Virginia, after the permanent settlement of the “debt question” and the subject was finally eliminated from the State politics, sprang forward upon an era of great prosperity and advancement, which continued without interruption until the “Free Silver” and “16 to 1” craze set in politics, and the false idea that sixteen ounces of
 
silver was always equal in value to one ounce of gold took complete possession of the field throughout the State. This was one of the delusions championed by Mr. William Jennings Bryan, one of the most plausible and eloquent stump speakers in the country. He threw all of his most forcible energy and talent into the attempt to convince the people that it was the panacea for all the ills of humanity—it was his idea that a purely economic issue would be a cure-all for all the woes of the flesh.

In 1894 William Jennings Bryan was nominated by the Chicago Convention upon the “Free Silver” platform. General Simon Bolivar Buckner, of Kentucky, with Palmer, of Illinois, were chosen by the gold standard wing of the Democratic party as the standard bearers of the Democracy. William S. McKinley, then Governor of Ohio, was the nominee of the Republicans, also on a gold standard platform and high protective tariff. When the election was held that fall, the “Free Silver” motion was overwhelmingly defeated and killed. In the campaign Virginia voted largely for the Bryan ideas. So completely had his influence infatuated many sober-minded, good Democrats that they considered it almost treason to the party in one who did become misled by this delusion. When Lamb was nominated for Congress in the Third District of Virginia he was an advocate for Free Silver. A few nights before the nominating convention came off, I met Captain George D. Wise and asked him how he stood on the question, and he answered, “I am a Gold Standard Democrat.” For this frank avowal I have always admired him. It was a decisive and unequivocal stand on the issue which was then at its height, and it cost him his seat in Congress, for Captain John Lamb, the opponent, was selected and afterwards seated as the member
 
from the Third District of Virginia—the Richmond district.

The Honorable Charles T. O’Ferral, the member from the Seventh District of Virginia, and who, with the aid of Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, by their skill defeated the infamous Force Bill offered by Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, which was antagonized by the whole South as sectional and unjust to it. Governor O’Ferral was almost ostracised by his party—that is, by the ring—because he would not subscribe to the “Free Silver, 16 to............