"An enthusiastic crowd was addressed in Albany, with Debs asserting that the two old parties each represented the capitalists rather than the people and that the Republican Party had fulfilled its historic mission by freeing the slaves, subsequently becoming a political organization of the plutocracy.An evening speech on September 14 by Debs at the Exposition Auditorium on Washington Street attracted more than 10,000 spectators, erupted upon the appearance of the candidate in the hall