Tirey L. Ford

“ All all were made to stand aside for the chosen leader of a determined people.
Never did a nomination for the high office of President come more directly from the hearts of the people and never was a nomination more fittingly bestowed. A youth of toil and frugal industry had opened the heart and mind of William McKinley to the necessities of American labor in its ruinous competition with the ill paid labor of other lands while as a soldier he mastered the art of war and gave the noblest proof of a patriot's loyal love. ”

“ Once only has the arbitrament of war been necessary to the determination of any question relating to the internal affairs of the nation, —a method not likely to be again employed until the lesson of the Rebellion shall have been forgotten and reason shall have yielded to the uncontrolled passions of prejudiced men. To say that political differences have existed, do exist, and will continue to exist, among our people, is but to say that our government is the work of human hands. ”

“ The great Empire State with all its wealth and power and with the prestige of a popular chief executive was compelled to bow before the determined will of an earnest people. From the Keystone State came that master of American politics whose genius for organization has carried his name throughout the length and breadth of the land and he too like all the rest who broke a lance against McKinley's shield surrendered to the all pervading sentiment that swept our country with such resistless force. ”

“ Added to this appalling condition of affairs, so graphically, though reluctantly, portrayed by a Democratic President, the ominous mutterings of an organized rebellion furnished proof of yet graver dangers that must soon confront the young, though vigorous, party that was just entering upon its initial administration. Never was any political party confronted with conditions so grave or with problems so mighty and serious, and never did any political party rise with such supreme majesty to the complete fulfillment of its promises and the unfaltering execution of its principles. ”

“ Never was an industry at once so vast in its proportions and so closely allied to the necessities of commerce so suddenly stricken down by the silent decree of a judicial tribunal Never was a people so brave and so law abiding in the face of such business disaster and financial ruin as came to the hydraulic miners through the official utterance of a Federal Judge By the application of an ancient rule of the English common law a hundred millions of invested capital were destroyed and thousands of homes were rendered desolate. ”

“ The greatest political leaders of the age strove in vain to check the popular will and to divert it into other channels but they failed utterly failed. Far over against the morning sun in the old Pine Tree State a prince of parliamentarians a born leader of men saw his high ambition buried beneath the rising tide that all New England was powerless to resist. ”

“ By a system of revenue and finance that has challenged the admiration of the world, the Republican party redeemed our country from the wretched condition into which it had fallen, restored the integrity of the Union, brought prosperity to the nation, and finally, after thirty two years of unexampled progress, redelivered the country to the mistaken policies of a misguided Democracy. ”

“ The success of the United States in material development is the most illustrious of modern times. The American Nation has not only successfully borne and suppressed the most gigantic and expensive warof all history, but immediately after disbanded its army, found work for all its soldiers and marines, paid off most of its debt, gave labor and homes to all the unemployed of Europe as fast as they could arrive within the territory, and still by a system of taxation so indirect as not to be perceived, much less felt. ”

“ There is still much to be done Congress must carry out in good faith the policy to which it is solemnly pledged by the Act of March 1st 1893 the provisions of that Act must be made clear and certain and relieved of all possible ambiguity or doubt no manner of question must be left respecting the rights intended to be guaranteed to the hydraulic miner and finally adequate financial aid must be obtained to enable the government engineers to carry into full and practical effect the expressed policy of the national government as above indicated. ”

“ There is no desire upon the part of Republicans to reflect upon the sincerity of Democratic leaders. Buchanan was doubtless honest in his hostility to a protective tariff, and it is not believed that Cleveland was lacking in sincerity in his advocacy of a free trade system. The failure of the Democratic revenue policy is not chargeable to any lack of Democratic confidence in its results or of honest effort upon the part of those who urged its adoption, but lies wholly in its utter inapplicability to a progressive age and to the industrial development of a great country. ”

“ Citizens of San Francisco and of California we ask you to seriously consider the grave and far reaching issues of the campaign upon which we are now entering and when election day shall have arrived and you come to exercise the highest duty of a citizen we ask you to vote for the American home and all that it implies, for the American laborer in his struggle against the sharp competition which a low tariff has forced upon him, for American industry for national honor and national prosperity in short for him who typifies all these and more, William McKinley of Ohio. ”

“ Eternal vigilance is not only the price of liberty but it is also the basis of all earthly success whether in public or private affairs The advantageous position now occupied while a source of profound gratification should not be permitted to create an unfortunate sense of false security or cause a relaxation of the earnest activity that has produced the present desirable results. ”

“ In a government such as ours, where the people make and enforce their own laws and where every citizen has a voice in governmental affairs, the ballot box must ever be the peaceful arbiter of conflicting opinions respecting public measures and policies. ”

“ By their courageous conduct however and their faithful observance of the law under circumstances the most trying the miners soon gained the admiration and sympathy of the thinking public and what was of equal if not greater importance the commerce of a great State began to yearn for the gold that lay hidden in the gravel beds of the Sierra Nevada mountains. ”

“ The Republican party, while favorable to the use of both gold and silver in our monetary affairs, and further favoring, as it has always favored, the universal use of both metals by all nations, hesitates to lead our country into a financial experiment where success cannot with certainty be predicted, and where even a partial failure, in our present deplorable condition, would plunge the country into universal bankruptcy. ”

“ When all this shall have been done when restraining barriers in mountain car ions shall be supplemented by improved river channels when added millions from the mines shall quicken commercial enterprise and give new impetus to the industries of a great State when the valley farmer shall begin to reap the advantages of an improved river system and feel the abiding security of governmental protection then and not till then may the earnest efforts of an anxious people give way to the glad rejoicings of success assured. ”

“ Such in brief is the man whose name the Republican party presents to the nation and for whom we speak to night a man developed and disciplined in that severest of all schools adversity and who represents in its true sense the highest and best type of American manhood. ”

“ For the better presentation of the many grave and complicated questions that continually arise in our public affairs, political parties are organized, each composed of those citizens who are in general accord with the principles and policies of the party to which they have given their political adherence. ”

“ Thus, from 1860 to 1892 the tide of prosperity rolled unceasingly on. impelled by the vital principle of a protective tariff, until in the latter year. a forgetful people, led away by the false, but alluring promises of the leaders of Democracy, adopted a policy which, in three short years has produced more poverty and distress among our people than were ever before known during the history of our country in a time of peace. The policy of free trade is doomed in America. ”

“ General Ford figured in many important legal cases and has achieved remarkable success for so young a man. He is one of the most popular and effective speakers in the West. His voice has splendid timbre, personality is magnetic, his reasoning logical and forceful. ”

“ The smaller appropriation will be used in part in making surveys and formulating plans for the improvement of the waterways to the end that they may be put in condition safely to carry all detritus that may reach them from whatever source the same may come while the larger appropriation is intended to unlock the appropriation made by the Legislature of California and thus cause the expenditure of a half million dollars in the construction of restraining barriers to prevent the flow of mining and other debris into the navigable streams. ”

“ A protective tariff, the fundamental principle of Republican faith, is distinctively an American policy, the wisdom of which has attracted the favorable attention of the leading statesmen of France and Germany and other progressive nations. ”

“ A most singular and erroneous impressron seems to have gained some foothold in certain parts of our country to the effect that gold mining in California upon which the foundation of the State was laid has been prac tically abandoned for other and more profitable pursuits. ”

“ This may be a good policy for England, but is scarcely applicable to the wholly different conditions existing in America. England consumes but thirty-seven per cent of her productions and exports sixty-three per cent, while the United States finds a home market for ninety-three per cent of the productions of this country and exports but seven per cent. in England labor receives a comparatively small part of the cost of production, while in the United States a greater percentage of the cost of production goes to labor than in any other country in the world. ”

“ It has furthermore been demonstrated that the coarser material can be safely and permanently lodged in the mountain canons behind properly constructed barriers at the exceedingly small cost of less than one cent per cubic yard It can thus be readily seen that the contemplated work the importance of which can scarcely be overestimated presents no serious financial difficulties or unusual engineering problems. ”

“ There is one claim set forth by the Bryan Democracy that it is particularly difficult for the laboring man to understand. He fails to see just how a continuation of the present Democratic revenue system which has wrought such havoc throughout the country, coupled with the adoption, as proposed, of the financial system prevailing in Mexico, Central and South America, China, Russia,and Japan, is going to give him more steady employment or an increase in wages. ”

“ That these differences have for a hundred years, with a single exception, been peacefully adjusted by lawful and intelligent methods, is the highest encomium that could be pronounced upon the wisdom and patriotism of a liberty-loving and self-governing people. ”

“ With this admitted element of uncertainty in the proposed Bryan experiment, with the stern logic of history against the probabilities of success, and with the certainty of national disaster in the event of even a partial failure, the Republicans decline to leave the broad highway of honor, wisdom, and experience, to wander off into the realm of untried theories amid the dangers of experimental politics. ”

“ The Republican party has ever been friendly to silver and has maintained its equal circulation in the United States side by side with gold, each having precisely the same purchasing and debt paying power. Second. As compared with other nations the United States has far more than her proportionate share both of silver and of gold. ”

“ A comparison of the existing conditions with those of the most favored period in the history of the country will, believe, show that so high a degree of prosperity and so general a diffusion of the comforts of life were never before enjoyed by our people. ”

“ The Republicans, therefore, claim, and with much show of reason, it must be admitted, that it is not lack of money but lack of confidence, together with a false system of revenue, that has caused the withdrawal of money from business enterprises and brought ruin and poverty to the people. ”