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In the impending
campaign, we stand proudly on our
splendid and unimpeachable record
in peace and in war. Anybody, save
a starch idiot, can successfully
uphold the record from alpha to
omega. It is wise, progressive,
and patriotic. It has raised our
country to an exceeding height of
glory abroad, and an unprecedented
prosperity at home. We confidently
offer that record to the American
people as an ernest of what we will
do if continued in power.
Nineteen
hundred years ago, by the highest
authority a rule was prescribed
for measuring men and things: judge
a tree by its fruit. A good rule,
a fair rule. We are willing to be
measured by that standard. No brave
man, no courageous party, will shrink
from such a test. We cheerfully
and serenely invite it. In his spectacular
oration nominating General Grant
in Chicago in 1880, Roscoe Conklin
said: "General Grant's fame
rests not alone on things written
and things said, but also upon the
arduous greatness of things done."
That sentence fits the Democrats
like a glove.
While in
seven years since we came into possession
of the executive and legislative
branches of the government, Democrats
have said and written many fine
things. Our chief claims of the
gratitude of our countrymen rests
upon the arduous greatness of things
done both at home and abroad. For
years and years our Republican friends
asserted that we did not have the
capacity for constructive legislation.
They admitted that in the days of
Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson
we did some notable things, but
that we had lost the power of initiative,
and even if entrusted with power,
we could accomplish nothing. Unfortunately,
for a long time the people
believed this malicious gibberish.
But in 1912
the American people gave the Democrats
another opportunity, and under the
leadership of Woodrow Wilson we
swept the country from sea to sea.
At the end of that historic contest
we had the Presidency, the Senate
by a working majority, and the House
by an overwhelming majority. It
is only sober truth to say that
during the six years in which we
controlled both the executive and
legislative branches, that we put
more constructive legislation on
the statute books than was put upon
the statute books in twentyfour
years of Republican control.
A Democratic
administration participated gloriously
in the most colossal war of all
time, and our brave soldiers, acting
under direction of a Democratic
administration, brought the war
to a successful and glorious conclusion.
Surely the things which we accomplished
entitled the Democrats to a long
lease of power. The outstanding
teacher of our six years work is
that we accomplished so much in
so short a time. We did it by good
team work. The Democratic Congress
did its duty, the great Democratic
President, Woodrow Wilson, did his
duty, and on the glorious record
thus made, we confidently appeal
to the voters of the land.
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