People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1893 — AN IGNORANT DEMOCRAT [ARTICLE]

AN IGNORANT DEMOCRAT

Wants to Know Something About Some Thlfto«i< EdiTOHS I do not know very much and, perhaps that is the reason I have always been a Democrat. Ignorant as I am; however; 1 fealfar think there is one thing >hat Ido it now, and that is the Democrat pary is divided on one great question that fbr sixty yfdr» it was a unit on. For a quarter of d century I haye been a voter in this party. From Jackson to Cleveland? my fatdilj' hws been in its ranks. My whole political teachings, faith and action have been Democratic.- I have found that however much my party has differed on candidates; party policy, and sometimes on a few great- national issues, yet when it came to the money question it has always bbk'ri toliH tor silver. In the days wneh Were our only circulating meahiift w< remember how every piece of silver was stored away as a precious keepsake, and by my political associates denominated Democratic currency. What pride we once took in calling ourselves hSi-d ifiottey and hard money we then tifiderstood to mean silver and gold, especially silver. Well do we remember of hearing tire fathers' tell of packing the silv'c'r <MWs aJwky in the saddle-bags and riding era to the land office at Crawfordsville. It was the good old Democratic currency; the bright silver doli lars thdf paid the entrance price of many a western ftoW; ,in all our lives until these late days did we hear a Democrat coffipldih' of Silver; As We said in the* Vto know but ' little, but of the to# things we ido know one of them is, that, to iouf mind, Democracy and silver have always been inseparable. Nd't wly-democracy an- r ciently for silvef, Wt oUr late state and national platforms h’fft’e I declared for it. Only just a few years ago our state platform came out square and fair for free stß'&f.’ Alrifost every state and national conV#fiMos from 1876 to 1892 have arraigned We Republican party for demonetizing silver. Upon every Democratic stump we have heard our ioratofS thdcowardly ■act of 1873’., with’ & their eyes have we heard our spealto’ts plead for the return of the dhddy dollars, the money of the constitution. Not only in party plattorm.s and Political stump speakers have wd the Democratic cry for silver, but tft the 9 f congress its Democratic friends have spokeil for it The great modern Democratic leader, John G. Carlisle, said in one of his great speeches in congress, “I know that the world’s stock of precious metals Is heme too large; and 1 see no reason to apprehend that it will ever become so. Mankind will be' fortutiate indeed if the annual production of gold arid silver Shall keep pace with tlib driiiddl iricf’gtSS ot population, commerce and industry. According t-g iny irieW Of the subject; the conspiracy which seeriis to Ween formed here and in Europe to by legislation and otherwise tHreeseveiithS to due-half s os the metallic money o’s thd Wqfld, id the riiost gigantic efiffie df the Carlisle, the then Democratic leader of the.hidUsd waspleading for Silver; W.as then Ori the old Democratic platfdrrii. and every member of his party in the house applauded his speech. Ido not know much, but I do know that until quite recently I have always been lead to think that the Democratic party was solid for silver. I am not alone in this belief, but thousands and thousands of others have been lead to look at this subject just as I do. While many of the ablest men of my party are to-day standing up bravely for silver, yet the whole power of a Democratic administration is against it. Here is division. A house divided against itself can not stand. Democracy without silver is, to me, no Democracy Tit all. A Discouraged Democrat. X