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1900 or The Last President - Ingersoll Lockwood · Classic Fiction Vault - Iconic Stories

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one. That was a terrible night for the great
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  Speaker 1: City of New York the night of Tuesday, November third,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety six. The city staggered under the blow, like
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  Speaker 1: a huge ocean liner which plunges full speed with terrific
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  Speaker 1: crash into a mighty iceberg, and recoil shattered and trembling
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: like an aspen. The people were gathered, light hearted and
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  Speaker 1: confident at the evening meal. When the news burst upon them,
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  Speaker 1: it was like a thunderbolt out of an azure sky.
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  Speaker 1: Altgeld holds Illinois hard and fast in the Democratic line.
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  Speaker 1: This alects Bryan, President of the United States. Strange to say,
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  Speaker 1: the people in the upper portion of the city made
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  Speaker 1: no movement to rush out of their houses and collect
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  Speaker 1: in the public squares. Although the night was clear and beautiful.
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  Speaker 1: They sat as if paralyzed with a nameless dread, and
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  Speaker 1: when they conversed it was with bated breath and throbbing hearts.
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  Speaker 1: In less than half an hour, mounted policemen dashed through
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  Speaker 1: the streets, calling out, keep within your houses, close your doors,
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  Speaker 1: and barricade them. The entire East side is in a
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  Speaker 1: state of uproar. Mobs of vast size are organizing under
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  Speaker 1: the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder
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  Speaker 1: and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged
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  Speaker 1: and oppress them for so many years. Keep within doors,
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  Speaker 1: extinguish all lights. Happily, Governor Morton was in town, and
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  Speaker 1: although a deeper pallor overcame the ashen hue of age
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  Speaker 1: as he spoke, yet there was no tremor in his voice.
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  Speaker 1: Let the seventh, twenty second, and seventy first regiments be
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  Speaker 1: ordered under arms. In a few moments, hundreds of messengers
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  Speaker 1: could be heard racing through the silent streets, summoning the
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  Speaker 1: members of these regiments to their armories. Slowly, but with
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  Speaker 1: astonishing nerve and steadiness, the mobs pushed the police northward,
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  Speaker 1: and although the force stood, the onslaught with magnificent cortage.
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  Speaker 1: Yet beaten back, the dark masses of infuriated beings surged
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  Speaker 1: up again with renewed fury and strength. Will the troops
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  Speaker 1: be in time to save the city, was the whispered
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  Speaker 1: inquiry among the knots of police officials who were directing
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  Speaker 1: the movements of their men. About nine o'clock, with deafening outcries,
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  Speaker 1: the mob like a foreheaded monster, breathing fire and flame
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  Speaker 1: raced tore burst raged into Union Square. The police force
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  Speaker 1: was exhausted, but their front was still like a wall
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  Speaker 1: of stone, save that it was movable. The mob crowded
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  Speaker 1: it steadily to the north, while the air quivered and
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  Speaker 1: was rent with mad vociferations of the victors. Brian is elected,
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  Speaker 1: Brian is elected. Our day has come at last, down
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  Speaker 1: with our pressers. Death to the rich man, death to
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  Speaker 1: the gold bugs, death to the capitalists. Give us back
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  Speaker 1: the money you've ground out of us, Give us back
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  Speaker 1: the morrow of our bones, which you've used to grease
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the wheels of your chariots. The police force was now
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  Speaker 1: almost helpless. The men still used their sticks, but the
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  Speaker 1: blows were ineffectual and only served to increase the rage
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  Speaker 1: of the vast hordes now advancing upon Madison Square. The
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  Speaker 1: Fifth Avenue Hotel will be the first to feel the
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  Speaker 1: fury of the mob. Would the troops be in time
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  Speaker 1: to save it? A half cheer, a half cry of
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  Speaker 1: joy goes up. It is inarticulate. Men draw long breath,
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  Speaker 1: Women drop upon their knees and strain their eyes. They
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  Speaker 1: can hear something, but they cannot see as yet, for
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  Speaker 1: the gas houses in electric plants had been destroyed by
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  Speaker 1: the mob earlier in the evening. They preferred to fight
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: in the dark or by the flames of rich men's abodes. Again,
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  Speaker 1: a cheer goes up, louder and clearer, this time followed
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  Speaker 1: by cries of they're coming, They're coming, Yes, they were coming.
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  Speaker 1: The twenty second down Broadway, the seventh down Madison Avenue,
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  Speaker 1: both on the double quick. In a moment or so,
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  Speaker 1: there were a few bugle calls and a few spoken
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  Speaker 1: commands rang out clear and sharp, and then the two
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  Speaker 1: regiments stretched across the entire square, literally from wall to
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  Speaker 1: wall in line of battle. The mob was upon them
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  Speaker 1: with the slender line of troops. Could it hold such
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  Speaker 1: a mighty mass of men in check? The answer was
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  Speaker 1: a deafening discharge of firearms, a terrific crack, such as
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  Speaker 1: some thunderbolts make when they explode. A wall of fire
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  Speaker 1: blazed across the square again and again it blazed forth.
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  Speaker 1: The mob halted, stood fast, wavered, fell back advanced again.
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  Speaker 1: At that moment there came a rattle as of huge
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  Speaker 1: knives in the distance. It was the Gallant seventy first,
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  Speaker 1: charging up twenty third Street, and taking the mob on
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  Speaker 1: the flank. They came on like a wall of iron,
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  Speaker 1: bristling with blades of steel. There were no outcries, no
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  Speaker 1: cheers from the regiment. It dealt out death in silence,
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  Speaker 1: save when two bayonets crossed and clashed in bearing down
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  Speaker 1: some doubly vigorous foe. As the bells rang out midnight,
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  Speaker 1: the last remnants of the mob were driven to cover,
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  Speaker 1: but the wheels of the dead wagons rattled till daybreak.
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  Speaker 1: And then the aged governor, in response to the Mayor's
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  Speaker 1: thank God, we've saved the city, made an answer, Aye,
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  Speaker 1: but the Republic Chapter two. Great as has been the
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  Speaker 1: world's wonder at the uprising of mister Bryan's struggling masses
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  Speaker 1: in the city by the Sea, and the narrow escape
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  Speaker 1: of its magnificent homes from fire and brand Yet greater
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  Speaker 1: still was the wonderment when the news was flashed across
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the land that Chicago did not stand in need of
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  Speaker 1: a single federal soldier. Chicago is mad, but it is
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the madness of joy. Chicago is in the hands of
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  Speaker 1: a mob, but it is a mob made up of
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  Speaker 1: their own people. Noisy rude and boisterous, the natural exultance
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  Speaker 1: of a suddenly enfranchised class, but bent on no other
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  Speaker 1: mischief than glorying over the villainous and self seeking souls
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  Speaker 1: who have ground the faces of the poor and turned
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  Speaker 1: the pitiless screw of social and political power into the
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  Speaker 1: hearts of the common people, until its last thread had
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  Speaker 1: been reached, and despair pressed its lupine visage hard against
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  Speaker 1: the door of the laboring man. And yet at this moment,
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  Speaker 1: when the night air quivered with the mad vociferations of
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  Speaker 1: the common people, that the Lord had been good to them,
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  Speaker 1: that the wicked money changers had been driven from the temple,
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  Speaker 1: that the stony hearted usurers were beaten at last, that
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  Speaker 1: the Pope William was at the helm, now that peace
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  Speaker 1: and plenty would in a few moons come back to
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  Speaker 1: the poor man's cottage, that Silver was King I King
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  Speaker 1: at last. The world still went wondering why Red eyed anarchy,
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  Speaker 1: as she stood in Haymarket Square with thin arms, along
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  Speaker 1: with wild men in wilder gesticulation, drew no bomb of
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  Speaker 1: dynamite from her bosom to hurl at the hated minions
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  Speaker 1: of the law, who were silent spectators of this delirium
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  Speaker 1: of popular joy. Why was it thus? Look and you
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  Speaker 1: shall know why, white robed peace kept step with its
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  Speaker 1: turbulent band and turned its thoughts from red handed pillage.
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  Speaker 1: He was there, the master spirit to hold them in leash.
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  Speaker 1: He and he alone, had lifted Brian to his great eminence.
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  Speaker 1: Without these twenty four electoral votes, Brian had been doomed,
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  Speaker 1: hopelessly doomed. He and he alone held the great commonwealth
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  Speaker 1: of the West, hard and fast in the democratic line.
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  Speaker 1: Hence he came as conqueror, as Kingmaker. And the very
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  Speaker 1: walls of the sky, touching edifices, trembled as he was
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  Speaker 1: dragged through the crowded streets by this orderly mob, and
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  Speaker 1: ten times ten thousand of his crew creachs bellowed his
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  Speaker 1: name and shook their hats aloft in mad exultation. You
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  Speaker 1: are our savior. You've cleaned the temple of liberty of
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  Speaker 1: its foul horde of usurers. We salute you, We call
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  Speaker 1: you King Maker. Brian shall call you master too. You
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  Speaker 1: shall have your reward. You shall stand behind the throne.
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  Speaker 1: Your wisdom shall make us whole. You shall purge the
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  Speaker 1: land of this unlawful crowd of money lenderers. You shall
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  Speaker 1: save the Republic. You are greater than Washington. You are
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  Speaker 1: a better friend of ours than Lincoln. You'll do more
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  Speaker 1: for us than Grant. We are your slaves. We salute you,
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  Speaker 1: we thank you, we bless you. Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah. But yet,
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  Speaker 1: this vast throng of tamed monsters, this mighty mob of
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  Speaker 1: momentarily good natured haters of established order, broke away from
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  Speaker 1: the master's control for a few brief moments and dipped
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  Speaker 1: their hands in the enemy's blood. The deed was swift
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  Speaker 1: as it was terrible. There were but four of them,
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  Speaker 1: unarmed on pleasure. Bent at sight of these men, a
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  Speaker 1: thousand throats belched out a deep and awful growl of hatred.
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  Speaker 1: They were brave men, and backed against the wall to
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  Speaker 1: die like brave men, stricken down, beaten, torn, trampled, dragged.
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  Speaker 1: It was quick work. They had faced howling savages in
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  Speaker 1: the far west, painted monsters in human form, but never
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  Speaker 1: had they heard such yells leave the throats of men.
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  Speaker 1: And so they died, four brave men clad in blue
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  Speaker 1: livery of the Republic, whose only crime was that, some
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  Speaker 1: months back, against the solemn protest of the master, their
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  Speaker 1: comrades had set foot on the soil of the Commonwealth,
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  Speaker 1: and had saved the metropolis of the West from the
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  Speaker 1: hands of this same mob. And so Chicago celebrated the
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  Speaker 1: election of the new President, who was to free the
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  Speaker 1: land from the grasp of the money lender and undo
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  Speaker 1: the bad business of years of unholy union between barterers
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  Speaker 1: and cellars of human toil and the lawmakers of the land.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout the length and breadth of the South and beyond
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  Speaker 1: the Great Divide, the news struck hamlet and village like
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  Speaker 1: the glad tidings of a new evangel almost as potent
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  Speaker 1: for human happiness as the heavenly message of two thousand
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Bells rang out in joyful acclaim, and the
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  Speaker 1: very stars trembled at the telling and the telling, over
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  Speaker 1: and over of what had been done for the poor
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  Speaker 1: man by his brethren of the North. And around the
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  Speaker 1: blazing pine knots of the southern cabin and in front
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  Speaker 1: of the mining camp fires of the far West, the
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  Speaker 1: cry went up, Silver is King, Silver is King. Black
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  Speaker 1: palms and white were clasped in this strange love feast,
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  Speaker 1: and the dark skinned grandchild no longer felt the sting
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  Speaker 1: of the lash on his sire's shoulder. All was peace
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  Speaker 1: and good will, for the people were at last victorious
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  Speaker 1: over their enemy, who had taxed and tied them into
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  Speaker 1: a very living death. Now the laborer would not only
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  Speaker 1: be worthy of his hire, but it would be paid
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  Speaker 1: to him in a people's dollar for the people's good.
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  Speaker 1: And now the rich man's coffers would be made to
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  Speaker 1: yield up their ill gotten gain, and the sun would
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  Speaker 1: look upon this broad and fair land and find no
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  Speaker 1: man without a market for the product of his labors. Henceforth,
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  Speaker 1: the rich man should, as was right and proper, pay
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  Speaker 1: a royal sum for the privilege of his happiness, and
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  Speaker 1: take the nation's taxes on his broad shoulders where they belong.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter three. The pens of many writers would not suffice
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  Speaker 1: to describe with anything like historical fullness and precision the
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  Speaker 1: wild scenes of excitement which, on the morning after election
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  Speaker 1: day burst forth on the floors of the various exchanges
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  Speaker 1: throughout the Union. The larger and more important the money center,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the deeper, blacker and heavier despair which sank upon them,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: after the violent abolitions of protest, defiance and execration had subsided.
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  Speaker 1: With some it seemed that visions of their swift but
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: sure impoverishment only served to transform the dark and dismal
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: drama of revolution and disintegration into a side splitting farce,
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  Speaker 1: and they greeted the perspective loss of their millions with
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  Speaker 1: loud guffaws and indescribable antics of horseplay and unseemly mirth.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: As the day were on, the news became worse and worse.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: It was only too apparent that the House of Representatives
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: of the fifty fifth Congress would be controlled by the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: combined vote of the populist and Free Silver men. While
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the wild joy with which the entire South welcomed the
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  Speaker 1: election of Brian and Sewell left little doubt in the
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  Speaker 1: minds of the northern people that the Southern senators would,
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  Speaker 1: to a man ranged themselves on the administration side of
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  Speaker 1: the great conflict into which the Republic was soon to
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  Speaker 1: be precipitated. Add to these the twenty senators of the
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  Speaker 1: Free Silver States of the North, and the new President
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  Speaker 1: would have the Congress of the Republic at his back.
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  Speaker 1: There would be nothing to stand between him and the
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  Speaker 1: realization of those schemes which an exuberant fancy, untamed by
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  Speaker 1: the hand of experience, and scornful of the leading strings
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  Speaker 1: of wisdom, can conjure up? Did we say nothing? Nay,
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  Speaker 1: not so, For the Supreme Court was still there, and
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: yet justice Field had come fully up to the eightieth
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  Speaker 1: milestone in the journey of life and justice. Gray was
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  Speaker 1: nearly seventy, while one or two other members of this
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  Speaker 1: high Court of judicature held to their lives with feeble grasp,
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  Speaker 1: even in due and orderly course of events. Why might
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  Speaker 1: their convacancies? And then, in spite of the nameless dread
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: that rested upon so many of our people and chilled
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the very blood of the country's industries, the new year
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: ninety seven came hopefully, serenely, almost defiantly in There was
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: an indescribable something in the air, a spirit of political
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: devil mey care, a feeling that the old order had
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: passed away, and that the Republic had entered into the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: womb of time and been born again. This sentiment began
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to give outward and visible signs of his existence and growth.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: In the remote agricultural districts of the south and far west.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: They threw aside their working implements, loitered about, gathered in
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  Speaker 1: groups and the words of Washington, the White House, Silver
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Bryan offices two for one, the South's day, reign of
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the common people, taxes incomes, year of Jubilee, free coinage,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: wall Street, altigeld T, Tillman, Pefer Coxy were whispered in
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  Speaker 1: a mysterious way, with head noddings and pursing up of mouths.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: As January woarway and February slipping by brought Bryan's inauguration
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: nearer and nearer, the groups melted into groups, and it
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: was only too apparent that from a dozen different points
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: in the South and Northwest, Coxy armies were forming for
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: an advance on Washington. In some instances they were well
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: clad and well provisioned. In others they were little better
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: than great bands of hungry and restless men, demoralized by
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: idleness and brought up to a strange degree of mental
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: excitement by the extravagant terranes of their leaders, who were
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: animated with but one thought, namely to make use of
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: these vast crowds of silver pilgrims, as they called themselves,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to back up their claims for public office. These crowds
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: of diluted people were well named silver pilgrims, for hundreds
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: of them carried in hempen bags pieces of silverware, in
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: ninety nine cases of one hundred plated stuff of little value,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: which unscrupulous dealers and peddlers had palmed off on them
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: as Stirling with the promise that once in Washington, the
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: United States Mint would coin their medal into Brian dollars,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: giving two for one in payment for it. While these
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: motley armies marched upon the capital of the Republic, the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: railway trains night and day brought vast crowds of new men,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: politicians of low degree, men out of employment, drunken and
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: disgruntled mechanics, farmers, sons to seek their fortune under the
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: reign of the people, healers and hangers on, of ward bosses,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: old men who had not tasted office for thirty years,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and more, all inspired by mister Bryan's declaration that the
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: American people are not in favor of life tenure in
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the civil service, that a permanent office holding class is
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: not in harmony with our institutions, that a fixed term
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: in a point of offices would open up the public
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: service to a larger number of citizens without impairing its efficiency.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: All bearing new besoms in their hands or across their shoulders,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: each and every one of them supremely confident that in
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the distribution of the spoils, something would surely fall into
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: his share, since they were the common people who were
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: so dear to mister Bryan, and who had made him
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: president in the very face of the prodigious opposition of
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the rich men, whose coffers had been thrown wide open,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: all to no purpose, and in spite two of the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: satanic and truly devilish power of the hell upon earth
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: known as Wall Street, which had sweated gold in vain
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: in its desperate efforts to fasten the chains of trusts
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and the clause of soulless monsters known as corporations, upon
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: these very common people soon to march in triumph before
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the silver chariot of the young Conqueror. From the west
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and of section one, chapter four. There had been a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: strange prophecy put forth by someone, and it had made
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: its way into daily journals, and had been laughingly or
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: seriously commented upon, according to the political tone of the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: paper or the passing humor of the writer, that the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: fourth of March eighteen ninety seven would never dawn upon
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the American people. There was something very curious and uncanny
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: about the prediction, and what actually happened was not qualified
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to loosen the fearful tension of public anxiety. For the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: day literally and truly never dawned upon the city of Washington,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and well deserves its historical name, the Dawnless Day. At
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: six o'clock, the hour of daybreak, such an impenetrable pall
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: of clouds overhung the city that there came no signs
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of day. The gathering crowds could plainly hear the plaint
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: of cries and lamentations put up in the Negro quarters
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: of the city. Not until nearly nine o'clock did the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: light cease to shine in darkness, and the darkness begin
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: to comprehend it. But although it was a cheerless gray
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: day even at high noon, its heaviness set no weight
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: upon the spirits of the jubilant tens of thousands, which
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: completely filled the city and its public parks, and ran
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: over into camps and hastily improvised shelters outside the city limits.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Not until the day previous had the President announced the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: names of those selected for his cabinet. The south and
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: far west were fairly beside themselves with joy, for there
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: had been, from their standpoint, ugly rumors abroad. For several days.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: It had been hinted that Brian had surrendered to the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: money changers, and that the selection of his constitutional advisers
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: would prove him recreant to the glorious cause of popular government,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and that the reign of the common people would remain
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: but a dream of the struggling masses. But these apprehensions
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: were short lived. The young President stood firm and fast
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: on the platform of the parties which had raised him
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: to his proud eminence. And what better proof of this
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: thorough belief in himself and in his mission could he
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: have given than the following Secretary of State, William M.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Stewart of Nevada, Secretary of Treasury Richard P. Bland of Missouri,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Secretary of War John P. Altigalde of Illinois, Attorney General
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Roger Q. Mills of Texas, Postmaster General Henry George of
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: New York, Secretary Navy John Gary Evans of South Carolina,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Secretary Interior, William A. Peffer of Kansas, Secretary Agriculture Life
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Pence of Colorado. The first thing that flashed across the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: minds of many upon glancing over this list of names,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: was the omission, therefrom of Tillmans. What did it mean?
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Could the young president have quarreled with his best friend
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: and most powerful coadjutor. But the wiser ones only shook
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: their heads and made answer that it was Tilman's hand
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: that filled the blank for Secretary of the Navy, left
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: there by the new ruler. After the people's own heart,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Evans was but a creation of this great commander of
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the South, an image graven with his hands. The inaugural
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: address was not a disappointment to those who had come
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: to hear it. It was like the man who delivered it,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: bold outspoken, unmistakable in its terms, promising much, impatient of precedent,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: reckless of result, a double confirmation that this was to
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: be the reign of the common people, that much should
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: be unmade and much made over, And no matter how
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the rich man might cry out in anger or amazement,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the nation must march on to the fulfillment of a
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: higher and nobler mission than the impoverishment and degradation of
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the millions for the enrichment and evelation of the few.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Scarcely had the young President his large eyes filled with
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a strange light, and his smooth, hairless visage radiant as
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a cloudless sky. His wife's arm twined around his, and
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: their hands linked in those of their children. Passed within
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the lofty portal of the White House. Then he threw
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: himself into a chair, and, seizing a sheet of official paper,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: penned the following order and directed its immediate promulgation. Executive Mansion, Washington,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: d C. March fourth, eighteen ninety seven, Executive Order Number one,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: in order that there may be immediate relief in the
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: terrible financial depression now weighing upon our beloved country, consequent
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: upon and resulting from the unlawful combination of capitalists and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: money lenders, both in this Republic and in England, and
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: that the ruinous and inevitable progress toward a universal gold
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: standard may be stayed. The President orders and direct the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: immediate abandonment of the so called gold Reserve, and that
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: on and after the promulgation of this order, the gold
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and silver standard of the Constitution be resumed and strictly
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: maintained in all the business transactions of the Government. It
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was two o'clock in the afternoon when news of this
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: now world famous executive order was flashed into the great
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: banking centers of the country. Its effects in Wall Street
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Beggar's description on the floor of the Stock Exchange, men
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: yelled and shrieked like painted savages, and in their mad
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: struggles tore and trampled each other. Many dropped in fainting fits,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: or fell exhausted from their wild and senseless efforts to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: say what none would listen to. Ashen pallor crept over
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: the faces of some, while the blood threatened to burst,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the swollen arteries that spread in purple network over the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: brows of others. When silence came at last, it was
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: a silence broken by sobs and groans. Some wept, while
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: others stood dumb stricken, as if it was all a
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: bad dream, and they were awaiting the return of their poor,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: distraught senses to set them right again. Ambulances were hastily summoned,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and fainting in exhausted forms were borne through hushed and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: whispering masses wedged into Wall Street to be whirled away
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: uptown to their residences, there to come into full possession
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of their senses, only to cry out in their anguish
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: that ruin black ruin, stared them in the face. If
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: this news from Washington should prove true. Chapter five, By
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: proclamation bearing date the fifth day of March eighteen ninety seven,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the President summoned both Houses of Congress to convene in
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: an extraordinary session for the consideration of the general welfare
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: of the United States, and to take such action as
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: might seem necessary and expedient to them on certain measures
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: which he should recommend to their consideration, measures of vital
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: importance to the welfare and happiness of the people, if
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: not to the very existence of the Union and the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: continuance of their enjoyment of the liberties achieved by the
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: fathers of the Republic. While awaiting the day set for
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the coming together of the Congress, the great friend of
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the common people came suddenly face to face with the
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: first serious business of his administration. Fifty thousand people tramped
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the streets of Washington without bread or shelter. Many had
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: come in quest of office, lured on by the solemn
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: pronouncement of their candidate that there should be at once
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: a clean sweep of these barnacles of the ship of state.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: And so complete had been their confidence in their glorious
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: young captain that they had literally failed to provide themselves
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: with either purse or script or shoes, and now stood
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: hungary and footsore at his gate, begging for a crust
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of bread. But most of those making up this vast
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: multitude were the unarmed warriors of peaceful armies, like the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: one once led by the redoubtable Cooksey, decoyed from farm
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: and hamlet and plantation by some nameless longing to go
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: forth to stand in the presence of this new savior
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: of society, whose advent of power was to bring them
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: double pay for all their toil. While on the march
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: all had gone well, for their brethren had opened their
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: hearts and their houses as these unarmed warriors had marched
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: with flying banners and loud husahs through the various towns
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: on the route. But now the holiday was over, they
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: were far from their homes. They were in danger of
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: perishing from hunger. What was to be done? They are
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: our people, said the President. Their love of country has
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: undone them. The nation must not let them suffer, for
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: they are its hope and its shield in the honor
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: of war, and its glory and its refuge in times
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: of peace. They are the common people, for whose benefit
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: this Republic was established. The kings of the earth may
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: desert them, I never shall. The Secretary of War was
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: directed to establish camps in the parks and suburbs of
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the city, and to issue rations and blankets to these
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: luckless wanderers until the government could provide for their transportation
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: back to their homes. On Monday, March fifteenth, the President
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: received the usual notification from both Houses of Congress that
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: they had organized and were ready for the consideration of
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: such measures as he might choose to recommend for their action.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: The first act to pass both houses and receive the
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: signature of the President was an Act repealing the Act
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: of eighteen seventy three and opening the mints of the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: United States to the free coinage of silver at the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: ratio of sixteen to one with gold, and establishing branch
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: mens in the cities of Denver, Omaha, Chicago, Kansas City, Spokane,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Charleston, and Mobile. The announcement that reparation had
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: thus been made to the people for the crime of
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy three was received with loud cheering on the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: floors and in the galleries of both houses, and the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Great North heard these cheers and trembled. The next measure
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: of great public import brought before the House was an
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: act to provide additional revenue by levying attacks upon the incomes,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: substantially on the lines laid down by the legislation of
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four. The Republican senators strove to make some
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: show of resistance to this measure, but so solid were
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the administration ranks that they only succeeded in delaying it
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: for a few weeks. This first skirmish with the enemy, however,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: brought the President and his followers to a realizing sense
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: that not only must the Senate be shorn of its
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: power to block the new movement of regeneration and reform
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: by the adoption of rules cutting off prolonged debate, but
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: that the new dispensation must at once proceed to increase
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: its senatorial representation, for who could tell what moment some
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: one of the Northern Silver States might not slip away
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: from its allegiance to the friend of the common people.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: The introduction of a bill repealing the various Civil Service
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Acts passed for the alleged purpose of regulating and improving
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the civil service of the United States and of another.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Repealing the various acts establishing national banks and substituting United
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: States notes for all national bank notes based upon interest
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: bearing bonds opened the eyes of the Republican Opposition to
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the fact that the President and his party were possessed
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of the courage of their convictions, and were determined, come
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: good report or evil report, to wipe all conflicting legislation
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: from the statute books. The battle in the Senate now
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: took on a spirit of extreme acrimony. Scenes not witnessed
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: since the days of slavery were of daily occurrence on
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: the floors of both the House and the Senate. Threats
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: of secession came openly from the North, only to be
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: met with jeers and laughter of the Silver and Populist members.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: We're in the s saddle at last, exclaimed a Southern member,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and we intend to write on to victory the introduction
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of bills for the admission of New Mexico and Arizona,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: and for the division of Texas into two states to
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: be called East Texas and West Texas. Although each of
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: these measures was strictly within the letter of the Constitution,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: fell among the members of the Republican Opposition like a
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: torch in a house of tinder. There was a fire
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: at once, and the blaze of party spirit leaped to
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: such dangerous heights that the whole nation looked on in consternation.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Was the Union about to go up in a great
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: conflagration and leave behind it but the ashes and charred
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: pedestals of its greatness? We are the people, wrote the President,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: in lines of dignity and calmness. We are the people,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and what we do we do under the holy sanction
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: of law. And there is no one so powerful or
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: so bold as to dare to say we do not
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: do well in lifting off the nation's shoulders. The green
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: leave us and unlawful burdens which preceding congresses have placed
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: upon them. And so the long session of the fifty
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: fifth Congress was entered upon, faded to last through the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: summer heat and autumn chill, and until winter came again,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and the Constitution itself set limits to its lasting. And
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: when that day came, and its speaker, amid a while
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: tumult of cheers, arose to declare it ended not by
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: their will, but by the law of the land. He said,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the glorious Revolution is in its brightest bud since the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: President called upon us to convene in last March, we have,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: with the strong blade of public indignation, and with a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: full sense of our responsibility, erased from the statute books
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the marks of our country's shame and our people's subjugation.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: Liberty cannot die. There remains much to be done in
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the way of building up. Let us take heart and
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: push on. On Monday, the regular session of this Congress
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: will begin. We must greet our loved ones from the distance.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: We have no time to go home and embrace them.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Chapter six. When a Republican member of the House arose
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: to move the usual adjournment for the holidays, there was
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: a storm of hisses and cries of no. No, said
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the Leader of the House, amid deafening pludits. We are
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: the servants of the people. Our work is not yet complete.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: There must be no play for us. While coal barns
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: stand with their feet on the ashes of the poor
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: man's hearthstone, and weeds and thorns cumber the fields of
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the farmer for lack of money to buy seed and implements.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: There must be no play for us. While railway magnates
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: press from the pockets of the laboring men six and
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: eight percent return on thrice watered stalks, and rapacious landlords
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: enriched by inheritance, grind the faces of the poor. There
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: must be no play for us, while enemies of the
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: human kind are, by means of trust and combination and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: corners engaged in drawing their unholy millions from the very
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: lifeblood of the nation, paralyzing its best effort, and setting
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the blight of intemperance and indifference upon it, by making
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: life but one long struggle for existence without a gleam
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: of rest and comfort in old age, No, mister speaker,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: we must not adjourn, But by our efforts in these
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: halls of legislation, let the nation know that we are
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: at work for its emancipation. And by these means let
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: the monopolists and money changers be brought to a realizing
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: sense that the reign of the common people has really
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: been entered upon. And then the bells will ring out
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: a happier, gladder new year than has ever dawned upon
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: this republic. The opposition fairly quailed before the vigor and
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: earnestness of the new dispensation. There were soon before the House,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: and pressed well on toward final passage a number of
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: important measures calculated to awaken an intense feeling of enthusiasm
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: among the working classes. Among these was an Act establishing
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: a Loan Commission for the loaning of certain monies of
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the United States to farmers and planters without interest. And
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Act for establishment of a permanent Department of Public Works,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: its head to be styled Secretary of Public Works rank
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: is a cabinet officer, and supervise the expenditure of all
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: public monies for the construction of public buildings and the
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: improvement of rivers and harbors. An Act making it a
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: felony punishable with imprisonment for life, for any citizen or
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: combination of citizens, to enter into any trust or agreement
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: to stifle, suppress, or in any way interfere with full,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: open and fair competition in trade and manufacture among the States,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: or to make use of any interstate railroads, waterways, or
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: canals for the transportation of any food product, a goods, wares,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: or merchandise which may have been cornered, stored, or withheld,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: with a view to enhance the value thereof. And most
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: important of all, a preliminary Act having for its object
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: the appointment of Commissioners for the purchase by the Federal
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: government of all interstate railway and telegraph lines, and in
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: the meantime, the strict regulation of all fairs and charges
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: by a government commission from whose established schedules there shall
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: be no appeal. On Washington's birthday, the President issued an
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: address of congratulation to the people of the United States,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: from which the following is extracted. The malicious prognostications of
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: our political opponents have proven themselves to be but empty,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: sound and fury. Although not quite one year has elapsed
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: since I, agreeable to your mandate, restored to you the
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: money of the Constitution, yet from every section of our
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: nation comes the glad tidings of renewed activity and prosperity.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: The workman no longer sits cold and hungry beside a
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: cheerless hearthstone. The farmer has taken heart and resumed work.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: The wheels of the factory are in motion again. The
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: shops and stores of the legitimate dealer and trader are
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: full of bustle and action. There is content everywhere save
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: in the counting room of the money changer, for which
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: thank God and the common people of this Republic, the
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: free coinage of that metal which the Creator, in his
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: wisdom stored with so lavish a hand in the subterranean
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: vaults of our glorious mountain ranges, has proven a rich
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: and manifold blessing for our people. It is, in every
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: sense of the word, the people's money, and already the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: envious world looks on in amazement that we have shown
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: our ability to do without foreign co operation. The Congress
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: of our Republic has been in almost continuous sessions since
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I took my oath of office, and the administration member
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: deserve your deepest and most heartfelt gratitude. They are rearing
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: for themselves a monument more lasting than chiseled bronze or
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: polished monolith. They knew no rest, they ask for no
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: respite from their labors, until at my earnest request, they
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: adjourned over to join their fellow citizens in the observance
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: of this sacred anniversary. Fellow citizens, remember the bonds which
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: a wicked and selfish class of usurers and speculators fastened
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: upon you, And on this anniversary of the birth of
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: the father of our country, let us renew our pledges
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: to undo completely and absolutely their infamous work. And in
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: public assembly and family circle. Let us, by new vows
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: confirm our love of right and justice, so that the
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: great gain may not slip away from us, but go
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: on increasing, so long as the statute books contain a
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: single trace of the record of our enslavement. As for me,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: I have but one ambition, and that is to deserve
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: so well of you, that when you come to write
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: my epitaph, you sat beneath my name. The single line
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: here lies a friend of the common people and of
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Section two, Chapter seven. This first year of the Silver
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: administration was scarcely rounded up. Ere there began to be
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: ugly rumors that the government was no longer able to
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: hold the white metal at a parody with gold. It
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: is the work of wall Street, cried the friends of
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: the President. But wiser heads were shaken in contradiction, for
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: they had watched the sowing of the wind of unreason,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: and knew only too well that the whirlwind of folly
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: must be reaped in due season. The country had been
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: literally submerged by a silver flood, which had poured its
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: argent waves into every nook and cranny of the Republic,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: stimulating human endeavor to most unnatural and harmful vigor mad
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: speculations stalked over the land. People sold what they should
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: have clung to and bought what they did not need.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Manufacturers heaped up goods for which there was no demand,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and farmers plowed where they had not drained, and drained
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: where they were never faded to plow. The small dealer
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: enlarged his business with more haste than judgment, and the
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: widow drew her might from the bank of savings to
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: buy land on which she was destined never to set foot.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: The spirit of greed and gain lodged in every mind,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and the common people, with a mad eagerness, loosened the
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: strings of their leather purses to cast their hard earned
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: savings into wild schemes of profit. Every scrap and bit
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: of the white metal that they could lay their hands upon,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: spoons hallowed by the touch of lips long since closed
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: in death, and cups and tankards from which grand sires
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: had drunken were bundled away to the mints to be
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: coined into people's dollars. At the very first rumor of
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: the slipping away of the trusted coin from its parody
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: with gold, there was a fearful awakening, like the start
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and the gasp of the miser who sees his hoarded
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: treasure melting away from before his eyes, and he not
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: able to reach out and stay its going protests and expostulation.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: First then came groans and prayers, from which there was
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: an easy road to curses. The working man threw off
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: his cap and apron to rush upon the public square
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: and demand his rights. Mobs ran together, processions formed, deputations
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: hurried off to Washington, not on foot like the Coxey army,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: but on the swift wings of the limited express. The
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: common people were admitted to the bar of the house,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: their plants patiently listened to, and reparations promised. Bills for
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: increased revenue were hurriedly introduced, and new taxes were loaded
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: upon the broad shoulders of the millionaires of the nation.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Taxes on checks, taxes on certificates of incorporation, Taxes on
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: deeds and mortgages, Taxes on pleasure yachts, taxes on private
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: parks and playasnts, Taxes on wills of all property above
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars in value, Taxes on all gifts of
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: realty for and in consideration of natural love and affection.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Taxes on all passage tickets to foreign lands, and double
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: taxes on the estates of all absentees. On and after
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: the lapse of six months, there was a doubling up
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: two of the tariff on all important luxuries. For as
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: we sat on the floor of the Congress, if the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: silks and satins of American looms, and the wines and
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: tobacco of native growth are not good enough for my
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: lord of Wall Street, let him pay the difference, and
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: thank Heaven that he can get them at that price.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: To quiet murmurs of the good people of the land,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: additional millions were placed to the credit of the Department
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: of Public Works, and harbors were dredged out in one month,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: only to fill up in the next, and new systems
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: of improvement of interstate waterways were entered upon on a
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: scale of magnitude hitherto undreamt of the commissioners for the
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: distribution of public moneys to farmers so impoverished as to
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: be unable to work their lands, were kept busy in
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: placing peffer loans where the need of them seemed to
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: be the greatest. And to put a stop to the
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: nefarious doings of the money changers and traders, in the
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: misfortunes of the people. A statute was enacted making it
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: a felony punishable with imprisonment for life for any person
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: or corporate body to buy and sell government bonds or
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: public funds, or deal in them with a view to
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: draw gain or profit from their rise and fall in value.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: But try never so hard. The government found itself powerless
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: to check the slow but steady decline in the value
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: of the people's dollar. By midsummer it had fallen to
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: forty three cents, and ere the fair Northland had wrapped
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: itself like a scornful beauty in its autumn mantle of gold.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: The fondly trusted coin had sunk to exactly one third
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: of the value of a standard gold dollar. People carried
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: baskets in their arms filled with the now discredited coin
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: when they went abroad to pay a debt or make
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: purchase of the necessaries of life. Huge sacks of the
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: white metal were flung at the door of the mortgage
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: when discharge was sought for a few thousand dollars. Men
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: servants accompanied their mistresses upon shopping tours to carry the
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: necessary funds, and leather pockets took the place of the
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: old time muslin ones in male habiliments, least the weight
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: of the fifteen coins required to make up a five
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: dollar gold piece should tear the thin stuff and spill
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: a dollar at every step. All day long. In the
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: large cities, huge trucks loaded with sacks of the coin
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: rolled and brumbled over the pavement. In the adjustment of
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: the business balances of the day. The tradesman who called
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: for his bill was met at the door with a
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: coal scuttle or a nail keg filled with the needful amount,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: And on payday the working man took his eldest boy
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: with him to tote the stuff home, while he carried
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: the usual bundle of firewood. And strange to say, this dollar,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: once so beloved by the common people, parted with its
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: very nature of riches, and lay in heaps, unnoticed and unheeded,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: on shel for table until occasion arose to pay it out,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: which was done with a careless and contemptuous toss, as
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: if it were the iron money of the ancient Spartans.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: And holy writ for once, at least was disproven and discredited,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: for the thief showed not the slightest inclination to break
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: in and steel, where these treasures had been laid up
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: on earth, Although the disks of white metal might lie
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: in full view on the table, like so many pewter
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: platters or pieces of tinware, Men let debts run rather
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: than call for them, and barter in exchange came into
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: vogue again, the good housewife calling on her neighbor for
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: a loan of flour or meal, promising to return the
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: same in sugar or dried fruit whenever the need might arise.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: And still the once magic disks of silver slipped slowly
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: and silently downward and ever downward in value and good name,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: until it almost seemed as if the people hated the
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: very name of silver. Chapter eight. The Fateful Year of
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: ninety nine, upon its coming in, found the Republic of
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Washington in dire and dangerous straits. The commercial and industrial
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: boom had spent its force, and now the frightful evils
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: of a debased currency, coupled with demoralizing effects of rampant paternalism,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: were gradually strangling the land to death. Capital, ever timid
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: and distrustful in such times, hid itself in safe deposit vaults,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: or fled to Europe. Labor, although really hard pressed in
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: lacking the very necessities of life, was loud mouthed and defiant.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Socialism and anarchism found willing ears into which to pour
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: their burning words of hatred and malevolence, And the consequence
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: was that serious rioting broke out in the larger cities
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: of the North, often taxing the capacities of the local
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: authorities to the utmost. It was bruted abroad that violent
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: dissensions had arisen in the cabinet, the young President giving
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: signs of a marked change of mind, and like many
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: a man who has appealed to the darker passions of
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: the human heart, he seemed almost ready to exclaim, I
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: stand alone. The spirits I have called up are no
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: longer obedient to me? My country, O, my country. How
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: willingly would I give my life for them? If by
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: such a sacrifice I could restore thee to thy old
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: time prosperity. For the first he began to realize what
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: an intense spirit of sectionalism had entered into this revolutionary propaganda.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: He spoke of his fears to none save to his
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: wise and prudent helpmate. I trust you, beloved, she whispered
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: as she pressed the broad, strong hands that held her
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: and clasped, Hey, dear one, but does my country came
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: in almost a groan from the lips of the youthful ruler.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Most evident was it that thus far the South had
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: been the great gainer in this struggle for power. She
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: had increased her strength in the Senate by six votes.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: She had regained her old time prestige in the House.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: One of her most trusted sons was in the Speaker's chair,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: while another brilliant Southern led the administration forces on the floor.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: Born as she was for the brilliant exercise of intellectual
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: the South was of that strain of blood which knows
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: how to wear the kingly graces of power so as
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: best to impress the common people. Many of the men
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: of the North had been charmed and fascinated by this
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: natural pomp and inborn demeanor of greatness, and had yielded
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: to it. Not a month had gone by that this
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: now dominant section had not made some new demand upon
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: the country at large early in the session, at its request.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: The Internal Revenue Tax, which had rested so long upon
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the tobacco crop of the South and poured so many
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: millions of revenue into the national treasury was wiped from
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: the statute books with but a feeble protest from the north.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: But now the country was thrown into a state bordering
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: upon frenzy by a new demand, which, although couched in
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: calm and decorous terms, nay almost in the guise of
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: a petition for long delayed justice to hard pressed and
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: suffering brethren, had about it a suppress yet unmistakable tone
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: of conscious power and imperiousness, which well became the leader
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: who spoke for that glorious Southland to which this union
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: owes so much of its greatness and its prestige, said he,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: mister speaker. For nearly thirty years, our people, although left
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: impoverished by the conflict of the states, have given of
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: their substance to salve the wounds and make green the
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: old age of the men who conquered us. We have
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: paid this heavy tax, this fearful blood, money, unmurmuringly you
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: have forgiven us for our bold strike for liberty that
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: God willed should not succeed. You have given us back
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: our rights, opened the doors of these sacred halls to us,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: called us your brothers. But unlike noble Germany, who was
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: content to exact a lump sum from La balf France,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: and then bid her go in peace and freedom from
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: all further exactions. You have, for nearly thirty years laid
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: this humiliating war tax upon us, and thus forced us,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: year in and year out to kiss the very hand
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: that smote us. Are we human that we now cry
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: out against it? Are we men that we feel no
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: tingle in our veins after these long years of punishment
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: for no greater crime than we loved liberty better than
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: the bonds of a confederation laid upon us by our fathers.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: We appeal to you, as our brothers and our countrymen,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: lift this infamous tax from our land than which your
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: great North is ten thousand times richer. Do one of
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: two things. Either take our aged and decrepit soldiers by
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the hand and bless their last days with pensions from
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: the treasury of our common country, for they were only
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: wrong in that their cause failed. Or remove this hated
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: tax and make such restitution of this blood money as
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: shall seem just and equitable to your soberer. And bade
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: judgment to say that this speech of which the foregoing
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: is but a brief extract through both Houses of Congress
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: into most violent disorder, but faintly describes its effect. Cries
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: of treason treason went up, Blows were exchanged, and hand
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: to hand struggles took place in the galleries. Followed by
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: the flash of the dread bowie and the crack of
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: the ready pistol, the Republic was shaken to its very foundations.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: Throughout the North there was but a repetition of the
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: scenes that followed the firing. Upon Sumter, public meetings were
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: held and resolutions passed, calling upon the government to concentrate
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: troops in and about Washington and prepare for the suppression
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: of a second rebellion. But gradually this outbreak of popular
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: indignation lost some of its strength and virulence, For it
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: was easy to comprehend that nothing would be gained at
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: this stage of the matter by meeting a violent and
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: unlawful demand with violence and unwise councils. Besides, what was it, anyway,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: but the idle threat of a certain clique of unscrupulous politicians.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: The Republic stood upon too firm a foundation to be
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: shaken by mere appeals to the passions of the hour.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: To commit treason against our country called for an overt act.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: What had it to dread from the mere oratorical flash
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: of a passing storm of feeling. It is hard to
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: say what the young President thought of these scenes in Congress.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: So pale had he grown of late, that a little
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: more of pallor would pass unnoted. But those who were
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: wont to look upon his face in these troublous times
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: report that in the short space of a few days,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: the lines and his countenance deepened perceptibly, and that a
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: firmer and stronger expression of will power lurked in the
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: corners of his wide mouth, overhung his square and massive chin,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: and accentuated the vibrations of his wide open nostrils. He
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: was under a terrible strain. When he had caught up
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: the scepter of power, it seemed a mere bauble in
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: his strong grasp, But now it had grown strangely heavy,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: and there was a mysterious pricking at his brow, as
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: if that crown of thorns, which he had not willed
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: should be set upon the heads of others were being
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: pressed down with cruel hands upon his own. And of
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Section three, chapter nine, when the last embers of the
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: great conflagration of the rebellion had been smothered out, with
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: tears for the lost cause. A prophecy had gone up
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: that the mighty North, rich with a hundred great cities,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: and strong in the conscious power of its wide empire,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: would be the next to raise the standard of rebellion
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: against the Federal government. But that prophet was without honor
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: in his own land, and none had paid heed to
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: his seemingly wild words. Yet now this same Mighty North
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: sat there in her grief and anxiety, with her face
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: turned southward and her ear strained to catch the whispers
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: that were in the air. Had not the scepter of
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: power passed from her hand forever? Was not the revolution complete?
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Were not the populaces and their allies firmly seated in
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: the halls of Congress. Had not the Supreme Court been
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: rendered powerless for good by packing it with the most
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: uncompromising adherents of the new political faith? Had not the
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: very nature of the Federal government undergone? A change was
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: not paternalism rampant, was not socialism on the increase. Were
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: there not everywhere evidence as of an intense hatred of
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: the North and a firm determination to throw the whole
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: burden of taxation upon the shoulders of the rich Man,
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: in order that the surplus revenues of the government might
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: be distributed among those who constitute the common people. How
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: could this section of the Union ever hope to make
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: head against the South, united as it now was with
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: the rapidly growing states of the Northwest. How could the
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: magnificent cities of the North content themselves to march at
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: the tale of Tillman's and Peffer's chariots. Had not the
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: South a firm hold of the Senate? Where was there
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: array of hope that the North could ever again regain
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: its lost power? And could it for a single moment
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: think of entrusting its vast interests to the hands of
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: a people differing with them on every important question of statecraft,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: pledged to a policy that could not be otherwise than
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: ruinous to the welfare of the grand commonwealths of the
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: Middle and eastern sections of the Union and their sister
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: states this side of the Mississippi. It were madness to
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: think of it. The plunge must be taken, The declaration
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: must be made. There was no other alternative save abjects
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: submission to the chieftains of the new dispensation, and the
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: complete transformation of that vast social and political system vaguely
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: called the North. But this revel within a revolution would
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: be a bloodless one, for there could be no thought
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: of coercion, no serious notion of checking such a mighty movement.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: It would be, in reality, the true Republic purging itself
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: of a dangerous malady, sloughing off a diseased and gain
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: greened member, no more, no less. Already, this mighty movement
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: of withdrawals from the wittimage amodes of the Union was
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: in the air. People spoke of it in a whisper
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: or with bated breath. But as they turned it over
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: and over in their minds, it took on shape and
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: form and force, till at last it burst into life
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: and action, like Minerva from Jupiter's brain, full fledged, full armed,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: full voiced, and full hearted. Really, why would it not
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: be all for the best that this mighty empire, rapidly
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: growing so vast and unwieldly as to be only with
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: the greatest difficulty governable from a single center, should be
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: split into three arts, Eastern, Southern, and Western. Now that
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: it may be done without dangerous jar or friction, the
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: three republics could be federated, for purposes offensive and defensive.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: And until these great and radical changes could be brought about,
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: there would be no difficulty in devising living terms, for
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: immediately upon the declaration of dissolution, each state would become
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: repossessed of the sovereign powers which it had delegated to
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: the federal government. Meanwhile, the fateful year ninety nine went
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: onward toward its close. The whole land seemed stricken with
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: paralysis so far as the various industries were concerned. But
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: as it is wont to be in such times, men's
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: minds were supernaturally active. The days were passed in the
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: reading of public prints or in passing in review the
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: weighty events of the hour. The North was only waiting
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: for an opportunity to act. But the question that perplexes
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: the wisest heads was how and when shall the declaration
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: of dissolution be made? And how soon thereafter shall the
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: North and the States, in sympathy with her, withdraw from
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: the Union and declare to the world their intention to
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: set up a republic of their own, with the mighty
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: metropolis of New York as its social, political, and commercial
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: center and capital. As it came to pass, the North
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: had not long to wait. The fifty sixth Congress, soon
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: to convene in regular session in the city of Washington,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: was even more populistic and socialistic than its famous predecessor,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: which had wrought such wonderful changes in the law of
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the land, showing no respect for precedent, no reverence for
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: the old order of things. Hence, all eyes were fixed
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: upon the capital of the nation. All roads were untrodden
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: save those which led to Washington. Chapter ten. Again, Congress
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: had refused to adjourn over for the holidays. The leaders
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: of the administration forces were unwilling to close their eyes
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: even for needful sleep, and went about pale and haggard,
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: startled at every word and gesture of the opposition, like
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: true conspirators as they were. For the federal troops had been,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: almost to a man, quietly removed from the capital and
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: its vicinage, lest the President, in a moment of weakness,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: might do, or suffer to be done, some act unfriendly
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: to the reign of the common people. Strange as it
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: may seem, there had been very little note taken by
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: the country at large of the introduction at the opening
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: of the session of an Act to extend the pension
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: system of the United States, to the soldiers of the
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Confederate Armies, and for covering back into the various treasuries
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: of certain states of the Union, such portions of internal
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: revenue taxes collected since the readmission of said states to
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: the Federal Congress, as may be determined by commissioners duly
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: appointed under se Act. Was it the calm of despair,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: the stolidity of desperation, or the cool and restrained energy
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: of a noble and refined courage. The introduction of the Act, however,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: had one effect. It set in motion toward the national
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: capital mighty streams of humanity, not of wild eyed fanatics
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: or unshaven and unkept politicasters and Bizonians, but of soberly
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: clad citizens with a business like air about them, evidently
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: men who knew how to earn more than enough for
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: a living, men who paid their taxes, and had a
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: right to take a look at the public servants if
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: desire so moved them. But very plain was it that
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: the mightier stream flowed in from the south, and those
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: who remembered the capital in Antebellum days smiled at the
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: old familiar sight, the clean shaven faces, the long hair
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: thrown carelessly back under broad brim felts, the half unbuttoned
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: waistcoats and turned down collars, the small feet and neatly
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: fitting boots, the springy, loping pace, the soft nigeroise intonation,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: the long fragrant cherut. It was easy to pick out
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: the man from the Northland, well clad and well groomed,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: as careful of as linen as a woman, prim and trim,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: disdainful of the picturesque felts, ever crowned with the ceremonious
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: derby the man of affairs, taking a business like view
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: of life, but wearing for the nonce a worried look,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: and drawing, ever and anon, a deep breath. The black man,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: ever at the heels of his white brother, set to
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: rule over him by an inscrutable degree of nature, came
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: forth too, in thousands, chatting and laughing gaily, careless of
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: the why or wherefore of his white brother's deep concern,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: and powerless to comprehend it had he so desired. Every
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: hour now added to the throng, the broad avenues were
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: none too broad. The excitement increased, Men talked louder and louder,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: women and children disappeared almost completely from the streets. The
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: southern element drew more and more apart in knots and
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: groups by itself. Men threw themselves upon their bed to
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: catch a few hours asleep, but without undressing, as if
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: they were expecting the happening of some portentous event at
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: any moment, the event of their lives, and dreaded the
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: thought of being a moment late. If all went well,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: the bill would come up for final passage on Saturday,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: the thirtieth day of the month. But so fierce was
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: the battle raged against it, and so frequent the interruptions
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: by the contumacy, both of members and of the various cliques,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: crowding the galleries to suffocation, that little or no progress
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: could be made. The leaders of the administration forces saw
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: midnight drawing near, with no prospect of attaining their object
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: before the coming in of Sunday, on which the House
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: had never been known to sit. An adjournment over to
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Monday of the new year might be fatal, for who
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: could tell what unforeseen force might not break up their
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: solid ranks and throw them into confusion. They must rise
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: equal to the occasion. A motion was made to suspend
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: the rules and to remain in continuous session until the
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: business before the House was completed. Cries of unprecedented, revolutionary
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: monstrous came from the opposition, but all to no purpose.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: The House settled down to its work with such a
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: grim determination to conquer that the Republican minority fairly quailed
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: before it. Food and drink were brought to the members
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: in their seats. They ate, drank, and slept at their
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: posts like soldiers determined not to be ambushed or stampeded.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: It was a strange sight, and yet an impressive one,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: withal a great party struggling for long deferred rites, freemen
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: jealous of their liberties, bound together with the steel hooks
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: of determination that only death might break asunder. Sunday came
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: in at last, and still the struggle went on. The
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: people know no days when their liberties are at stake,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: cried the leader of the House. The Sabbath was made
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Many of
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: the speeches delivered on that famous Sunday sounded more like
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: the lamentations of a Jeremiah, the earnest and burning utterances
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: of a pall or the scholarly and well rounded periods
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: of an Apollus. The weary hours were lightened by the
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: singing of hymns by the southern members, most of them
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: good Methodists, in which their friends and sympathizers in the
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: galleries joined full throated and fuller hearted, while at times clear,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: resonant and imperfect unison. The voices of the staunch men
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: of the North broke in and drowned out the religious
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: song with the majestic and soul stirring measures of John
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: Brown's body, the Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, of which seemed to
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: hush the tumult of the chamber, like a weird chant
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: of some invisible chorus, breaking in upon the fierce rioting
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: of a belshazzar's feast. Somewhat after eleven o'clock, an ominous
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: silence sank upon the opposing camps. The Republican leaders could
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: be seen conferring together nervously. It was a sacred hour
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: of night thrice sacred for the Great Republic. Not only
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: a new year, but a new century was about to
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: break upon the world. A strange hush crept over the
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: turbulent house and its still more turbulent galleries. The Republican
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: leader rose to his feet his voice sounded cold and hollow.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: Strong men shivered as they listened. Mister Speaker, we have
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: done our duty to our country. We have nothing more
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: to say, no more blows to strike. We cannot stand
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: here within the sacred precincts of this chamber and see
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: our rights as free men trampled beneath the feet of
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: the majority. We have striven to prevent the downfall of
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: the republic, like men sworn to battle again against wrong
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: and tyranny. But there comes a time when blank despair
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: seizes upon the hearts of those who struggle against overwhelming odds.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: That hour has sounded for us. We believe our people,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: the great and generous people of the North, will cry
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: unto us, well done, good and faithful servants. If we
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: do wrong, let them condemn us. We, every man of us,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: mister Speaker, have but this moment sworn not to stand
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: within this chamber and witness the passage of this act.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: Therefore we go not so, my countrymen, cried a clear, metallic,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: far reaching voice that sounded through the chamber with an
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: almost supernatural ring in it. In an instant, every head
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: was turned, and a thousand voices burst out with suppressed
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: force the president. The president, in truth, it was he
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: standing at the bar of the house, wearing the visage
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: of death rather than of life. The next instant, the
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: house and galleries burst into a deafening clamor, which rolled
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: up and back in mighty waves that shook the very walls.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: There was no stilling it. Again and again it burst forth,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: the mingling of ten thousand words, howling, rumbling, and groaning,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: like the warring elements of nature. Several times the President
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: stretched forth his great white hands, appealing for silence, while
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: the dew of mingled, dread and anguish, beat it on
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: his brow and trickled down his cheeks in liquid supplication
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: that his people might either slay him or listen to him.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: The Tumult stilled its fury for a moment, and he
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: could be heard saying brokenly, my countryman, Oh, my countryman.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: But the quick, sharp sound of the gavel cut him short.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: The President must withdraw, said the speaker, calmly and coldly.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: His presence here is a menace to our free deliberation. Again,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: the Tumults set up its deafening roar, while a look
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: of almost horror overspread the countenance of the Chief magistrate.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: Once more, his great white hands went heavenward, pleading for silence,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: with such a mute majesty of supplication, that silence fell
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: upon the immense assemblage, and his lips moved not in vain,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, I stand here upon
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: my just and lawful right, as President of the Republic,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: to give you information of the state of the Union.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: I have summoned the Honorable the Senate to meet me
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: in this chamber. I call upon you to calm your
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: passions and give ear to me, as your oath of
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: office sets the sacred obligation upon you. There was a
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: tone of godlike authority in these few words, almost divine
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: enough to make the winds obey, and still the temptuous
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: see in deepest silence, and with a certain show of
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: rude and native grandeur of bearing. The senators made their
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: entrance into the chamber, the members of the House rising,
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: and this speaker advancing to meet the Vice President. The
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: spectacle was grand and moving. Tears gathered in eyes long
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: unused to them, and at an almost imperceptible nod of
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: the President's head, the chaplain raised his voice in prayer.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: He prayed in accents that were so gentle and so persuasive,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: they must have turned the hardest heart to blessed thoughts
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: of peace and love, and fraternity and union. And then
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: again all eyes were fixed with the intensest strain upon
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: the face of the President, Gentlemen of the House of Representatives.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: This with a sudden blow that startled every living soul
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: within its hearing. The speaker's gavel fell. The President said
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: he with a superb dignity that called down from the
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: galleries a burst of deafening applause. Must not make reference
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: to pending legislation. The Constitution guarantees him the right, from
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: time to time to give to the Congress information of
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: the Union. He must keep himself strictly within the lines
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: of this constitutional limit, or withdraw from the bar of
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: the House. A deadly pallor overspread the face of the
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: Chief Magistrate, till it seemed he must sink then and
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: there into that sleep which knows no awakening. But he gasped,
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: he leaned forward, He raised his hand again imploringly, and
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: as he did so, the bells of the city began
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: to toll. The hour of midnight, the new year, the
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: new century was born. But with the last stroke, a
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: fearful and thunderous discharge, as of a thousand monster pieces
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: of artillery shook the capital to its very foundations, making
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: the stoutest hearts stand still and blanching cheeks that had
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: never known the coward color. The dome of the capital
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: had been destroyed by dynamite in a few moments. When
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: it was seen that the Chamber had suffered no harm,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: the Leader of the House moved the final passage of
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: the act. The President was led away, and the Republican
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: senators and representatives passed slowly out of the disfigured capital.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: While the tellers prepared to take the vote of the House,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the bells were ringing a glad welcome to the new century.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: But a solemn tolling would have been a fitter thing,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: for the Republic of Washington was no more. It had
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: died so peacefully that the world could not believe the
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: tidings of its passing away. As the dawn broke, cold
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: and gray, and its first dim light fell upon that
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: shattered dome, glorious even in its ruins, a single human eye,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: filled with a gleam of devilish joy, looked up at it,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: long and steadily, and then its owner was caught up
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: and lost in the surging mass of humanity that held
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: the capital girt round and round end of nineteen hundred
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: or the last president