taxes that are thus laid, but with the avowed declaration that it has a right to place a burden upon all for the benefit of a few.

Take its advocacy, now declared, of a system of bounties for a special interest. It is utterly regardless of the question of why that industry more than another, or more than all, has the right to tax the whole people for its special benefit. Take its advocacy of the expenditure of millions on education in doing the work that the States can and ought to and will do, and will be better and stronger States because of doing it. National gifts do not come without National control behind them I think that any State that is looking longingly to the Treasury of the United States to help it in education, might well quote the lines of the old poet, "I fear the Greeks, even when they come bearing gifts."

Take the policy of the Republican party in the matter of pensions. I have been often told that this was a delicate subject for any man to touch who ever had been or expected to be in public life. It is time that some man uttered what we believe to be the truc principles with reference to the pension system of this country. No man of any party doubts that this country should be just and liberal to every veteran who has suffered in her behalf. But there is a wide difference between that policy and one which overlooks the fact whether a man has suffered or not, whether he is to-day suffering or not, whether he made sacrifices for his country, or whether he deserted her in her hour of peril. There is a wide difference between making the pension-roll a roll of honor which shall point out to all people and to all times that these were the men who bravely gave their blood that this country might live, and establishing the principle that patriotism is

a commodity that can be bought, and that the call of this country to her citizens to stand forth and defend her in her hour of peril was a call to them when the peril was over to present bills for what they did in those dark and fateful days. We yield to no man and to no party in our unflinching patriotism, or in our gratitude to those brave men who answered bravely the call of their country. But we do believe that our President, the President of the whole people, was right when he said that the vast expenditures of this country should be carefully disbursed; that there should be a distinction made between a loyal veteran and a cowardly deserter, and between the man who suffered in war and the man who suffered by his own misfortunes or his own negligence.

Take, too, the Republican programme in reference. to elections. The Republicans advocate now, in the message of their President and in the professed opinions of their leaders, that the National Government should step into the States and control their elections. As National gifts are never made without National control, so National control is never exercised without National power behind it. The people of this country who remember the dark days that followed the reconstruction period, who remember the days of '76, when National bayonets controlled the ballots of the people, have, I believe, no desire that that régime should be restored, or that the power of this Nation should undertake to influence our elections.

And what does it all mean? Study the President's message, study the Republican platforms, and tell me if there is not between the two parties a difference more fundamental than any question of revenue or of tariff reform, if there is not that wide difference which exists between a party that believes the government is to

use its power under partisan control for special and for selfish interests, and a party that believes the power of government springs from the people, and is to be limited to their purposes and to accomplish their wishes, and theirs only.

It is time that some party should stand forth to oppose what seems to be the tendency of these times. No party is so well fitted for that work, none can do it and still be so loyal to its history, its traditions, and its principles, as the Democratic party, which is and ever has been the people's party, which now serves and ever has served only the people's cause. I should be untrue to myself, and I know I should be untrue to the Democratic party of this State, if I took my seat without thanking the club for the useful, earnest, unselfish work it has done in the political battles that are past. It is a regiment of young men having no other purpose to serve than the good of the people and the enforcement, in law, of the Democratic faith. I do not believe that we are banded together to advance the interests of any man, except as that man can advance the interests of the Democratic party and enforce the faith of that party. I am sure, with our growing numbers and our great power, that we shall enter on the battles yet before us with renewed vigor, confident that an appeal to the conscience and patriotism of this old Commonwealth will at last turn Massachusetts from the error of her ways into the pleasant paths of Democracy.

I

SPEECH

AT NORWOOD, OCT. 11, 1890, UPON THE TARIFF

AND THE LOBBY.

THANK you for your hearty welcome. It is evidence of your sympathy with the party and the cause which it is my privilege to represent. It is your protest, too, against a party that has neglected the needs and wishes of our Commonwealth, that has not listened to her appeal nor considered her interests, but, cringing under party dictation, has dared to be disloyal to her.

I am glad to open this campaign here in Norfolk County, where sturdy sons, carrying their sovereignty each under his own hat, have not hesitated to break away from a party their conscience could not follow. I come to discuss serious questions, and, appealing to your intelligence and patriotism, to ask you to decide if this is not the time when the interests of Massachusetts and good government demand the defeat of the Republican party.

Let me point out some signs of its degeneracy. First, in the men who lead it. I know that in all parties there is an overwhelming proportion of upright, patriotic men; but parties are judged by the power that controls them, the way it leads them, and the policy that it dictates. At the head of the National organization of the Republican party to-day, by its assent and with its indorsement, stands a man denounced by his own party associates as a "branded criminal," convicted by public opinion.

At the head of one of the great departments of government is another man, placed there only because he passed the hat for the Republican corruption fund. High also in administration is still another, who gloried in the fact that more than thirty thousand times he had violated the pledge of his party and the plighted word of its President by removing faithful officials for politics only; and that man was feasted, applauded, and honored here in Boston by the Republican party. What, pray, is the moral condition of a party that submits to such leadership?

Next notice its utter indifference to the loss of thousands of men who gave it character, ability, and reputation. In every step of its downward career it has left behind a whole army of its supporters who could not and would not follow it further. Among them

were many who had been its founders, leaders, members of Congress, presidents of its conventions, members of its committees in State and Nation, and others high in office abroad and at home. With them thousands of others, young men and old, and all men of character, guided only by their conscience, left it in utter disgust and despair at its evasion, hypocrisy, and lack of principle. Among these stands forth conspicnously a brave and brilliant young man, a son of Norfolk County, who has shown by his words and acts that he is a Democrat heart and soul. Democracy has honored him and itself by making him its candidate for Congress in this district. I am sure that, as he has stood by the people always, the people will now stand by

him.

At each further revolt from the Republican party, leaving it more and more in the clutch of selfish and evil influences, there is heard no demand for reform within its ranks, but only mocking taunts and sneers. I want