Show DELEGATE CAINES LETTER OF acceptance SALT LAKE CITY UTAH october 1890 hon franklin S richardq Rio hurds chairman and peoples territorial central committee gentlemen I 1 am I 1 ia m receipt of your official announcement that the nomination as candidate 4 of the peoples peopled party for delegate from utah to the fifty second congress had bad by the unanimous voice of the delegates in convention assembled fallen to me I 1 thank you for the courteous manner in which the communication is made and the kind congratulations embodied therein to be selected as the nominee of my party for the fifth consecutive time for so dignified and responsible a position as an representative of our grand and growing territory in the councils of the nation is an honor not to be lightly estimated nor received without some formal acknowledgment the history of the peoples party of utah is relative co with the history of the territory itself it is ia an outgrowth of that love of free dom and local self government which caused our people to seek homes amid mountain fastnesses fast nesses where liberty is supposed ever to dwell whatever may be the judgment of the present generation respecting spec ting the founders of Utah the verdict of history regarding their qualities as pioneers as colonizers as the avant couriers of civilia civil in the far west must be that they had no equals in their time coming as they did to a region peopled only by savages with so much of mankind as they round found and ana all of nature itself stubbornly arrayed against them the nucleus of their present political organization was wais formed meg mewung jaing simply self pre the first and foremost instinct of all animate nature the times have changed and we have changed with them thein but the fundamental idea the original principle ird ia the same as it was when instead of the political strife noisy declarations and showy parades now confronting us we encountered the forbidding elements the unyielding soil and the unwelcome disposition of the savage the record of the peoples peopled party whether its members be regarded as religionists colonists frontiersmen fronti ermen or politicians sparkles all along the pathway of the wild west and through the gateway of advanced civilization in honoring the party and the illustrious names associated with it we do but honor ourselves that it has had an chniel may still have faults is not to be denied and need not he excused since it is the work of man and man is never perfect etwas it was however andis and ia the best thing in the way of political organization that could be devised for our mutual benefit and protection tec tion and its record of successes and honors justifies us in reverting reve its founders and in announcing anew our ou r allegiance to the principles of free fi ee government proclaimed in the platforms of the peoples people sa party what is the issue confronting us today Is it such a condition as is being waged on all sides of us to the east the west the north and the south ali ah no the tariff the rights of states the question of reciprocity cip rocity the enforcement of constitutional amendments none of these have we to deal with what is now DOW agitating our fair territory in a political way is the same question that was introduced by our opponents when the so called lib era eral 1 1 party was born the craving of the minority to rule over the majority one by one the sacred and guaranteed rights of our nur people have been swept away until at last but one political privilege Is left the right of suffrage the privilege of voting for a few officers to hold places of honor and emolument in our territory and the right of those elected to hold such offices still pursuing its reckless revolutionary lutio nary and un american course the liberal eliberal party would ad I 1 to its pillar of infamy as its crowning calp capstone stone the total disfranchisement of our party to that end it has brought and is bringing all the meretricious arts arte which have so well sub served its purposes all along through its dark and nefarious ca reer that the outrageous scheme has been thwarted has been due not to them their leaders agents or lob their representations representation or their good will but to the sober second thought of statesmen and the better judgment of men who sit in high places those who are disposed to do right when the right is made known to them while denouncing as enemies to our american institutions and as traitors to their country all who seek to disfranchise any class of american citizens innocent of crime I 1 honor the names and blend my acknowledgments knowledg ments with those ot our people to those citizens of utah who irrespective respective fr of party affiliations and regardless of the party whip joined in the patriotic purpose which consigned to defeat the infamous disfranchisement project the formal announcements of the two local parties are already part of our public literature you gentlemen are familiar enough with one and are doubtless fully cognizant of the other both should be read and considered by all the people of our territory whether voters or not in what striking contrast to the dismal 1 drollery the flippancy and menda city of the liberal declarations are the manly intellectual honest and patriotic renunciations enunciations which make up the peoples peopled platform one palters balters with us in a dubious sense fearful lest the shadow of a past and the substance of a present life betray it the other is the outgrowth of a disposition to be guided and guarded by the eternal right with malice toward none and with charity for all 2 it contains in every line a precept to our people and our race the force of which is felt in the acknowledgment of the laws supremacy pre macy the very culmination of a sincere and candid purpose on the part of a community wherein loyalty for the principles of our government and love for all mankind is and nd ever has been a governing characteristic act ct I 1 need not dwell upon the two declarations of principles each speaks in and for itself the Libe liberal ralP party stretches back to the past and in almost wailing tones pronounces once more the vindictive platitudes worn threadbare by usage for well nigh a generation it does not and apparently patently ly cannot comprehend the meaning of the word progress or else it is blind to the feet that the V L peopled people Is party has advanced beyond it and is working and acting in the living present one lingers upon the past with all that has been entombed the other realizes the present and builds tor for the future As between the two which should the citizen devoted to advancement and a higher purpose the man of business of affairs affair 4 and of progress choose I 1 ut n ed not answer where the liberal J party has obtained control in the territory its record has been honeycombed honey combed with fraud dishonesty or extravagance amounting almost to crime in in some instances all three of these thanks to an efficient and fearless judge to ia our midst some but not all of its treasonable and felonious purposes have been exposed and thwarted As eternal vigilance is the price of liberty we must guard our rights and see to it that no man by fraud or chicanery defeats the will of the people as exar expressed d by the ballot while we thus watch we may hopf hope that the day is not far distant when our elections will be clean as the snow which crests the everl everlasting asti hills in whose shadows we live that the administration of public affairs shall be as free as the pure air which rushes down our mountain gorges with that condition reached and those circumstances established the peoples peopled party parly will not be found a complainant nor in the slightest degree afraid whatever the result of any political contest may be in accepting the high and responsible si ble trust imposed upon me I 1 do so gentlemen with a full realization of the fact that there are a great many others in our ranks well qualified qualified ualifi ed and available for the office I 1 have not sought it and had the judgment of your convention been otherwise I 1 would have been pleased to place myself once more in that post of honor a private citizen but since bince my party calls I 1 obey A needed duty should not be asked for nor declined in again taking up the work you have outlined for me you will please accept for yourselves for the convention which nominated me and for our voters one and all most sincere expressions pres of my profound regard and thanks for this renewed expression of confluence con bonfi flence bence the people of utah may rest assured that it if I 1 am elected as their representative in congress I 1 shall do the best chatin that in me lies to advance their interest and that of the territory which we so much love now fellow citizens let us turn to the labors before us each and all moving onward with a fixed determination to do his part in achieving for our fair territory a destiny rounded out by the prosperity of all and the exclusion of none very respectfully JOHN 17 CAINE |