Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1900 — HORNBLOWER. [ARTICLE]

HORNBLOWER.

NATIONAL HONOR OVER COLONIAL QUESTIONS. Why Judge Hornblower De* dines to Support Bryan. Opinion of a Leading New York Jurist Whose Elevation to the Supreme Bench Was Beaten by D. B. Hill. I...;;;;' * ' “ ■ .: —srr(By Judge William B. Horn blower of New York.) Judge William B. Hornblower of New York, who was nominated to the Supreme bench of the United States ■. by President Cleveland, and whose continuation was beaten in the Senate for purely personal causes by David B. Hill, has made the following statement why he, a Democrat, cannot support Bryan: I have l>een repeatedly asked during the past few weeks what, in my judgment. is the duty of a Gold Democrat who is also an Anti-Imperialist, in the jmudiug presidential campaign. The question is by no means a simple one, and I can well understand and appreciate the position taken by such men as Mr. Schurz. Mr. Shepard and Mr. Olney. For my "own part, however, I cannot see my way clear to reaching their conclusions. The same reasons which compelled me to oppose Mr. Bryan in 189 G compel me to oppose him in the present campaign. Ail the heresies, financial and Populistic, which were embodied in the nn-Democratic, crazy-quilt platform of 18WG are readopted without any attempt at modification or mollification by the Ivaiisas City platform. The 10 to 1 plank is expressly reaffirmed and redeclared, and this at the instance of Mr. Bryan himself. 1 cannot support a candidate who still adheres to a proposition which, to my mind, is a monstrosity and which, if carried into effect, would in my judgment produce untold disaster to all classes of the community and bring dishonor and humiliation to our nation. The fact, if it be a fact, that recent legislation has made it difficult for Mr. Bryan to carry into practice his avowed principles does not. it seems to be, make it any the more right to vote for a man who still maintains these principles. It is quite within the possibilities that duriug his administration, if he should be elected, a complete change might be effected in the political composition of both houses of Congress, and the verdict of the people expressed at the polls in favor of Mr. Bryan’s election as President might be carried into effect.' It will certainly be Mr. Bryan’s duty, according to his expressed declaration, to do what in him lies to bring about this result. It is not to be forgotten that Mr. Bryan is not only the candidate of what is left of the Democratic party, but he is the eandidate also of the Populist party, and has accepted the nomination on their platform. The radical notions of the Populists, if ever carried into effect in this country, would reduce popular government to a position where we should be the laughing stock of the nations, and would produce a reaction in the minds of the voters which would carry us far in the direction of domestic imperialism, which I suppose will be conceded to be of vastly more moment to us and to our posterity than colonial imperialism. Indeed, the chief objection to colonial imperialism is its probable effect upon our domestic institutions, and its tendency towards enlarging the powers of the executive as between the executive and the legislative departments of the government, and towards increasing the powers of the Federal government as between itself and the States.

The question as to what is the “paramount issue” in this campaign is one on which men may honestly differ. It seems to me, however, that the most important issue before us at tho present moment is whether our domestic affairs are to be thrown into confusion and exposed to disaster. The rights and wrongs of our colonial possessions must in this emergency be subordinated to the rights and wrongg of our own affairs. Furthermore, I am by no means satisfied that Mr. Bryan would be a safe person to whom to intrust the imperialistic questions which will confront us in the future. In my judgment he ought to have made his fight at the time when the treaty with Spain was before the Senate. He should have upheld the hands of such dissenting Republicans as Senator Hoar, and he should have opposed to the bitter end the principle of buying foreign peoples without their consent and in the midst of a war for independence on their part. By supporting the treaty Mr. Bryan made himself a party to its compact, and is, more than any other one man, except Mr. McKinley, responsible for the situation. The treaty was ratified, the purchase money was paid, the islands are in» our possession. In iny judgment, the question of their future and of our future, as determined indirectly by their future, must wait until we have settled the question of the present and that question is whether honesty integrity and common sense shall be’applied to the financial affairs of the United States, or whether popnlar approval shall be given to the vagaries, whims, a*d fallacies of the Populists and Bryanites with all the resulting disaster and dishonor. WILLIAM B. HORNBLOWER. New York. Sept. 18.

“What 1 denounce ifl.it Protective Tariff. It ia false economy and the most vicious political principle that has ever cursed this country.”—William Jennings Bryan in a speech in the House of Representatives, 1894, advocating the passageof the W'ilsonGorman Free Trade Tariff law.