in a great
metropolis; the merchant at the cross-roads store is as much a business
man as the merchant of New York; the farmer who goes forth in the
morning and toils all day--who begins in the spring and toils all
summer--and who by the application of brain and muscle to the natural
resources of the country creates wealth, is as much a business man as
the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of
grain; the miners who go down a thousand feet into the earth, or climb
two thousand feet upon the cliffs, and bring forth from their hiding
places the precious metals to be poured into the channels of trade are
as much business men as the few financial magnates who, in a back room,
corner the money of the world. We come to speak for this broader class
of business men.

Ah, my friends, we say not one word against those who live upon the
Atlantic coast, but the hardy pioneers who have braved all the dangers
of the wilderness, who have made the desert to blossom as the rose--the
pioneers away out there (pointing to the West), who rear their children
near to Nature's heart, where they can mingle their voices with the
voices of the birds--out there where they have erected schoolhouses for
the education of their young, churches where they praise their Creator,
and cemeteries where rest the ashes of their dead--these people, we
say, are as deserving of the consideration of our party as any people
in this country. It is for these that we speak. We do not come as
aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest; we are fighting in the
defense of our homes, our families, and posterity. We have petitioned,
and our petitions have been scorned; we have entreated, and our
entreaties have been disregarded; we have begged, and they have mocked
when our calamity came. We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we
petition no more. We defy them.

The gentleman from Wisconsin has said that he fears a Robespierre. My
friends, in this land of the free you need not fear that a tyrant will
spring up from among the people. What we need is an Andrew Jackson to
stand, as Jackson stood, against the encroachments of organized wealth.

They tell us that this platform was made to catch votes. We reply to
them that changing conditions make new issues; that the principles upon
which Democracy rests are as everlasting as the hills, but that they
must be applied to new conditions as they arise. Conditions have
arisen, and we are here to meet t