Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, in a speech of characteristic eloquence, nominated Hon. Thomas B. Reed.
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew received a warm welcome as he made his way to the platform to nominate Governor Levi P. Morton, of New York State, which he did in his usual felicitous style of speech.
Then came the call of Ohio. Amid intense interest and expectation Governor Foraker went to the platform, and when silence had been obtained he said:
“Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: It would be exceedingly difficult, if not entirely impossible, to exaggerate the disagreeable situation of the last four years. The grand aggregate of the multitudinous bad results of a Democratic National Administration may be summed up as one stupendous disaster. It has been a disaster, however, not without, at least, this one redeeming feature—that it has been fair; nobody has escaped. (Loud laughter.)
“It has fallen equally and alike on all sections of the country and on all classes of our people; the just and the unjust, the Republican and the Democrat, the rich and the poor, the high and the low, have suffered in common. Poverty and distress have overtaken business: shrunken values have dissipated fortunes; deficiencies of revenue law have impoverished the Government, while bond issues and bond syndicates have discredited and scandalized the country.
“Over against that fearful penalty is, however, to be set down one great, blessed compensatory result—it has destroyed the Democratic party. (Cheers and laughter.) The proud columns which swept the country in triumph in 1892 are broken and hopeless in 1896. Their boasted principles when put to the test have proved to be delusive fallacies, and their great leaders have degenerated into warring chieftains of petty and irreconcilable factions. Their approaching National Convention is but an approaching National nightmare. No man pretends to be able to predict any good result to come from it. And no man is seeking the nomination of that Convention except only the limited few who have advertised their unfitness for any kind of a public trust by proclaiming their willingness to stand on any sort of a platform that may be adopted. (Laughter.)
“The truth is, the party which would stand up under the odium of human slavery, opposed to the war for the preservation of the Union, to emancipation, to enfranchisement, to reconstruction and to specie resumption, is at last to be overmatched and undone by itself. It is writhing in the throes and agonies of final dissolution. No human agency can prevent its absolute overthrow at the next election, except only this Convention. If we make no mistake here, the Democratic party will go out of power on the 4th day of March, 1897 (applause), to remain out of power until God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy and goodness, shall see fit once more to chastise His people. (Loud laughter and applause.)
“So far we have not made any mistake. We have adopted a platform which, notwithstanding the scene witnessed in this hall this morning, meets the demands and expectations of the American people.
“It remains for us now, as the last crowning act of our work, to meet again that same expectation in the nomination of our candidates. What is that expectation? What is it that the people want? They want as their candidate something more than ‘a good business man’ (an allusion to Mr. Depew’s characterization of Governor Morton). They want something more than a popular leader. They want something more than a wise and patriotic statesman. They want a man who embodies in himself not only all these essential qualifications, but those, in addition, which, in the highest possible degree, typify in name, in character, in record, in ambition, in purpose, the exact opposite of all that is signified and represented by that free trade, deficit-making, bond-issuing, labor-assassinating, Democratic Administration. (Cheers.) I stand here to present to this Convention such a man. His name is William McKinley.”
At this point pandemonium was let loose, and the Convention gave up to unrestrained yelling, cheering, horn-blowing, whistling, cat-calling and all the other devices common to such occasions. A number of red, white and blue plumes, which (carefully wrapped up) had been brought into the Convention earlier in the proceedings, were uncovered and waved, while almost every delegate seemed to be wildly gesticulating with either a fan or a flag in the air. The band tried in vain to compete with the ear-splitting clamor, but at last the strains of “Marching Through Georgia” caught the ears of the crowd, and they joined in the chorus and gradually quieted down.