good. Within thirty-six hours he was nominated for the second highest position within the gift of his party.

Unexpected and unsought as was this nomination, Mr. Sewall recognized at once the honor it conferred and the duty it imposed. Of the convention he said in reply to an address of welcome home from his fellow citizens of Bath:

We have had a convention, and it is of that I would speak to you. It was a great convention, yet it did not seem to me to be a partisan one. It seemed more like the uprising of the people, and they seemed to be controlled by one idea, and that idea has filled me for years. They knew that this country is in deep distress, that it has been in distress for years, and that the great trouble is with our monetary system, and they believed, as I believe, that there is but one remedy.

They entertain no dishonest or dishonorable idea, but they demand that we be carried back to the money of our fathers, to that monetary system under which this Government flourished for so many years; and they believe that is the only road to prosperity.

CHAPTER XIII.

A

HOMEWARD BOUND.

FTER a Sunday's rest at the home of Mrs. Lyman Trumbull, and a visit to the newly made grave of her husband, we left Chicago early in the afternoon of Monday, the 13th, accompanied by a party of newspaper correspondents. Business called me to Salem, Illinois, my birthplace, and this made our homeward journey rather a roundabout one. We found the people assembled along the line at the more important stations, and it was necessary to respond to several calls for a speech. The largest crowds were gathered at Champaign and Mattoon. At the former place I met General Busey, with whom I had become well acquainted while in Congress. At Odin we changed. cars, and while waiting for the train had an opportunity to meet many old acquaintances. When we reached Salem, we found the town illuminated and the citizens out en masse. We were escorted to the home of my sister, Mrs. Baird, where we greeted relatives and friends. The next day a brief visit was made to Centralia, where a largely attended reception had been prepared. On Wednesday, a meeting-for Salem a very large one-was held in the court house yard. Hon. L. M. Kagy, who was for two years my law school classmate and roommate, presided, and nearly all the Democrats and Populists, and many Republicans, took part. As the meeting was, to some extent, non-partisan, I tried to avoid political questions.

Salem Speech.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have no disposition to talk politics today, and shall leave the discussion of public questions to those who are to follow me. Returning to the scenes which surround my first home, the memories of early days crowd out all thoughts of the subject upon which we may differ. I remember with such grateful appreciation the kindly feeling which has always been manifested toward me here, regardless of church or party lines, that I shall say nothing to divide upon any subject those who are assembled today. This is the place of my birth, of my boyhood and of my early manhood. Three blocks south of this spot I first saw the light of day; a little to the northwest I lived from the age of six until I was twentythree, and I shall never cease to be grateful to the parents who took me to the farm and there allowed me to acquire during vacation days the physical strength which will be needed in the campaign upon which I am entering. It was in this court house, by the side of which we meet today, that I first

conceived the ambition to be a lawyer; it was in this same court house that I afterward made my first political speech; it was at the fair grounds near here that I delivered my first Fourth of July address. It was to the parental roof, then just outside of the limits of the city, that I brought her who had promised to share life's joys and sorrows with me. All these happy associations rise today before me and leave me no desire to think of other things. I cannot forget Salem, nor can I forget those whose kindly faces smiled upon me here before fortune smiled. I cannot forget the spot near by, the silent city of the dead, where rest the ashes of the father whose upright life has been an inspiration to me and whose counsels lingered in my ears after he was gone-the spot where rest also the ashes of a mother as tender and as true, as patient, as gentle and as kind as God in His infinite love ever gave to man.

It was in this city that I received my first instructions in democracy-I do not use the word in a party sense, but in the broader sense in which democracy recognizes the brotherhood of man. It was here that I learned the truth expressed by the poet, that "Honor and fame from no condition rise." It was here that I learned that clothes do not make the man; that all who contribute to the nation's greatness and have the good of the country at heartno matter what their position in life, their ancestry or their surroundings-stand upon a common ground and share in a common citizenship. It was here, too, that I was taught to believe in freedom of conscience-that principle which must go hand in hand with a broad democracy; that every man has a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and that no government like ours can dictate how a man shall serve his God.

There is an ideal plane in politics, and I believe we stand upon it here today. We differ in opinion and we differ in party politics, but we meet today recognizing these differences and yet each charitable toward the other. We are all imbued with the same spirit; we all possess the same ambition; we are all endeavoring to carry out the same great purpose. We all want a government of the people, by the people and for the people. However we may differ as to the means of securing that kind of government, we can differ as honest citizens-apart in judgment but together in purpose. I thank the Republicans who have assembled here; I thank the Populists; and I thank the Prohibitionists as well as the Democrats, because while we dispute about the questions which rise to the surface from time to time and agitate the people, we all agree in those great fundamental principles which underlie our form of government. We believe that all men are created equal-not that they are equal in talents or in virtue or in merits, but that wherever the government comes into contact with the citizen, all must stand equal before the law. We agree in the belief that the government should be no respecter of personsthat its strength must be used for the protection of the fortunes of the great and the possessions of the poor, and that it must stand as an impartial arbiter between citizens. We agree in the belief that there are certain inalienable rights -rights which government did not give, rights which government should not take away. We agree in the belief that governments are instituted among men to secure and to preserve these rights, and that they derive their just powers from the consent of the government. We know no divine right of kings; the people are the sovereign source of all power. These citizens are

the substantial foundation upon which our form of government rests. While our citizens appreciate the responsibilities of citizenship, and strive, each in his own way and according to his best judgment, to bring civilization to higher ground and to make the Government each year a more fit expression of the virtue and integrity of the people, differences on minor issues need not disturb them.

I have mentioned the basic principles upon which has been reared this, the greatest nation known to history. I am a believer in the progress of the race. Talk not to me about crises through which we cannot pass; tell me not of dangers that will overthrow us, or of obstacles too great to overcome; we know none such. A brave, a heroic, a patriotic people will be prepared to meet every emergency as it arises. Each generation is capable of self-government, and I believe that under our institutions each generation will be more capable than the generation which went before. Abraham Lincoln, in the greatest of his speeches, said that we had an unfinished work to perform. Every generation receives from the preceding generation an unfinished work. The works of man are imperfect. Mankind labors on from age to age but does not reach perfection. Every generation enjoys the blessings bequeathed from the generations past, and we should strive to leave the world better than it was when we entered it. To such as are gathered here and throughout the land a nation can look with absolute confidence for the wisdom, intelligence, patriotism and courage which are necessary in every hour of danger.

But I must not talk longer. Permit me to thank you again and again for the words which you have spoken and for the kindly expression which I see on every face. We know not what may be the result of this campaign; we go forth to do our duty as we see it, but what the verdict will be we cannot know until the votes are counted. No matter whether the campaign results in my election or defeat, it cannot rob me of the delightful recollection of the confidence and love of the citizens of my boyhood home.

At another meeting in the evening I spoke for a few minutes, concluding:

If there is one lesson taught by six thousand years of history it is that truth is omnipotent and will at last prevail. You may impede its progress, you may delay its triumph; but after awhile it will show its irresistible power, and those who stand in its way will be crushed beneath it. You ask me if these reforms which we advocate will be accomplished. I say that if they are right they will be accomplished. We who believe that they are right can only do our best and give such impetus to them as we are able to give, and then trust to the righteousness of our cause to prevail over those who oppose us.

At an early hour on Thursday morning we took the train for St. Louis, arriving there in time for breakfast. From St. Louis we went to Kansas City. Mr. Bland was upon this train and was the first to greet us when we entered the car. This was the first time. that I had seen him since the Chicago Convention, and I was impressed by his cordiality. He traveled with us as far as Jefferson City, acting as master of ceremonies at the receptions along the way.

At the last mentioned place a large number had assembled at the depot. In introducing me, Mr. Bland said:

Mr. Bland's Introduction.

I served with Mr. Bryan four years in the House of Representatives, and know him thoroughly. I know his heart is with the people in this fight and I repeat now, what I have said on other occasions today, that if I had been the one to select the leader in this great contest, I would have selected my friend, the Hon. William J. Bryan.

This meeting gave me an opportunity to speak a word in behalf of Mr. Bland, who had announced himself as a candidate for Congress.

Tefferson City Speech.

I have just been wondering whether I could find in all this country a combination of circumstances which would make a speech so pleasant. I am in a city named for the greatest Democrat who ever lived, Thomas Jefferson; in the Congressional District of one of the most gallant leaders that the Democracy has ever known, Richard P. Bland; in a State presided over by one of the most courageous defenders of the interests of the common people that any State ever had, Governor William J. Stone, and, to leave nothing more to be desired, I am in a city whose Mayor is named Silver. Now can you think of any combination that beats that? Thomas Jefferson, Dick Bland, Bill Stone and Mayor Silver I feel at home here.

My friends, I am glad to learn that there is no opposition in the Democratic party to the nomination of Mr. Bland for Congress. We need him there, and if it is not to be his privilege to sign a bill which will restore silver to its ancient place by the side of gold, it may be his higher honor to introduce and give his name to a bill which, when it becomes a law, will open the mints of the United States to the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 to I.

Before reaching Kansas City we were met by a reception committee, and upon arrival were escorted to the Coates House. After a very pleasant dinner with some of the prominent advocates of bimetallism, the evening was occupied with a short speech to the people who had assembled in front of the hotel and a reception in the corridors of the hotel. Leaving the next morning, we found an enthusiastic throng at St. Joseph and similar gatherings along the line.

We entered Nebraska at Rulo, a little village situated in the southeast corner of the State. As the train left the bridge, a salute was fired by the Rulo Gun Club, and this gave one of the eastern newspaper correspondents an opportunity to inquire whether it was a reception or a holdup. The entire population seemed to be out; the depot was decorated and the town was in holiday attire. This reception was especially gratifying because we were now among the constituents to whose generous confidence I am indebted for two terms