Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — THE FIRST GUN [ARTICLE]

THE FIRST GUN

«F THE DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN FIRED IN NEW YORK CITY. Venn. Cleveland and Stevenson Officially Informed of Their Nomination for President and Vice President. Speeches of the Two Candidates Accepting the Nominations. In the presence of 15,000 Democrats assembled in Madison Square Garden, New York city, Wednesday night> Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson were formally notified of their nomination for president and vice president of the United States, respectively, by the committee on notification. The Associated Press report of this gathering*said: “The multitude that adMnbled to pay homage to the national standard bearers of the party numbered in its ranks all classes of the Democracy from the highest to the lowest. The learned jurist from the bench doffed his ermine of authority in order to mingle in common with his party brethren; the ex-Con-federate of the south grasped hands with the mugwump of the Empire State, while the prosperous farmer of the west gave fraternal greeting to the brawny leaders of Tammany Hall, and even forgot his dogmatic hostility to the lords of Wall street in the common admiration for the great leader of the national Democracy. It was indeed a love feast —a feast in which every disciple of doctrines of Democracy might gather at the hqard and receive• from the fountainpurest flow of Jeffersonian simMr. Cleveland and Mr. StevgMOk were given an ovation upon landing tl New York from Buzzard’s Bay. Bat the outburst of enthusiasm of the multitude in Madison Square Garden when Cleveland faced the notification committee was a scene only to be compared to the Cleveland ovation in the wigwam at Chicago. Mrs. Cleveland, who was present, also came in for her share of applause. Cheers after cheers were given for Mrs. Cleveland and balfr Ruth. Congressman William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, chairman of the national convention, and by usage, also chairman of the notification committee, in notifying Mr. Cleveland of his nomination made another great speech. He spoke as follows:

Mk. Cleveland— We bring you tonight a message from the Democratic party. We come as a committee from Its national convention, representing every Democratic constituency in the country, to give you official notification that you have been chosen as its candidate for the office of president of the United States. We are also charged with the duty of presenting you the platform of principles adopted by that convention. This platform contains a full and explicit declaration of the position of the national Democratic party on the great political issues of the day; but in all its utterances it is merely a development of one great principle, that whatever governments and laws can do for a people must be done for all the people, without precedence of section or grades of citizenship. It is a dangerous thing for a political party to continue its existence after the work which called it into being has been accomplished. It will inevitably pass, as the political organization against which we contend has already passed, into the service of the great special interests which everywhere strive to secure political power for their own advantage. Of the present policies of that party it may truly be said that they all tend to centralization of power in the federal government and the centralization of wealth in favored classes. Against both tendencies we fight as against enemies of our freedom. As guardians' of that freedom we plant ourselves upon the principle that the necessities of government are the beginning and the ending of just taxation. Whatever goes beyond this increases the power of government at the expense of the liberties of the people. The government that deals with the citizen at long range, and through officials not chosen by him- . self, will become his master; the government that is carried on beneath his own eye, by his own chosen servants and within reach of his owivregulating and punishing arm, that government can be kept his servant. Yet we. have but recently and barely escaped a successful effort to strike down the government that stands nearest the citizen, and to strip from the people in the states the right preservative of all other rights—the right of holding their own elections and of choosing their own representatives. Such, sir, are some of the issues of the campaign on which we are about to enter. They go to the foundation of our liberties. In this great contest your party has summoned you to be its leader. Four years ago, in the mid-career of a service that well deserved the highest honors your countrymen could bestow, and we feel sure that it will retgive the highest encomiums that history Cap award, you were struck down because as a Democrat, you could make no terms with those who wished to plunder the people’s treasury, or those who sought to perpetuate the passions of civil strife. Your countrymen will right this wrong. They have seen an attempt to turn the gratitude of a great nation into the electioneering fund of a great political party, and service to that party in the conflicts of peace counts for more than service to the country in the conflicts of war. They have seen every power of the federal administration passionately used to destroy free elections in the states. And, seeing all this, they have lost no opportunity in the past four years to honor your administration. And now 1 , sir, we put into your hands the commission of which we are bearers. It Is the highest honor your party can bestow. It is the gravest call to duty your fellow Democrats can make. But we believe we can assure you that there are no “weak, weary or despondent Democrats” in the ranks of our party today and that with the people’s cause as our cause, we doubt not you will lead us to a victory in which the principles of our party shall gloriously triumph, and the welfare of our country shall be mightily promoted. At the conclusion of Mr. Wilson’s address the secretary read to Mr. Cleveland the formal notification letter; then Mr. Cleveland faced Mr. Wilson in presence of 15,000 people and replied ae follows; Mr Chairman and Gentlemen— The message you deliver from the national Democracy arouses within me emotions which would be well nigh overwhelming, if I did not recognize here assembled the representatives of a great party who must share with me the responsibility your mission invites. I find much relief in the reflection that I have been selected merely to stand for the principles and purposes to

which my party is pledged, and for the enforcement ana supremacy of which all who have any right to claim Democratic fellowship must constantly and persistently labor. Our party responsibility is indeed great. We assume a momentous obligation to our countrymen, when, in return for their trust and confidence, we promise them a rectification of their wrongs and a better realization of the advantages which are due to them upder our free and beneficent institutions. But, if our responsibility is great, our party is strong. It is strong in its sympathy with the needs of the people, in its insistence upon the exercise of governmental powers strictly within the constitutional permission the people have granted, and in its willingness to risk its life and hope upon the people’s intelligence and patriotism. Never has a great party, bent upon the promotion of right and justice, had better incentive for effort than is now presented to us. Turning our eyes to the plain people of the land, we see them burdened as consumers with a tariff system that un«and relentlessly demands from them purchase of the necessaries of life an amount searcely met by the wages of hard and steady toil, while the exactions thus wrung from them build up and increase the fortunes of those for whose benefit this injustice is perpetuated. We see the farmer listening to a delusive story that fills his mind with visions of advantage, while his pocket is robbed by the stealthy hand of high protection. Our workingmen are still told the tale, oft-repeated in spite of its demonstrated falsity, that the existing protective tariff is a boon to them, and that under its beneficent operation their wages must increase, while as they listen scenes are enacted in the very abiding place of high protection that mock the hopes of toil and attest the tender mercy the workingman receives from those made selfish and sordid by unjust governmental favoritism. We oppose earnestly and stubbornly the theory upon which our opponents seek to justify and uphold existing tariff laws. We need not base our attack upon questions of constitutional permission or legislative power. We denounce this theory upon the highest possible grounds, when we contend that, in present conditions, its operation is unjust, and that laws enacted in accordance with it are inequitable and unfair. Ours is Mt a destructive party. We are not at ennffitv with the rights of any of our citizens. All are our countrymen. We are not recklessly heedless of any American interests nor will we abandon our regard for them; but invoking the love of fairness and justice which belongs to true Americanism, and upon which our constitution rests, we insist that no plan of tariff legislation shall be tolerated, which has for its object and purposes a forced contribution from the earnings and income of the mass of our citizens, to swell directly the accumulations of a favored few; nor will we permit a pretended solicitude for American labor, or any other pretext of benevolent care of others, to blind the eyes of the people to the selfish schemes of those who seek, through the aid of unequal tariff laws, to gam unearned and unreasonable advantage at the expense of their fellows. We have also assumed in our covenant with those whose support we invite, the duty of opposing to the death another avowed scheme of our adversaries, which under the guise of protecting the suffrage, covers, but does not conceal, a design thereby to perpetuate the power of a party afraid -4o trust its continuance to the untrammeled and intelligent votes of the American people. We are pledged to resist the legislation intended to complete this scheme, because we have not forgotten the saturnalia of theft and brutal control which followed another federal regulation of state suffrage; because we know that the managers of a party which did not scruple to rob the people of a president, would not hesitate to use the machinery created by such legislation, to revive corrupt instrumentalities for partisan purposes; because an attempt to enforce such legislation would rekindle animosities where peace and hopefulness now prevail; because such an attempt would replace prosperous activity with discouragement and dread throughout a large section of our country, ana would menace, everywhere in the land, the rights reserved to the states and to the people, which underlie the safeguards of American liberty. I shall not attempt to specify at this time other objects and aims of Democratic endeavor which add inspiration to our mission. True to its history and its creed, our party will respond to the wants of the people within safe lines, and guided by enlightened statesmanship. To the troubled and impatient within our membership, we commend ci itinued, unswerving allegiance to the t rty whose principles, in all times past, have been found sufficient for them, and v, hose aggregate wisdom and patriotism, their experience teaches, can always be trusted.

In a tone of partisanship, which befits the occasion, let me say to you as equal partners in the campaign upon which we ■ today enter that the personal fortunes of those to whom you have entrusted your banners are only important as they are related to the fate of the principles they represent and to the party which they lead. I can not, therefore, forbear reminding you and all those attached to the Democratic party or supporting the principles which we profess that defeat in the pending campaign followed by the consummation of the legislative schemes our opponents contemplate, and accompanied by such other incidents of their success as might more firmly fix their power, would present a most discouraging outlook for future Democratic supremacy and for the accomplishment of the objects we have at heart. Moreover, every sincere Democrat must believe that the interests of his country are deeply involved in the victory of pur party in the struggle that awaits us. Thus patriotic solicitude exalts the hope of partisanship, and should intensify our determination to win success. This success can only be achieved by systematic and intelligent effort on the part of all enlisted in our cause. Let. us tell the people plainly and honestly what we believe and how we propose to serve the interests of the entire country, and then let us, after the manner of true Democracy, rely upon the thoughtfulness and patriotism of our fellowcountrymen. It only remains for me to say to you, in advance of a more formal response to your message, that I obey the command of my party and confidently anticipate that an intelligent and earnest presentation of aur cause will insure a popular endorsement of the action of the body you represent. Mr. Stevenson’s turn came next and after Mr. White, of California, bad delivered his address and the formal letter of the committee had been read to him Mr. Stevenson replied in a five-minute speech concluding as follows:

I am not unmindful, Mr. Chairman, of the grave responsibilties which attach to the great office for which I have been named. I may be pardoned for quoting in this connection the words of the honored patriot. Thomas A. Hendricks, when officially informed that he had been designated by his party for the vice presidency in 1884. He said: “I know that sometimes it is understood that this particular office does pot involve much responsibil ;ty, and as a general rule, that is so. But sometimes it comes to represent very great responsibilities, and it may be so in the near future. The two parties in the senate being so nearly evenly divided, the vice president may have to decide upon questions of law by the exercise of the casting vote. The responsibility would then become very great It would not then be the responsibility of representing a district or a state. It would be the responsibility of representing the whole country, and the obligation would be to the judgment of the whole country. And the vote when thus cast should be in obedience to the just expect*

ttons and requirements of the people of the United States.” Should it please my countrymen to call me to this office, the nigh appreciation of its dignity and of its responsibilities as expressed in the utterances and illustrated In the public life of the eminent statesman whom I have mentioned will be a light to mj own pathway. [Applause.] In the contest upon which we now enter we make no appeal to the passions, but to the sober judgment of the people. We be lieve that the welfare of the toiling millions of our countrymen is hound up in the success of the Democratic party. Recent occurrences in a neighboring state have sadly emphasized the fact that a high protective tariff affords no protection and tends in no way to better the condition of those who earn their bread by daily toil. [Great applause.] Believing in the right of every voter to cast his ballot unawed by power, the Democratic party will steadily oppose all legislation which threatens to Imperil that right by the interposition of federal bayonets at the polls. In a more formal manner hereafter, Mr. Chairman, I will by letter my acceptance of the nomination tendered me by the national Democratic convention and will give expressions to my views touching the important questions enunciated in Its platform. [Great applause.]