I am very glad you did not attend the Bryan dinner. Whatever good qualities Bryan may possess, I have always considered him the evil genius of the anti-imperialistic cause. To vote for him was the most distasteful thing I ever did; and I did it, not as if I had believed in the possibility of his election, but because I wanted to make on my part the strongest imaginable protest against the policy of the [McKinley] Administration.
It now seems probable that the Democrats of a good many States will try to shake off the incubus of the Bryan dictatorship by adopting platforms in their State conventions repudiating, directly or indirectly, the obnoxious features of the Kansas City platform. It is highly desirable that this process of deliverance should go on as rapidly and should be encouraged as much as possible. Nothing, it seems to me, could be more unwise for the anti-imperialists to do than to identify themselves with Bryan in any manner under such circumstances.
TO M. W. DILLON
The slip from the Daily News which you have shown me, contains a gross and wicked misrepresentation of what I said in my recent speech delivered in Cooper Union. I am quoted as saying:
“The bands of brigands in the mountains of Italy, offering prayers of thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary after a successful loot, are as much a part of the Catholic Church as Tammany Hall is a part of the Democratic party.”
I was arguing that Tammany Hall could NOT rightfully be called a part of the Democratic party. I illustrated this by adding: “The brigands of the Abbraggi, offering thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary after a successful loot, are just AS LITTLE a part of the Catholic Church as Tam-
