Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1888 — JUDGE THURMAN. [ARTICLE]

JUDGE THURMAN.

The Old Roman Delivers a Speech to His Neighbors at Columbus. He Declares He Has Life Enough Yet to Make a Hot Fight for Democracy. [Columbus (O.) special.] Judge Thurman was notified of the action of the convention immediately after his nomination was bulletined. Ho was found in his library alone with his wife, reading a book, and the announcement was made by a reporter. Mr. Thurman quietly remarked: “Well, if a man is struck by lightning, I don’t see how he can help it.” “You will now probably be called upon to make an active campaign ?” “That is hardly probable, ” facetiously remarked the Judge, “as the people have all been informed that I am a very decrepit old man.” A gentleman from St. Louis, who was present, remarked: “I have just come from the convention, and everything was for Judge Thurman, with no objections.” “Yes, there were objections,” interjected the Judge; “my wife had serious objections, and 1 objected, and that, too, strenuously, from the very beginning of this agitation. I did every possible thing to stop it, bat I failed, as you see. Of course it is gratifying to know that so many people think well of me, but at the same time if 1 had my way I would continue to do as I am doing now, rending a new history of Greece, which I have just found.” He expressed himself as satisfied with the platform, but refused to discuss it or any plans of the campaign. The Judge was in the best of spirits, and looking better than he has for some time. , The Thurman Club, preceded by the Fourth Regiment bond, paraded the streets and marched to the residence of Judge Thurman, followed by an immense crowd. The Samuel J. Randall Club, of Philadelphia, joined the procession. Arriving at Judge Thurman’s residence, Capt. Hofman, of the Samuel J. Randall Club, was introduced to Mr. Thurman by President John J. Lenty, of the Thurman Club, and he in turn introduced each member of the Philadelphia Club to Mr. Thurman. Judge Thurman then spoke as follows: “Mv Friends and Fellow-Citizj’.ns : I sincerely thank you for this manifestation of your good-will and esteem. It has been well said: ‘Find how a man is thought of by his neighbors and you can form a correct judgment of that man’s character and worth.’ If I may judge from this demonstration, as well as from all tne actions of kindness that I have received from the good people of Columbus for more than a third of a century, I may indulge the hope that I stand well in the affections of my neighbors. [Great applause.] And when, in addition to that, I have every reason to believe from the attendance here to-night of that splendid body of men, the Randall Club of Philadelphia [cheers], that I stand with that grand old State which used to be called the keystone of the Democratic arch [renewed cheering], and which I hope will ere long become that keystone again, then I have more than ever reason to congratulate myself and believe that I stand well among my fellow’-men. “My friends, I should be the most insensible and cold-blooded man in the world if I did not feel grateful for the kindness you have manifested toward me to-night; yes, and I may say that you have manifested toward me before tonight, and yet I do not know about that quite. I say kindness. Was it kindness? I was living in my own quiet home, with my good old wife and my children and grandchildren and friends around me,.wishing for nothing in this world but peace and quiet, when you and others like you forced me once more into the political arena. Whether that was kind or not, time will tell; whether it was well advised or not, time will disclose ; but one thing I need not wait for time to disclose, and that is that I owe you the deepest and profoundest gratitude from the very bottom of my heart. [Great applause.] “Now, my friends, you will not [coughing.] I got so much of that fire and brimstone down my throat that I can hardly talk, and that is not very fair, for frem what some of my enemies say of me I will get fire and brimstone quick enough without getting it now. [Laughter, and a voice : * A good many years yet, Judge.’ Cheers.] You will not expect me to make a political speech tonight. When the two parties shall have been fully marshaled in the field, when the issues, as lawyers call them, shall have been distinctly declared, when all the candidates have their harness on and are ready for the tilt, then it will be right for me to bear my humble port in the fray. [Cheers.] Then I give you my word that I shall be heard according to my abilities. I think there is life enough in me yet. [Applause.] I think that there is still in this c'd

head some remnants of brains—[laughter and applause]—to enable me to tell the people why it is that all my life long I have been a Democrat, and mean to die one. [Applause.] And I think I shall be able to give them some reasons why they should be Democrats from now until they are laid in the grave. [Cheers.] “My friends, it is not my purpose to say any harsh thing of our political opponents. That never has been my style of speaking. Even when I was a very young man, I might say not a man at oil, for the first stump speech I ever made was when 1 was nothing but a boy —even then I always endeavored to keep a civil tongue in my head. I always recognized the right of every man to do his own thinking, and if he would only think honestly and be as tolerant of me as I was of him there should no harsh words fall from my lips in respect to him ; and so now in the contests that have happened in our own party, it never has been my habit to quarrel with those who did not think just as I thought. I have been before your convention at St. Louis without my will, against my will, as a candidate for a great office. [Cheers.] I was warmly, nobly, generously supported in that convention. I was also warmly and earnestly opposed. “Toward those who opposed me I have nothing in the world but feelings of kindness. It was their right, if they thought some other man was a better man to be nominated, if they thought it was more politic or advisable, however well they might think of me, to nominate somebody else—• it was their right to think so. They were sent there to exercise their judgment, and God knows they have created not a single ruffle in my bosom or the least sympton of ill-will toward them. [Applause.] “No, my friends, I am here to advocate the right of every free American citizen to think for himself. I believe in it and Always have believed in it as the very essence of Democracy and of free government, and, therefore, I wish to say to you all—for it is time I was concluding theso remarks—if Ido not conclude them soon our friends from Philadelphia will scarcely find time to reach tho depot in time for the train. I must, therefore, bring what I have to say to a close, and it is this : that so long as God gives me strength to speak to my fellow-men, so long shall I talk to them the good, honest Democracy in which I was schooled and in which I believe. Now, my friends, I should be playing the part of of Hamlet with Hamlet left out if I did not say another thing that I am going to say, and which I have reserved, upon the teachings of the New Testament, that the master of the feast brings on the best of his wine last. I tell you, my friends, that the St. Louis convention did the thing itself that should immortalize it. It did one which of itself should command the esteem and respect and gratitude of the American people. It did one thing which set a magnificent example for all time to come to the American people, and indeed to all other people who have anything to do in the choice of their rulers, and that thing w'as to renominate Grover Cleveland by the unanimous voice of the convention. [Cheers.] “Now, my friends, when I speak of Grover Cleveland Ido not speak of a stranger to me. I never saw him until after he was inaugurated President of the United States, but I have seen him many times since, talked with him much, consulted with him much, and although I have not seen him for months past I know that man, I think, and I think I know him well, and if there is a brave, honest, upright, courageous, patriotic man on the face of God’s earth, Grover Cleveland is such a man. [Great applause.] Why, my friends, if he is not such a man, if his administration has not been a grand success, if the people have not found that he was worthy to sit hr the chair that Jefferson and Madison and Monroe and Jackson occupied—if such is not tho fact, how can it be accounted for that he received every vote in the convention at St. Louis, and there was not a dissenter from one end of the Union to the other? [Great applause.] Ido not get such indorsements as that. Traitors to their country and to their party do not get such indorsements as that; men of small brains do not get such an indorsement as that; men of doubtful integrity do not get such an indorsement as that. No, it is because Grover Cleveland is an upright and honest and brave, able man that the whole Democratic party in the United States from one end to the other, be it State or be it Territory, be it on the Atlantic wave or be it where the Pacific rolls her mighty volume of waters on our Western coast, be it on the great lakes or be it on the Gulf —every man of the Democratic party, every one who has the least claim to honesty himself, is heard to exclaim : Give us Cleveland for four years more.’ [Applause.] “Now, my friends, I have spoken to you longer than there was any necessity lor me to speak, and longer than I ought to have spoken, considering that our Pennsylvania friends have so long a march to make and little time in which to catch the train. I give you my very heartiest thanks for the kind compliment you have paid me, and wishing you one and all happiness in all your life, 1 bid you good-night. ”