Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1896 — RICHARD P. BLAND. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RICHARD P. BLAND.

Brief Sketch of Missouri’s Candidate - ——for the Presidency. Richard Parks Bland, whosp presidential boom has been launched by the Missouri silver Democrats, is one of the Tnost, picturesque men 1 in, American political life. He has been" called “Silver Dick,” “Silver Dollar Bl'and,” “Bullionaire Bland” and other soubriquets indicative of the interest he has taken in money matters apd coin. Mr. Bland wqs born in 1835 neat? Hartford, Ivy., in “the Green River country.” Wheri about 20

years old Bland went to Missouri, where he lived five years and then went to California, and later to Utah. He practiced law among the miners nnd had ample opportunity to study the mineral interests and the relative output of silver and gold. In 1865 he returned to Missouri and settled in Rolla, Phelps County. In 1809 he removed to Lebanon, whic.. is his present home. He was first elected to Congress in 1572. He took his seat the following year after the demonetization of silver.'WTß77 Bland began to fight for free coinage. He was in Congress for twenty-two years, and his most noted measure was a bill providing for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, restoring 412 Vi grains of standard silver as the dollar and the limit of value. The bill passed the House and was amended in the Senate. President Hayes vetoed It. Since his defeat in 1894 Mr. Bland has cultivated a farm near Lebhnon, Mo.

RICHARD P. BLAND.