In matters of State legislation also we have clearly defined our position. We believe there has been a steady drift away from the principle of local selfgovernment, too much government by State commissions, and too strong a tendency to manage cities from the State House, instead of from their own city halls.

We advocate home rule, not merely as a sentiment, but as a controlling power, and think there is virtue yet in the principle of the old town meeting. We would give to the individual the largest liberty consistent with the public welfare, and to every locality the right to control its affairs.

I am glad that our club has stated its position on a question that is not and never can be a party question, but one which of late has excited much interest and much unfair and violent discussion. I know I express your sentiment, and that of the whole Democratic party, when I declare our firm devotion to the public schools. as one of the grandest, most useful, and most Democratic institutions of this old Commonwealth. They have been and are her special pride and glory. In these days, when there seems to be an evil tendency to break society into classes, to separate the rich and the poor, our public schools stand as a bulwark against such tendency. Open and free to all, they are constantly preaching the equality of all, and allowing the life of each one to blend with the lives of others. The best and most useful lesson that they teach is this lesson of Democracy, which may well be learned by every child. The Democratic party, in its professions and its practice, is a firm friend of the public-school system, and insists that that system must and shall be maintained. Thoughtful men may well consider whether he is not the real enemy of the public schools who breathes into the community a spirit of intolerance and proscription.

I have spoken, Mr. President, only of the present and the future. I believe there is no profit in mourning over the past. Bitterly disappointed, the Democratic party has accepted its defeat in a manly and patient spirit, following the example of its noble President, yet firm in its belief that the great reform it demands is not defeated, but opens now to us a field of splendid and useful activity. For a time we stand as critics to judge the new administration in a spirit of fairness and consideration, ready to accept and support all measures that accord with our belief.

Let us take, to encourage and strengthen us for the battles yet before us, the old inscription in the little chapel in the Tyrol, which to our greatest poet seemed in his hour of sorrow to be the footprint of an angel: "Look not mournfully into the past: it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present: it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart." The past of disappointment and defeat I believe comes not back again. The present of glorious agitation in a just cause is ours; and if, in that cause, without fear we go forth to meet the future, it can have in store nothing but triumphant victory.

One phase only of our defeat seems to be irreparable, the defeat of a brave, patriotic President, who knew his duty and dared to do it. It is his country's loss, not his. The high standard he set of official life entitled him to her confidence and support. Because his administration was not ever seeking votes, but the people's welfare, majorities unsought should have risen to uphold him. His faithful devotion to duty, his conscientious watchfulness, his manly bearing when stung by an unjust defeat, I confess have made of me something of a hero-worshipper. For one, I find it pleasant to apply to him those grand lines sent by Sir

Henry Taylor to Mr. Gladstone in 1874 in his hour of defeat:

"What makes a hero? An heroic mind

Expressed in action, in endurance proved;
And if there be pre-eminence of right
Derived from pain well suffered, to the height
Of rank heroic, 't is to bear unmoved,
Not toil by day scarce known to human kind,
Not watch by night when Fate is on the wind,
But worse,
ingratitude, and poisonous darts
Launched by the country he had served and loved.
This, with a free, unclouded spirit pure,

This, in the strength of silence to endure,

A dignity to noble deeds imparts

Beyond the gauds and pageants of renown;
This is the hero's compliment and crown."

I propose a health to President Cleveland, a brave, able, upright, and patriotic President. The people's cause he championed still lives; the saddest lesson of his defeat is that taught to his successors, that it may be impolitic for a President to dare to do his full duty.

-

SPEECH

AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, WORCESTER, OCT. 2, 1889, ON THE RECORD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

MR. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOW-DEMOCRATS:

I

FULLY appreciate the high honor tendered me by the Democracy of this State in the action of its Convention. I also appreciate the grave responsibility that comes with it. Unsolicited, you have placed in my hands the glorious standard of the party, have granted me the privilege of aggressively fighting its battle, and of rallying to its support all who believe with us in the principles that standard represents. The struggle must be no holiday pastime, but an honest, earnest, united effort to lift this old Commonwealth out of the rut in which it labors, to truer principles of government, to purer purposes in its administration. In these days of selfish, partisan abuse of power; of unjust and unequal laws; of reckless, extravagant, and irresponsible administration; of timidity, hypocrisy, and self-seeking that lower and degrade public life, we confidently appeal to the people to turn from Republican misrule to our faith as the sign and the hope of progress and reform.

This is the proper place, not to discuss the issues of the campaign, but to state the principles of our faith. Starting with a firm, implicit belief in the people, in their integrity, intelligence, and patriotism, the Democratic faith demands that political power be given

them, not as a privilege, but as a right; it asserts that their manhood, not the poll-tax, entitles them to a voice. in the government which rules them. It declares the equality of all men in the affairs of State and before the altar of their God, and demands "equal and exact justice to all, of whatever State or persuasion, religious or political." It demands the freedom of the individual from unnecessary burdens and restrictions; that taxation, the greatest burden and power of government, shall not be used to enrich the few and oppress the many, but in its purpose be limited to the support of government for the benefit of all, rather than be made a gigantic instrument for distributing favors or paying political debts. Democracy stands beside the humblest individual to protect him from oppression, and to encourage him to make the most of himself. It would make him a partner in, not a dependent upon, government. That power which controls the lives, liberty, and property of the people our faith insists shall be kept. closely within their reach. It therefore demands home rule, the right of each community to govern itself, without interference in its local affairs by a power above and beyond it. In the administration of the people's government as a public trust Democracy demands honesty, efficiency, economy, and unselfishness. This faith rests not on promise, but on service well and faithfully rendered. Much of the glorious history of our country rests on Democratic enforcement of these Democratic principles for nearly fifty years. More recently, under a wise, brave, and honest President, the people have felt the blessing of these principles vigorously and unselfishly administered. Seven months of Republican rule have but cast the shadow that brings into bright relief the virtues of the past administration. Cleveland and Harrison! They fitly