“And I am willing that you, our friends on the other side, shall have what consolation you may gain from the protection of those ‘home industries’ which have crowned with palatial residences the hills of New England, if you will simply give us the credit of being the champions of the homes of this land. [Applause on the Democratic side.] It would seem that if any appeal could find a listening ear in this legislative hall it ought to be the appeal that comes up from those co-tenants of earth’s only paradise; but your party has neglected them; more, it has spurned and spit upon them. When they asked for bread you gave them a stone, and when they asked for a fish you gave them a serpent. You have laid upon them burdens grievous to be borne. You have filled their days with toil and their nights with anxious care, and when they cried aloud for relief you were deaf to their entreaties.” The conclusion of Mr. Bryan’s speech is here reproduced. It is of greater length than would ordinarily justify its incorporation in a volume of this size, but the objection is outweighed by the fact, that, in most beautiful English, it outlines the idea of government which has since been the beacon light that has guided Mr. Bryan’s career: “We can not afford to destroy the peasantry of this country. We can not afford to degrade the common people of this land, for they are the people who in time of prosperity and peace produce the wealth of the country, and they are also the people who in time of war bare their breasts to a hostile fire in defense of the flag. Go to Arlington or to any of the national cemeteries, see there the plain white monuments which mark the place ‘where rest the ashes of the nation’s countless dead,’ those of whom the poet has so beautifully written: ‘On Fame’s eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread.’ Who were they? Were they the beneficiaries of special legislation? Were they the people who are ever clamoring for privileges? No, my friends; those who come here and obtain from Government its aid and help find in time of war too great a chance to increase their wealth to give much attention to military duties. A nation’s extremity is their opportunity. They are the ones who make contracts, carefully drawn, providing for the payment of their money in coin, while the government goes out, if necessary, and drafts the people and makes them lay down upon the altar of their country all they have. No; the people who fight the battles are largely the poor, the common people of the country; those who have little to save but their honor, and little to lose but their lives. These are the ones, and I say to you, sir, that the country can not afford to lose them. I quote the language of Pericles in his great funeral oration. He says: