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 of 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, 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!

We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin and issue
money is a function of government. We believe it. We believe that it is
a part of sovereignty, and can no more with safety be delegated to
private individuals than we could afford to delegate to private
individuals the power to make penal statutes or levy taxes. Mr.
Jefferson seems to have differed in opinion from the gentleman who has
addressed us on the part of the minority. Those who are opposed to this
proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the
bank, and that the government ought to go out of the banking business. I
stand with Jefferson rather than with them, and tell them, as he did,
that the issue of money is a function of government, and that the banks
ought to go out of the governing business.

And now, my friends, let me come to the paramount issue. If they ask us
why it is that we say more on the money question than we say upon the
tariff question, I reply that, if protection has slain its thousands,
the gold standard has slain its tens of thousands. If they ask us why we
do not embody in our platform all the things that we believe in, we
reply that when we have restored the money of the Constitution al