tective tariff. They do not fear the warlike preparations of Europe, but they do fear its cheap manufactures. Their real danger is not from foreign navies carrying guns, but from foreign fleets bringing goods. This is the year of the people. They have risen in their might. From ocean to ocean, from lake to gulf, they are united as never before. We know their wishes, and are here to register their will. They must not be cheated of their choice. They know the man best qualified and equipped to fight their battles and to win their victories. His name is in every heart, on every tongue. His nomination is certain, his election sure. His candidacy will sweep the country as a prairie is swept by fire. This is the year of the people. In their name, by their authority, I second the nomination of their great champion, William McKinley. Not as a favorite son of any State, but as the favorite son of the United States. Not as a concession to Ohio, but as an added honor to the Nation. When his country called to arms, he took into his boyish hands a musket and followed the flag, bravely baring his breast to the hell of battle, that it might float serenely in the Union sky. For a quarter of a century he has stood in the fierce light of public place, and his robes of office are spotless as the driven snow. He has cherished no higher ambition than the honor of his country and the welfare of the plain people. Steadfastly, courageously, victoriously and with tongue of fire he has pleaded their cause. His labor, ability and perseverance have enriched the statutes of the United States with legislation in their behalf. All his contributions to the masterpieces of American oratory are the outpourings of a pure heart and a patriotic purpose. His God-given powers are consecrated to the advancement and renown of his own country and to the uplifting and ennobling of his own countrymen. He has the courage of his convictions and can not be tempted to woo success or avert defeat by any sacrifice of principle or concession to popular clamor. In the hour of Republican disaster, when other leaders were excusing and apologizing, he stood steadfastly by that grand legislative act which bore his name, confidently submitting his case to the judgment of events, and calmly waiting for that triumphant vindication whose laurel crown this Convention is impatient to place upon his brow. McKinley the Popular Favorite. His Public Strengthened and seasoned by long congressional service; broadened by the exercise of important executive powers; master of the great economic questions of the age; eloquent, single-hearted and sincere, he stands to-day the most conspicuous and commanding character of this The Most Congeneration; divinely ordained, as I believe, for a great mission, to lead this people out from the shadow of adversity into the sunshine of a new and enduring prosperity. Omnipotence never sleeps. Every great crisis brings a leader. For every supreme hour Providence finds a man. The necessities of '96 are almost as great as those of '61. True, the enemies of the nation spicuous Character of His Generation. tion Will In have ceased to threaten with the sword, and the Constitution of the United States no longer tolerates that shackles shall fret the limbs of men; but free trade and free coinage hold no less menace to American progress than did the armed hosts of treason and rebellion. If the voice of the people is indeed the voice of God, then William McKinley is the complement of Abraham Lincoln. Yea, and he will issue a new emancipation proclamation to the enslaved sons of toil and they shall be lifted up into the full enjoyment of those privileges, advantages and opportunities that belong of right to the American people. Under his Administration we shall command the respect of the His Adminis nations of the earth; the American flag will never be hauled down; the spire Respect. rights of American citizenship will be enforced; abundant revenues provided; foreign merchandise will remain abroad; our gold be kept at home; American institutions will be cherished and upheld; all govern mental obligations scrupulously kept; and on the escutcheon of the republic will be indelibly engraved the American policy: protection, reciprocity and sound money. Pæan of a People's Joy. My countrymen, let not your hearts be troubled, the darkest hour is just before the day, the morning of the twentieth century will dawn bright and clear. Lift up your hopeful faces and receive the light; the Republican party is coming back to power, and William McKinley will be President of the United States. In an inland manufacturing city, on election night, November, 1894, after the wires had confirmed the news of a sweeping Republican victory, two workingmen started to climb to the top of a great smokeless chimney. That chimney had been built by the invitation and upon the promise of Republican protective legislation. In the factory over which it towered was employment for twice a thousand men. Its mighty roar had heralded the prosperity of a whole community. It had stood a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night for a busy, industrious, happy people. Now bleak, blackened, voiceless and dismantled, like a grim specter of evil, it frowned down upon the hapless city where poverty, idleness, stagnation and want attested the complete disaster of the free trade experiment. Up and up and up they climbed, watched by the breathless multitude below. Up and up and up, until at last they stood upon its summit, and there in the glare of the electric lights, cheered by the gathered thousands, they unfurled and nailed an American flag. Down in the streets strong men wept the happy tears of hope-and mothers, lifting up their babes, invoked the blessing of the flag; and then impassioned lips burst forth in song-the hallelujah of exulting hosts, the mighty pæan of a people's joy. That song, the enthusiastic millions sing it yet: Hurrah, hurrah! we bring the jubilee, Hurrah, hurrah! the flag that makes us free. So we sing the chorus from the mountains to the sea; Over the city that free flag waved, caressed by the passing breeze, kissed by the silent stars. And there the first glad sunshine of the morning fell upon it, luminous and lustrous with the tidings of Republican success. On behalf of those stalwart workmen and all the vast army of American toilers, that their employment may be certain, their wages just, their dollars the best of the civilized world; on behalf of that dismantled chimney and the deserted factory at its base, that the furnaces may once more flame, the mighty wheels revolve, the whistles scream, the anvils ring, the spindles hum; on behalf of the thousand cottages roundabout and all the humble homes of this broad land, that comfort and contentment may again abide, the firesides glow, the women sing, the children laugh; yes, and on behalf of that American flag and all it stands for and represents, for the honor of every stripe, for the glory of every star, that its power may fill the earth, and its splendor span the sky-I ask the nomination of that loyal American, that Christian gentleman, soldier, statesman and patriot, William McKinley. Gov. Hastings, of Pennsylvania, spoke for Senator Quay thus: On Behalf HASTINGS PRESENTS QUAY. MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: Pennsylvania comes to this Convention giving you the cordial assurance that whoever may be our national standardbearer he will receive, of all the States in the Union the largest majority from the Keystone State. There have been no faltering footsteps in Pennsylvania when the tenets of Republicanism have been at stake. Our party's principles have always been held as sacred as Independence Hall, or the memory of her dead soldiers. Having within her borders more American citizens relatively who own the homes in which they live, whose principal daily avocation is to subdue and develop her great storehouses of native wealth; whose wage-earners, skilled and unskilled, receive, one year with another, the highest average American wage rate-the Republicans of Pennsylvania, by their chosen representatives, come to this Convention, and, with you, demand, and their every interest demand, a system of national currency equal to the best in the world. They demand as well that the Government they love and for whose flag they have fought, and still stand ready to defend, shall pay its debts in money and not in promises. They insist that a dollar is not created by the fiat of the Government, but must have 100 cents of intrinsic or exchangeable value, measured by the world's standard, and that any debasement of the standard would be fatal to business security and national honor. Pennsylvania's Indorsement of the Candidate Promised. |