TEXT
"Democratic Achievement"
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.
Listen to this recording.
Listen to this recording.