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upon to direct the life currents of the body politic aright. It is to that heart, throbbing with patriotic impulse and with intelligent interest in our country's welfare that these pages are directed with the conviction that they will diffuse valuable information upon the disputed questions of "The Battle of 1900."

In the preparation of this book, it has been our aim as publishers to present a volume that should bear the stamp of authenticity, that should ably and fairly discuss the issues which divide the people, that should contain the most potent arguments to be adduced in behalf of all parties and their policies, that should appeal to all political leaders as a work worthy of approval and endorsement, that should enable the great army of voters to study the issues of to-day in an intelligent manner and cast their ballots in the light of their own best judgment, that should have a value extending beyond the few short months of the campaign.

We believe The Battle of 1900 meets fully its purpose. In authorship we have sought and secured writers who command respect. They are men of influence in the councils of their respective parties and "speak as those having authority;" they are thoroughly posted upon the matters of which they write; they are men whose patriotism, intelligence and knowledge cannot be questioned; they each and all possess marked literary ability and are trained in the art of writing; they are in close touch with the people and present the issues of the day ably, honestly and fearlessly, content after the smoke of battle has passed away to abide by the decision of the real arbiters, the intelligent voters of our beloved America.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

A REVIEW OF ITS PAST RECORD AND WHAT IT STANDS FOR NOW.

THE ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN FULLY

SET FORTH

WITH

THE LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, WILLIAM MCKINLEY

AND THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

BY

L. WHITE BUSBEY.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FOLLOWING PAGE 44 IN ORDER NAMED

WILLIAM MCKINLEY.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

MARCUS A. HANNA.

JOHN HAY.

ELIHU ROOT.

JOHN D. LONG.

JOSEPH BENSON FORAKER.
LYMAN J. GAGE.

JOHN MELLEN THURSTON.
CHARLES E. LITTLEFIELD.
WILLIAM B. ALLISON.
CUSHMAN KELLOGG DAVIS.
JOHN C. SPOONER.
GEORGE F. HOAR.

ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE.

HAZEN S. PINGREE.

RICHARD F. PETTIGREW.

EDWARD O. WOLCOTT.

CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS.

CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEw.

NELSON W. ALDRICH.

HENRY C. LODGE.

JAMES MCMILLAN.
WILLIAM E. MASON.
WILLIAM P. FRYE.
REDFIELD PROCTOR.
CORNELIUS BLISS.
RICHARD YATES.

JOSEPH R. HAWLEY.
HENRY M. TELLER.
WILLIAM M. STEWART.

FRED T. DUBOIS.

INTRODUCTION.

The campaign of this year is of unusual importance. The issues are as serious as any that have been presented to the American people since the close of the civil war. They involve not only domestic questions of great importance but also questions as to the relations of this government to the rest of the world. On the result of the next national election may hang the future of this government. We have again come to the parting of the ways and must choose our course, whether it shall be expansion or contraction. The American voters must decide whether they will stand by the verdict of the war with Spain and the treaty of peace or abandon both. They must decide whether they will go forward or retrace their steps. They must decide whether they will retain the Philippines or throw them, an apple of discord, before the nations of Europe to produce, possibly, a general war involving the civilized world and finally dragging this nation into it. They must decide whether they want the nation to protect its growing markets in the far East or abandon them. These are serious questions.

The voters must decide whether they will uphold the verdict of four years ago, in favor of honest money which will be recognized the world over as good for its face value, or overturn that verdict and adopt a debased silver currency. They must decide what is to be the standard of value in this country,-gold or silver. The issue is made and now only the voters can decide. They must decide whether they want to continue the prosperity which has smiled upon them during this administration or go back to the uncertainty of a revolution in the political control and economic policy of the government.

These questions are important and call for serious consideration by every man who will go to the polls and vote his judgment and preference in November. It has been the boast of the American people that they are freest and most independent and most enlightened in the world. This has not been an idle boast. It has been accepted as true by the civilized world. There is no other country where suffrage is so free and universal as in the United States. The words of Lincoln are true. This is "a government of the people, for the people and by the people." The voters make the government. It is theirs. They can by the will of the majority decide every question at issue in this campaign.

They have the power to uphold or defeat the present administration, to sustain or undo everything it has done.

Our elections were never so free as now. With the Australian ballot system in nearly every state, every voter has his suffrage free from dictation by any other man, or set of men. On election day every man is master. He can and should do as his judgment wills. He has the privilege and the duty and he also has the responsibility. Every man owes it to himself and his fellows to consider and understand what he would have the government do in the next four years before he casts his vote. This volume is presented with the honest purpose of assisting the voters to an understanding of the Republican side of these issues, by giving their history and the purposes behind them. The attempt has been to go to the record and judge the future by the past. Neither men nor parties can stand on their record of past work alone, but their record is the best indication of their ability and readiness to carry out promises. Both great political parties have a record. The Republican party has for its record the political control of the government through its period of greatest moral and material development. The conscience of the American people has been awakened to the iniquity of slavery and polygamy, twin relics of barbarism, and these have been wiped off the page of American history since the Republican party came into control of the government. There has been more recognition given to the rights of the individual man by legislation in the past forty years than in any other period of our history. There has also been more attention given to the material upbuilding of the American people in this period than in any other. This record may not belong to the Republican party alone, but it was made under Republican administration and that party has a right to be judged by it.

In considering the issues of this campaign it is important to consider the practical as well as the sentimental side of every question. The Republican record is one of practical achievement, not alone of sentimental protest. The party has considered the practical way of securing results. In this it has followed the example of the Fathers of the Republic. Phrases are not always the best definition of great principles. Some of the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence in which they declared that all men are created free and equal, owned slaves, and Jefferson, the author of the Constitution, held slaves. This fact did not destroy the force of the famous declaration, but it does de

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