ention and not in favor of abandoning it; and if the
gold standard is a bad thing why should we wait until other nations are
willing to help us to let go? Here is the line of battle, and we care
not upon which issue they force the fight; we are prepared to meet them
on either issue or on both. If they tell us that the gold standard is
the standard of civilization, we reply to them that this, the most
enlightened of all the nations of the earth, has never declared for a
gold standard and that both the great parties this year are declaring
against it. If the gold standard is the standard of civilization, why,
my friends, should we not have it. If they come to meet us on that
issue we can tell them that they will search the pages of history in
vain to find a single instance where the common people of any land have
ever declared themselves in favor of the gold standard. They can find
where the holders of fixed investments have declared for a gold
standard, but not where the masses have.

Mr. Carlisle said in 1878 that this was a struggle between "the idle
holders of idle capital" and "the struggling masses, who produce the
wealth and pay the taxes of the country"; and, my friends, the question
we are to decide is: Upon which side will the Democratic party fight;
upon the side of "the idle holders of idle capital" or upon the side of
"the struggling masses?" That is the question which the party must
answer first, and then it must be answered by each individual
hereafter. The sympathies of the Democratic party, as shown by the
platform, are on the side of the struggling masses who have ever been
the foundation of the Democratic party. There are two ideas of
government. There are those who believe that, if you will only
legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak
through on those below. The Democratic idea, however has been that if
you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find
its way up through every class which rests upon them.

You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the
gold standard; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and
fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms and your
cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and
the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.

My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate for its
own people on every question, withou