CHAPTER XIII.

CONVENTIONS AND CAMPAIGN OF 1896 THE SILVER QUESTION-TRIUMPH OF MCKINLEY AND SOUND MONEY.

TH

HE Eleventh Republican National Convention met at St. Louis June 16, 1896. After prayer and the reading of the call for the convention by Joseph H. Manley, secretary of the Republican National Committee, Thomas H. Carter of Montana said:

I now have the distinguished honor to present to you, as your temporary presiding officer, the Hon. Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana.

Mr. Fairbanks was thereupon escorted to the chair and addressed the convention. Among other things he said:

Three years of Democratic administration have been three years of panic, of wasted energy, of anxiety and loss to the American people, without a parallel in our history. To-day the people turn to the Republican party hopefully, confidently; and it is for us to meet their expectations; it is for us to give them those candidates upon whom their hearts have centered, and to give them clear, straightforward, emphatic expression of our political faith. The Republican party is a party of convictions; and it has written its convictions in the history of the Republic with the pen and the sword; with it the supreme question always has been not what is merely politic, but what is everlasting right. The great men we have given to the nation and to history, the mighty dead and the illustrious living, are our inspiration and our tower of strength. If we are but true to their exalted example, we cannot be false to our countrymen.

For a third of a century prior to the advent of the present Democratic administration, we operated under laws enacted by the Republican party. All great measures concerning the Tariff and the currency originated with it. Tariff laws were formed upon lines which protected our laborers and producers from unequal and unjust foreign competition; and upon the theory that the best market in the world is the home market and that it should be enjoyed by our own countrymen.

Under the currency laws our currency was made national. The wildcat State bank money of the Democratic party was wiped out of existence. The unprecedented demands growing out of the war were met by a paper currency which ultimately became as good as gold. Since the resumption of specie payments in 1879 every dollar of our money, paper, silver and gold has been of equal purchasing power the world over. The policy of the party has been to make and keep our currency equal to the best in the world.

Under the operation of these honest Tariff and honest money Republican laws, the country grew in wealth and power beyond precedent. We easily outstripped all other powers in the commercial race. On November 8, 1892, there was work for every hand and bread for every mouth. We reached high-water mark. Labor received higher wages than ever and capital was profitably and securely employed. The national revenues were sufficient to meet our obligations and leave a surplus in the Treasury. Foreign and domestic trade were greater in volume and value than they had ever been. Foreign balances were largely in our favor. European gold was flowing toward us. But all of this is changed. The cause

is not hard to seek. A reaction began when it was known that the legislative and executive branches of the Government were to be Democratic.

Neither time nor place will permit further reference to the unfortunate revenue legislation of the Democratic party, nor to the hurtful, demoralizing effects of it. Suffice it to say, that it has been the great and original factor in breaking down confidence, checking progress, emptying the treasury, causing continued deficits and enforced idleness among millions of willing workers.

To meet the monthly deficits and protect our credit and save the Government from protest the President has been forced to sell bonds; in other words he has been obliged to mortgage the future in a time of peace to meet the current obligations of the Government.

Address of Fairbanks.

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This is in sharp contrast with the Republican record. Our Tariff laws not only raised revenue, but they protected our domestic industries. They impartially protected the farmer and manufacturer, both North and South. Not only that, but they also raised sufficient revenue to gradually reduce the public debt, and without imposing a grievous burden upon the people. During the administration of Harrison $236,000,000 of obligations were paid, while Cleveland during the last three years has added to our interestbearing debt $262,000,000. Against such Democratic financiering the Republican party enters its emphatic protest.

Having attempted to reverse the Tariff policy of the United States with such lamentable results the Democratic party proposes to reverse the currency policy.

A sound currency defrauds no one. It is good alike in the hands of the employe and the employer; the labor and the capitalist. Upon faith in its worth, its stability, we go forward planning for the future. The capitalist erects his factories, acquires his materials, employs his artisans, mechanics and laborers. He is confident that his margin will not be swept away by fluctuations in the currency. The laborer knows that the money earned by his toil is as honest as his labor, and that it is of unquestioned purchasing power. He likewise knows that it requires as much labor to earn a poor dollar as a good one; and he also knows that if poorer money is abroad it will surely find its way into his pocket.

We protest against lowering our standard of commercial honor. We stand against the Democratic attempt to degrade our currency to the low level of Mexico, China, India and Japan. The present high standard of our currency, our honor and our flag will be sacredly protected and preserved by the Republican party.

There are many and important questions requiring the enlightened and patriotic judgment of the Republican party. A pan-American commercial alliance was conceived by James G. Blaine, and the highest motives of self-interest require us to accomplish what he had so well begun.

The Monroe doctrine must be firmly upheld; and the powers of the earth made to respect this great, but unwritten law. There can be no further territorial aggrandizement by foreign governments on the Western Continent.

Our devotion to the pensioners of the nation was never more emphatic nor more necessary than now.

The Republican party believes in the development of our Navy and Merchant Marine until we establish our undisputed supremacy on the high seas.

The struggle for Cuban liberty enlists the ardent sympathy of the Republican party-a party which has given to liberty its fullest meaning on this continent. We wish to see a new Republic born on Cuban soil greet the new century whose dawn is already purpling the East.

My friends, the campaign of 1896 is upon us. The great questions for debate in the august forum of the United States are Free Trade and Free Silver against a Protective Tariff and Sound Money. As we regard our homes and our honor, our happiness and our prosperity and the future power and majesty of the Republic let us dedicate ourselves to the restoration of a Protective Tariff which shall be genuinely American, and the maintenance of an honest standard of value with which to measure the exchanges of the people.

A distinguished Republican has said that the supreme desire of the American people is for honest money and a chance to earn it by honest toil.

Mr. Fairbanks was accorded a magnificent ovation at the conclusion of his speech. The rest of the day was consumed in the announcement of the various committees and permanent organization of the convention.

On the second day the Committee on Permanent Organization, of which Charles Grosvenor of Ohio was chairman, announced its unanimous selection of John M. Thurston of Nebraska as permanent president of the convention. Vicepresidents were announced from several States, and Colonel Charles W. Johnson of Minnesota was selected for secretary. Senator William J. Sewell of New Jersey, and Representative Sereno E. Payne of New York, escorted Mr. Thurston to the chair, where he addressed the convention as follows:

Gentlemen of the Convention: The happy memory of your kindness and confidence will abide in my grateful heart forever. My sole ambition is to meet your expectations; and I pledge myself to exercise the important powers of this high office with absolute justice and impartiality. I bespeak your cordial co-operation and support to the end that our proceedings may be orderly and dignified,

Chairman Thurston's Speech.

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as befits the deliberations of the supreme council of the Republican party.

Eight years ago I had the distinguished honor to preside over the convention which nominated the last Republican President of the United States. To-day I have the further distinguished honor to preside over the convention which is to nominate the next President of the United States. This generation has had its object lesson, and the doom of the Democratic party is already pronounced. The American people will return the Republican party to power because they know that its administration will mean:

The supremacy of the Constitution of the United States.

The maintenance of law and order.

The protection of every American citizen in his right to live, to labor and to vote.

A vigorous foreign policy.

The enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine.

The restoration of our Merchant Marine.

Safety under the Stars and Stripes on every sea, in every port. A revenue adequate for all governmental expenditures, and the gradual extinguishment of the national debt.

A currency as sound as the government and as untarnished as its honor, whose dollar, whether gold, or silver, or paper, shall have equal purchasing and debt-paying power with the best dollars of the civilized world.

A protective Tariff which protects, coupled with reciprocity which reciprocates, thereby securing the best market for American products and opening American factories to the free coinage of American muscle.

A pension policy just and generous to our living heroes, and to the widows and orphans of their dead comrades.

The governmental supervision and control of transportation lines and rates.

The protection of the public from all unlawful combinations and unjust exaction of aggregated capital and corporated power.

An American welcome to every God-fearing, liberty-loving, Constitution-respecting, law-abiding, labor-seeking, decent man.

The exclusion of all whose birth, whose blood, whose condition, whose teaching, whose practices would menace the permanency of free institutions, endanger the safety of American society or lessen the opportunities of American labor.

VOL. II.-21.