insistence, had made “free silver” the only issue, so far as the
convention was concerned. There was no difference among Democrats as to
any other plank of the platform. This very fact, and the fact that in
every newspaper in the country the one question of discussion and of
speculation concerning the convention was whether it would “reaffirm” or
“reiterate” had brought the old issue so prominently to the fore-ground
that not to reiterate would mean practically to abandon the position,
while under fire. Had the issue never been raised, had the fight thereon
never been precipitated, it is conceivable, even probable, that there
had come from no source any objection to the policy of reaffirming the
Chicago platform so far as the old issues were concerned, and making
specific declarations on the new ones. But the issue had been raised,
and the objection came,—came from William J. Bryan, at his home in
Lincoln.
On July 1, R. L. Metcalfe, a delegate at large from Nebraska, after a
long consultation with Mr. Bryan gave out an authorized interview in
which he declared that there must be a specific declaration on the money
question. This was taken as a statement of Mr. Bryan’s position, and
David B. Hill, the leader of the Gold Democrats, at once hastened from
Kansas City to Lincoln on a futile mission. He wished to induce Mr.
Bryan to recede from his position. It became at once evident that there
was to be a contest over the money plank of the platform.
On July 3, the day before the convention met, A. S. Tibbets of Lincoln,
another delegate-at-large from Nebraska, threw this bomb-shell: “Bryan
will not run on any platform which does not contain a specific
declaration in favor of free coinage at the ratio of sixteen to one. If
this convention does not put that declaration in the platform it will
have to nominate another candidate for president.”
This authorized statement was a bugle call to Democrats, reminding them
that parties are founded on the bed-rock of principle, and that
platforms are made unequivocally to express convictions. Many of the
leaders of the party, assembled at Kansas City, took their stand by
Bryan’s side, and the fight for sturdy, honest, and manly candor waged
fiercely to the end.
Ex-Governor Hill, who had returned from Lincoln, alone among the leaders
who had fought for a specific silver plank, boldly and openly continued
his fight. He is a hard and stubborn fighter, and he centered his
efforts on the organization of the committee on resolutions. He sent for
heads of delegations known to be favorable to his plan, and urged upon
them the necessity of selecting “careful, conservative, long-headed
men,” as members of that important committee. He argued vehemently for
the necessity of such action as would “reorganize the party” and make
victory assured. “Good God, gentlemen,” the famous New Yorker exclaimed
to one delegation with which he was closeted, “we must not lose this
election. It means fifty years of republican rule. And if we are wise,”
he said, wagging his head solemnly, “we will not lose it. The people
want to be with us. Shall we be so generous”—with an oratorical flourish
and Frenchified shrug of his expressive shoulders—“as to refuse to allow
them to fight our battles?”
Here a Kansan spoke up. “I am not a delegate, senator,” he said, “but I
want a conservative platform. If we don’t get it I’ll go home and quit,
and I’ve voted the Democratic ticket for fifty years.”
“Wait, wait, my friend,” came the quick response; “don’t, don’t, I pray
you, say that. Whether the platform pleases us or not, we must fight,
fight to win, fight to the death.” The eyes of the shrewd and wily
politician flashed. In quick, nervous staccato he continued: “Mark my
words, mark my words. If McKinley and a Republican Congress are elected
inside the year a force bill will be fastened upon us. Why? Kentucky;
that will be the excuse. And the next move—do you know what it will be?
On the pretext that the negro vote is not cast nor counted, the
representation of the southern states in Congress will be reduced. Their
vote in the electoral college will be diminished, and they’ll have the
Democratic party by the throat, bound hand and foot. We must not permit
it. We must not.”
The second day before the convention met, the writer of this chapter, in
a dispatch to the Omaha _World-Herald_, said:
“There are many Democrats in Kansas City to-night who profess to deplore
what they term William J. Bryan’s lack of skill as a “practical
politician,” who murmur their complaints that the leader of their party
does not understand the gentle art of constructing a platform that will
“catch ‘em acomin’ and catch ‘em a gwine,” who complain that Mr. Bryan
does not understand that the end and aim of a political party is to get
into power—to hold offices and control the patronage of the
administration. These men, crafty, cunning diplomats, though not always
successful withal, are, it may frankly be admitted, grieved and
disappointed at Mr. Bryan’s insistence that the Democratic platform
should clearly and explicitly set forth the conviction and the purpose
of Democracy’s heart and brain.
“But in all Kansas City, among all the sweltering and noisy crowds that
throng the lobbies and march up and down the streets, there can not be
found a single man—Democrat, Populist, or Republican—but will confess
his admiration of Mr. Bryan’s honesty and courage.
“To the leaders and manipulators of parties, to the men taught and
accustomed to play to the pit, Mr. Bryan is a source of ever-increasing
wonder and surprise. It is hard for the politician to understand the
statesman.
“It it not to be doubted that Mr. Bryan’s wishes are to prevail in the
great convention of American patriotism which is to convene to-morrow on
the anniversary of the Republic’s birth, to proclaim anew the unchanged
and never-changing truths to perpetuate which the blood of heroes and of
martyrs was shed on a hundred battlefields.
“The platform will be an honest platform, it will be an easily
understood platform, it will conceal nothing, and it will evade nothing.
It will there declare, in explicit terms, for independent bimetallism by
this country alone, at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one. This
prediction may be safely hazarded.
“All day long the leaven has been working, all day long the gospel of
candor and righteousness has been preached, and to-night there is not a
delegate but knows that Mr. Bryan demands that the Democratic party deal
in unequivocal good faith with the people of this country.”
In truth the bold and manly position taken by Mr. Bryan had won him the
admiration and respect of the whole country. It demonstrated anew those
noble qualities which he possesses in such an unusual degree. The
strength of his position was well outlined in an interview given to the
New York _Herald_ by Mr. Metcalfe, who led the fight for a specific
declaration. Mr. Metcalfe said:
“When the American people know Mr. Bryan better, they will learn that he
is not a politician in the popular acceptation of that term, but that he
is honestly devoted to his views of fundamental principles, and that,
while not an obstinate man, on this question of principle he is as firm
as a rock. Men who know him best know him to be a man of iron. He stands
to-day determined that the platform on which he is to be a candidate
shall contain a plank explicitly pledging independent bimetallism at the
ratio of sixteen to one. Those men of the East who do not know the man,
and who may be inclined to regard his position on this question as an
obstinate one, should know that the same firmness of purpose, the same
indifference to appeal even by men known to be friendly to him that
characterizes his adherence to the principle in which some of the men of
the East believe him to be wrong, will sustain him in the White House on
the many great questions on which they believe him to be right.
“The situation is an unusual one as political situations have gone in
this country, but the man who is to be the nominee of this convention is
an exceptional man. As the prospective nominee of this convention he
will not surrender his convictions. As the nominee of the Democratic
party in the coming campaign he will not be a dodger. In the White House
he will not be a wabbler. When he shall be elected, men who may be
saddened by the thought that they have a President who believes in
bimetallism at the ratio of sixteen to one may find consolation in the
demonstration of the fact that they also have an American president who
adheres to the policies and traditions of a republic in preference to
the habits of an empire; who draws his inspiration from the great mass
of the people, rather than from a coterie of trust agents; whose purpose
it is to discharge his duties so that the result shall be the greatest
good to the greatest number, rather than to surrender to a handful of
men the privilege of administering the government to the end that the
many shall bear all the burdens and the few shall enjoy all the
benefits.”
The fight in the resolutions committee was a hard and long one. So
closely was the committee divided that it was evident that neither side
had more than two or three majority. It seemed almost inevitable that a
minority and majority report, differing only as to the wording in which
the party’s allegiance to silver should be expressed, would go before
the convention. And in this event hard feeling would in all probability
be engendered, harsh words be spoken, and factionalism and disunion
might result. In this crisis, one of the members of the resolutions
committee was seized with an inspiration. In a half hour the whole
difficulty was solved. The committee unanimously agreed to a specific
demand for free silver coupled with the declaration that imperialism was
the paramount issue of the campaign.
On July 5 the platform was read and adopted by the convention, and Bryan
nominated for president of the United States.
Again the writer incorporates a portion of a dispatch sent by him to the
_World-Herald_ descriptive of this memorable session of the convention:
“Never in the history of popular government has there been held a
national convention of a great political party that can be likened to
that which at Kansas City to-day promulgated its declaration of
principles and nominated its candidate for the chief magistracy of the
great commonwealth of sovereign American states.
[Illustration: ADLAI STEVENSON]
“To-day’s session witnessed scenes of turbulent enthusiasm, of intense
patriotic ardor such as have never before been witnessed and such as
promise a victory at once glorious and complete for William J. Bryan at
the polls next November. It has been a day marked by loftiest patriotism
and noblest purposes, a day that for centuries to come will stand clear
and distinct as marking an epoch in the cause of human liberty.
“To-day was fired the first gun of that great war which is to be waged
during the next four months for the preservation of the Republic and the
perpetuation of American institutions. And to-day, on a Democratic
platform, addressing a Democratic convention, Webster Davis, Republican
orator, statesman, and publicist, denounced in words of burning
eloquence Republican abandonment of republican principles, and pledged
his loyal and unswerving support to William J. Bryan. And on that same
platform David B. Hill, Gold Democrat, stood before wildly cheering
thousands, and announced a reunited Democracy.
“’Save the Republic,’ is to be the battle cry, the Declaration of
Independence the party creed, ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ the
battle hymn, and the American flag the party emblem. And the leader,
honest, unswerving, and undaunted, is to be the same gallant chieftain
who breathed anew the breath of life into Democracy four years ago and
marched it to glorious battle. Such, while the fire of patriotism burned
fiercely in its heart, was the unanimous decision reached to-day by the
Democratic National convention.
“As has been daily predicted in these dispatches, the Democratic party
took no backward step on the question of finance.
“There is no attempt at quibbling, at subterfuge, or equivocation.
Honesty and candor of the highest order live in this plank of the
platform as they have their being in every other plank. There is not a
line, a word, or a syllable capable of more than the one meaning; there
are no omissions, no half statements, no dodgings of any question. The
platform is in every sense worthy of the man—candid, bold, honest, and
sincere even as he is candid, bold, honest, and sincere. Most wondrously
were the schemes and machinations of the enemies of the Democratic party
confounded. For on the single question on which the delegates were
divided, as to whether there should be a specific demand for the free
coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one by this nation alone,
the committee on resolutions brought in a unanimous report and the
demand was boldly and specifically made. And the platform in which that
demand was incorporated was adopted by the convention, not only with
absolute unanimity, but amid the wildest, the most general, and most
prolonged enthusiasm.
“In this unanimity spoke the love of every delegate for the Republic. It
came because of a realizing sense that popular government and free
institutions are in danger. And with that danger threatening, not a man
in the convention but felt that all other differences must be buried
while the party that founded and builded the Republic rallies to guard
the sacred edifice from the vandal hands that are outstretched for its
destruction. And thus it was that the great Democratic party reunited,
north, south, east, and west clasping hands, love of country in every
man’s heart and ‘save the Republic’ on each man’s lip, gave its platform
and its candidate to the country.”
So Mr. Bryan won his greatest fight. It was a fight not only for
principle and honesty, but for absolute candor and sincerity in dealing
with any question before the American people. And, having won it, he was
again the candidate for President of three political parties. For at
Kansas City, at a convention held at the same time as the Democratic,
the Silver Republican party, under the leadership of that pure and
disinterested patriot, Charles A. Towne, had made Bryan and Stevenson,
the Democratic nominees, its own nominees. And the Peoples’ party, at
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, early in May had, in a spirit of noble
self-sacrifice, gone outside its own party in its search for candidates,
naming Mr. Bryan for President and Mr. Towne for Vice-President. Mr.
Towne, believing that by so doing he could better further Mr. Bryan’s
election, later withdrew from the ticket.
The Republican party met at Philadelphia in June, and renominated
President McKinley, choosing as its Vice-Presidential candidate Governor
Theodore Roosevelt of New York. The platform declared for the permanent
retention of the Philippine Islands as property of the United States.
President McKinley, in his speech of acceptance, thus outlined his
Philippine policy:
“There must be no scuttle policy. We will fulfil in the Philippines the
obligations imposed by the triumph of our arms, by the treaty of peace,
and by international law, by the nation’s sense of honor, and, more than
all, by the rights, interests, and conditions of the Filipinos
themselves.... The Philippines are ours, and American authority must be
supreme throughout the archipelago.”
Those who find this declaration vague and unsatisfactory may well turn
to Mr. Bryan’s great speech of acceptance delivered at Indianapolis on
August 8, in which he makes this distinct pledge:
“If elected, I shall convene Congress in extraordinary session as soon
as I am inaugurated and recommend an immediate declaration of the
nation’s purpose, first, to establish a stable form of government in the
Philippine Islands, just as we are now establishing a stable form of
government in Cuba; second, to give independence to the Filipinos, just
as we have promised to give independence to the Cubans; third, to
protect the Filipinos from outside interference while they work out
their destiny, just as we have protected the republics of Central and
South America and are, by the Monroe Doctrine, pledged to protect Cuba.
A European protectorate often results in the exploitation of the ward by
the guardian. An American protectorate gives to the nation protected the
advantage of our strength without making it the victim of our greed. For
three-quarters of a century the Monroe Doctrine has been a shield to
neighboring republics, and yet it has imposed no pecuniary burden upon
us.”
So is the issue drawn in the important campaign in which, for a second
time, William J. Bryan and William McKinley are the opposing candidates
for the highest elective office in the world. For weal or for woe, who
can doubt that the outcome will be of serious and far-reaching import to
the people of the United States and to their children and children’s
children who shall live after them?
THE INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH
Mr. Bryan was notified of his second nomination for the Presidency by
the Democratic party at Indianapolis, Ind., on August 8, 1900. The
ceremonies took place in the presence of an immense multitude of people,
the number being conservatively estimated at fifty thousand, among whom
were included many of the most distinguished members of the party. In
formally accepting the nomination Mr. Bryan delivered a speech which
will not only rank as incomparably the best of his numerous public
utterances, but which is destined to immortality in the brief list of
the world’s great orations.
For purity and simplicity of style, and beauty and strength of
structure, as well as for its masterful logic and sublimity of
sentiment, this speech has never been excelled. While it has not the
stately sweep of Demosthenes’ Philippics, the incisiveness of Cicero’s
invectives, or the grandeur of Burke’s sonorous periods, in its every
sentence lives such honesty, sincerity, ardent patriotism, and lofty
purpose that it thrills the hearts and stirs the consciences of men as
no other speech, save only Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, has
ever done before.
This speech, not only because of its wondrous effect on the American
people and its direct bearing on the great issue with which Mr. Bryan’s
life has become wedded, but as much because of the glowing light it
sheds upon the character of the man, his ideals, and his motives, is
here reproduced in full:
MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE NOTIFICATION COMMITTEE—I shall, at an
early day, and in a more formal manner accept the nomination which you
tender, and I shall at that time discuss the various questions covered
by the Democratic platform. It may not be out of place, however, to
submit a few observations at this time upon the general character of the
contest before us and upon the question which is declared to be of
paramount importance in this campaign.
When I say that the contest of 1900 is a contest between democracy on
the one hand and plutocracy on the other, I do not mean to say that all
our opponents have deliberately chosen to give to organized wealth a
predominating influence in the affairs of the government, but I do
assert that, on the important issues of the day, the Republican party is
dominated by those influences which constantly tend to substitute the
worship of mammon for the protection of the rights of man.
In 1859 Lincoln said that the Republican party believed in the man and
the dollar, but that in case of conflict it believed in the man before
the dollar. This is the proper relation which should exist between the
two. Man, the handiwork of God, comes first; money, the handiwork of
man, is of inferior importance. Man is the master, money the servant,
but upon all important questions to-day Republican legislation tends to
make money the master and man the servant.
The maxim of Jefferson, “Equal rights to all and special privileges to
none,” and the doctrine of Lincoln that this should be a government “of
the people, by the people, and for the people,” are being disregarded
and the instrumentalities of government are being used to advance the
interests of those who are in a position to secure favors from the
government.
The Democratic party is not making war upon the honest acquisition of
wealth; it has no desire to discourage industry, economy, and thrift. On
the contrary, it gives to every citizen the greatest possible stimulus
to honest toil when it promises him protection in the enjoyment of the
proceeds of his labor. Property rights are most secure when human rights
are most respected. Democracy strives for a civilization in which every
member of society will share according to his merits.
No one has a right to expect from society more than a fair compensation
for the service which he renders to society. If he secures more it is at
the expense of someone else. It is no injustice to him to prevent his
doing injustice to another. To him who would, either through class
legislation or in the absence of necessary legislation, trespass upon
the rights of another the Democratic party says, “Thou shalt not.”
Against us are arrayed a comparatively small but politically and
financially powerful number who really profit by Republican policies;
but with them are associated a large number who, because of their
attachment to their party name, are giving their support to doctrines
antagonistic to the former teachings of their own party. Republicans who
used to advocate bimetallism now try to convince themselves that the
gold standard is good; Republicans who were formerly attached to the
greenback are now seeking an excuse for giving national banks control of
the nation’s paper money; Republicans who used to boast that the
Republican party was paying off the national debt are now looking for
reasons to support a perpetual and increasing debt; Republicans who
formerly abhorred a trust now beguile themselves with the delusion that
there are good trusts and bad trusts, while, in their minds, the line
between the two is becoming more and more obscure; Republicans who, in
times past, congratulated the country upon the small expense of our
standing army are now making light of the objections which are urged
against a large increase in the permanent military establishment;
Republicans who gloried in our independence when the nation was less
powerful now look with favor upon a foreign alliance; Republicans who
three years ago condemned “forcible annexation” as immoral and even
criminal are now sure that it is both immoral and criminal to oppose
forcible annexation. That partisanship has already blinded many to
present dangers is certain; how large a portion of the Republican party
can be drawn over to the new policies remains to be seen.
For a time Republican leaders were inclined to deny to opponents the
right to criticise the Philippine policy of the administration, but upon
investigation they found that both Lincoln and Clay asserted and
exercised the right to criticise a president during the progress of the
Mexican war.
Instead of meeting the issue boldly and submitting a clear and positive
plan for dealing with the Philippine question, the Republican convention
adopted a platform, the larger part of which was devoted to boasting and
self-congratulation.
In attempting to press economic questions upon the country to the
exclusion of those which involve the very structure of our government,
the Republican leaders give new evidence of their abandonment of the
earlier ideals of the party and of their complete subserviency to
pecuniary considerations.