Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/112



104 H. R. KINCAID

retary of State, as a silver Republican, on the Union ticket, would be the unkindest cut of all to the patriotic soldiers. He had caused to be printed and distributed a pamphlet con- taining his writings against the gold standard for twenty-two years, from 1873 to 1895. A man who would for twenty- two years support the Republican platforms favoring bimetallism silver and gold for standard money and opposing the single gold standard, and would then keep right on doing the same thing, after the leaders of the party, in England and Germany and some in America, had taken control of the party and elected a former free silver advocate President on a gold platform ; a man who would fight for the principle on which he had been elected and which he had always favored, was especially offensive to the refined tastes of the advocates of "sound money" and "criminal aggression," as McKinley at first styled the clamor for a war against Spain. No party could change oftener or faster than they could ! By such represen- tations the gold standard candidates were all elected by large majorities, but the defeated candidate for Secretary of State had more than 1,200 more votes than the average vote for the other Union candidates.



Just before I went out of office of Secretary of State my friend Governor Lord, who stood by me loyally all the time, regardless of political dissensions and divisions in the Re- publican party over the money question, nominated four or five regents of the University of Oregon, my name being one of the number. Dolman, a California newspaper writer, had come to Salem and was writing for the Oregonian. As soon as I was out of office he filled his letters mainly with attacks on my administration. Governor Geer sent a message to the Senate asking for the withdrawal of Governor Lord's nomina- tions. He objected to the name of Kincaid, but would return

i. Alfred Holman, born in Yamhill County, Oregon, July 6, 1857. He began his newspaper career on the Portland Daily Bee in 1876, and was attached to the editorial staff of t'-<e Oregonian from 1888 to 1891. His grandfather, John Holman, was a pioneer of 1843, his father, Francis Dillard Holman, a pioneer of 1845, and his mother, Mrs. Mary McBride Holman, a pioneer of 1846.