one of its modern leaders its motto for 1900 is 'Gold and Glory.'

"Against the continuance of this party in power we enter protest. With the man exalted above the dollar, the constitution against

the combination, the equality of all before the law, with solemn promises to correct the abuses of administration, and to enforce those fundamentals of government which secure exact justice to all, we shall not appeal in vain to the wisdom, the intelligence, and the patriotism of the American people."

The call of States began for naming the members of the various committees. The Chairman announced that the Committee on Credentials was not ready yet to report and the convention adjourned until 8:30 p. m.

At 8:30 p. m., Chairman Thomas rapped the convention to order and there was scarcely two-thirds of the delegates in attendance.

As the committees were not prepared to report the Chairman announced that ex Governor Altgeld of Illinois would address the convention. Mr. Altgeld spoke with great earnestness and his speech was intended to stiffen the backbone of the radical faction and offset the Hill demonstration. Just at his peroration someone mentioned Hill. That was a signal. In two seconds the convention was a fine imitation of Donnybrook all over the hall. Everybody was shouting Hill, Hill. Chairman was very angry, and finally when there was a The lull in the hilarity he rushed through the report of the Committee on Rules. The Committee on Permanent Organization reported in favor of Hon. John D. Richardson of Tennessee, as permanent chairman; and that the officers of the temporary organization be made perma

nent.

The Chair appointed Messrs. McCreary of Kentucky, Daniel Campau of Michigan and Mayor Phelan of San Francisco to escort the permanent Chairman to the platform. After being introduced Mr. Richardson repeatedly bowed his acknowledgments of the cheers that swept in wave after wave through the great Convention Hall.

Chairman Richardson said:

"I am deeply sensible of the great honor you have bestowed upon me in calling me to preside over this great Democratic convention. We have been clothed with the authority to formally name the candidates who at the next election are to be chosen President and Vice-President of the United States, and to lay down a platform of principles upon which the battle is to be fought and the victory won. With your permission I will address myself to some of the issues of the impending campaign.

"The last great national contest for supremacy was fought mainly upon one issue-that is to say, one issue was paramount in the struggle. That issue was familiarly called, '16 to 1.' It involved the question of the free coinage of gold and silver at a ratio of sixteen parts of silver to one part of gold, with which all of us are familiar.

"The momentous issue this year is again '16 to 1,' but the sixteen parts to the one part of this campaign, which I will briefly discuss, are wholly different from those of 1896. I will first refer to the sixteen parts and then to the one part. These sixteen parts are:

"First, we have the issue fraught with indescribable importance to our people native born, and those who have for patriotic reasons cast their fortunes with us-namely: that of the republic against the empire. On this part alone of the sixteen, if there were no other, we confidently expect to win a sweeping victory in November. The Republican party stands for empire. The Democratic party stands for the republic, for the Declaration of Independence, and the constitution of our country.

"Second-The paternal and fostering care given by those with whom we contend, to the combinations of corporations and companies into powerful organizations, familiarly known as trusts. Under three years of Republican rule, while they controlled the Presidency, the Senate. and the House of Representatives—that is, all of the law-making power of the government-trusts have been propagated and fostered by legislation until they not only dominate all markets, both the buying and selling, but defy the power of the Government itself.

"The farcical efforts put forth by the Republican party in an alleged attempt to restrain them in the dying hours of the late session of Congress only excited ridicule and contempt and served to emphasize their inability and disinclination to grapple the monsters and regulate their conduct and actions. No matter what their excusses may be, the fact is that their policies have created them, and, though clothed with all power, they refuse to enact legislation to control them.

"Third-Called to power on March 4, 1897, under a pledge to reform the currency, they seized the first opportunity to fasten upon the land the highest protective tariff law ever put upon the statute books of any country.

"This law was enacted not to raise revenue but to give protection to favored manufacturers. It failed to raise sufficient revenue

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for the government, but answered the purpose of enriching the fav. ored tew, while it robbed the many, and at the same time brought forth trusts to plague us as numerous as the lice and locusts of Egypt. Their high protective tariff is the mother of trusts.

"Fourth-This administration came into power with a solemn declaration in favor of bimetallism and a pledge to promote it. It has failed to keep that pledge. It has erected in its stead the single standard of gold, and has endeavored to destroy all hope of bimetallism. In doing this it has built up a powerful national bank trust and has given us a currency based upon the debts and liabilities of the government. We stand for bimetallism and not for a monometallic standard of either one or the other metal.

"Fifth-The dominant party has recently made the fraudulent declaration that it favored the Monroe doctrine, and yet their Presi dent and Secretary of State have done all in their power to nullify and abrogate that famous and much revered Democratic doctrine.

"In the name of its Democratic author, James Monroe, I denounce their vaunted advocacy of this truly American doctrine as false and hypocritical. We stand for this doctrine in its essence and form and demand its rigid enforcement.

"Sixth-In order to obtain place and power they pledged themselves, in the interest of an expanding commerce, to construct a water-way to connect the two great oceans. They have repudiated this promise. They have negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote treaty which, while it virtually abrogates the Monroe doctrine, renders it impossible to build an American canal. Under the terms and provisions of this treaty, which is English and not American, the canal can never be constructed. We stand for an American canal, owned, constructed, operated, and fortified by America.

"Seventh-They declared in their platform that their party was responsible for the merit system; that it was their creature; and that the civil service law should be protected and its operation extended.

"Their protection of this law has been such as the wolf gives the babe. They did not dare openly repeal the law nor to modify it by an act of Congress, but they have insidiously by an order from the President, extorted from him to aid them to obtain and hold political power, greatly impaired the efficiency of the law.

"By the President's order many thousand lucrative offices regularly covered by the civil service law were taken from under the protection, and these places turned over to his partisan followers in a vain effort to satisfy their political greed.

"Eighth-They declared in their platform in favor of the admission of the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma as States of the Union, yet, after nearly four years of full power, they are still Territories. Under the wicked rule of law as now applied by the Republican party to some of our Territories they may at an early date find erected between themselves and the balance of the Union a tariff wall which will serve to pauperize them while it enriches others.

"Ninth-When Congress last assembled the President, in his