Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1884 — DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. [ARTICLE]

DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

Fnll Text of the Resolutions Adopted by the National Convention at Chicago. The Democratic party of the Union, through its representatives in national convention assembled. recognizes that, as tbs nation grows older, new issues are born of time and progress and old issues perish. Bat the fundamental principles of the Democracy, approved by the united voice of the people, remain, and will ever remain, as the best and only security for the continuance of free government. The preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens "before the law, the reserved rights of the States, and the supremacy of the Federal Government within the limits of the Constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties, and can never be surrendered without destroying that balance of rights and powers which enables a continent to be developed in peace, and social order to be maintained by means of self-govern-ment. But it is indispensable for the practical application and enforcement of these fundamental principles that the Government should not always be controlled by one political party Frequent change of administration is as necessary as constant recurrence to the popular will. Otherwise abuses grow, and the Government, instead of being carried on for tbe general welfare, becomes an instrumentality for imposing heavy burdens on the many who are governed for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants thus become arbitrary rulers. This is now the condition of the country. Hence a change is demanded. The Republican party, so far as principle is concerned, is a reminiscence; in practice, it is an organization for enriching those who oontrol its machinery. The frauds and Jobbery which have been brought to light in every department of the Government are sufficient to have called for reform within the Republican party; yet those in authority, made reckless by the long possession of power, have suconmbed to its corrupting influence mrt have placed in nominatim a ticket against which the independent portion of the party are in open revolt. Therefore, a change is demanded. Such a change was alike necessary in 1876, but the will of the people was then defeated by a fraud which can never be forgotten nor condoned. Again, in 1880, the change demanded by the people was defeated by the lavish use of money contributed by unscrupulous contractors and shameles-jobbers who hid bargained for unlawful profits or for high office. The Republican party, during its legal, Its stolen, and its bought tenures of power, has steadily decayed in moral character and political capacity. Its platform promises are now a list of its past failures. It demands the restoration of our navy. It has squandered hundreds of millions to create a navy that does not exist. It calls upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been depressed. It imposed and has continued those burdens. It professes the policy of reserving the public lan's for small holdings by actual settlers. It has given away the people's heritage till now a few railroads and non-resident aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms between the two seas. It professes a preference lor free institutions. It organized and tried to legalize a control of State elections by Federal troops. It professes a desire to elevate labor. It has subjected American workingmen to the competition of convict and imported contract labor. It pro esses gratitude to all who were disabled or died in the war, leaving widows and orphans. It left to a Democratic House of Representatives the first effort to equalize both bounties and pensions. It proffers a pledge to correct the irregularities of our tariff. It created and has continued them. Its own Tariff Commission confessed the need of more than 20 per cent, reduction. Its Congress gave a reduction of less than 4 per cent. ,

It professes the protection of American manufactures. It has subjected them to an increasing flood of manufactured goods, and a hopeless competition with manufacturing nations, not one of which taxes raw materials. It nroiesses to protect all American industries. It has impoverished many to subsidize a few. It professes the protection of American labor. It has depleted the returns of American agriculture—an Industry followed by half our people. It professes the equality of all men before the law* Attempting to fix the status of colored citizens, the acts of its Congress were overset by the decisions of its courts. It "accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and reform.” Its caught criminals are permitted to escape through contrived delays or actual connivance in the prosecution. Honeycombed with corruption, outbreaking exposures no longer shock its moral sense. Its honest members, its Independent journals, no longer maintain a sftccessfnlcontest for authority in its counsels or a veto upon bad nominations. That change is necessary is proved by an existing surplus of more th n $100,000,000, which has yearly been collected from a suffering people. Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. We denounce the Republican party for having failed to relieve the people from crashing war taxes, which have paralyzed business, cri. pled industry, and deprived labor o< employment and of just reward. The Democracy pledges itself to purify the administration from corruption, to restore economy, to revive respect for law, and to reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with due regard to the preservation of the faith of the nation to its creditors and pensioners. Knowing full well, however, that legislation affecting the occupations of the people should be cautious and conservative in method, not in advance of public opinion, but responsive to its demands, the Democratic party is pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit of fairness to all interests.

But In making reduction in taxes it js not proposed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to promote their healthy growth. From the foundation of this Government taxes collected at the Custom House have been the chief source of Federal revenue. Such they must continue to be. Moreover, many industries have come to rely npon legislation for successful continuance, so that any change of law must be at every step regardful of the labor and capital thus involved. Tue prooess of reform must be subject in the execution to this plain dictate of justice. All taxation shall be limited to the requirements of economic 1 government. The necessary reduction in taxation can and must be effected without depriving American labor of the ability to compete successfully with fo-eign labor, and without imposing lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover anv increased cost of production which may exist in consequence of the higher rate of wages prevailing in this country. Sufficient revenue to pay all the expenses of the Federal Government, economically admin'stcred, including pensions, interest, and principal of the public debt, can be got, under' our present system of taxation, f > om customhouse taxes on fewer imported articles, bearing heaviest on articles of luxury, and bearing lightest on articles of neco-slty. We therefore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff, and, subject lo the j receding limitations, we demand that Federal taxation shall be exclusively for public purposes, and shall not exceed the needs of the Government economically administ- red. The svptem of direct taxation known as the “internal revenue," is a war tax, and so long as the law continues, the money derived thetfefrom should be sacredly devo ed to the relief of the people from the remaining burdens of the war. and be made a fund to defray the expense of the care and comfort of worthy soldiers disabled in line of duty in the wars of the Republic, and for the payment of such pensions as Congress may from ttme to time grant to such soldierß a like fund for the sailors hiving been already provided: and any surplus should be paid into the Treasury. We favor an American continental policy based upon more intimate commercial and political relations with the fifteen sister republics of North; Cent al and South America, but entangling alliances with none. We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage of tho Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible into such money without loss. Asserting the equality of all men before the law, we hold that it is the duty of the Government, in its dealings with the people, to mete out equal and exact justice to all citizens of whatever nativity, raoe, color, or persuasion—reli ious or political. We believe in a free ballot and a fair count; and we recall to the memory of the people the noble struggle of the Democrats in the Fortyfifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, by which a relnotant Republican opposition was compelled to assent to legislatton. making everywhere illegal tho presence of troops at the polls, as the conclusive proof that a Democratic administration will preserve liberty with order. The selection of Federal officers for the Territories should be restricted to citizens previously resident therein. We oppose sumptuary laws, which rex the citizen and interfere with individual liberty; we favor honest civil service reform, and the condensation of all United States officers by fixed salaries; the separation of church and state; and the diffusion of free edneation by common ..schools, so that every child in the

land may be taught the rights and dntiee of citizenship. Whilewe favor all legislation which will tend to the equitable distribution of property, to tbe prevention of monopoly and to the strict enforcement of Individual rights against corporate abases, we hold that the we fare of society depends upon a scrupulous regard for the rights of property as defined by law. We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest and most en ightened. it should, theres re, be fostered and cher shed. We farm the repeal of all laws restricting the free action of labor, and the enactment of laws by which labor organizations may be incorporated, and of ail such legislation as will tend to enlighten the people as to the true relations of capital and labor. We believe that the public lands ought, as faras possible, to be kept as hom "steads for actual settlers: that all unearned lands heretofore imP" ovidently granted to railroad ocrpoi ations by the action of the Republican party should be restored to tbe public domain; and that no mo e grants of lands shall be made to corporations or be allowed to fall into the ownership of alien, absentees. We are opposed to all propositions which upon any pretext would convert the General Govei nment into a machine for collecting taxes to be distributed among the States, or the citizen* thereof. In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic plat orm of 1856, that “the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in tbe Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in it e Constitution which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation*, have ever been cardinal principles in tire Democratic faith,” we, nevertheless, do not sanction the imports ion of foreign labor, or the admission of servile races, unfitted by habits, tra'nJug, religion or kindred for absorption into the great body of our people, or for the citizenship which our laws oonfer. American civiliz-tion demands that against the Immigration or importation of Mongolians to these shores ourgates be closed. The Democratic party insists that it is the duty of this Government to protect, with equal fidel ty and vigilanoe, the rights ot its citizens* native and naturalized, at home and abroad; and to the end that this protection may be as--bu ed. United States papers of naturalization* issued by courts of oompet'nt jurisdiction* must be respected by the executive and Jeg slative departments of our own Government and by all foreign powers. It is an imperative duty of this Government toefficiently protect all the rights of persons and: property of American citizens in foreign Unds* and demand and enforce fnll reparation for any invasion thereof. An American citizen is only responsible to hla own Government for any act done In hs own country, or under her flag, and can only be tried therefor on her own soil and according toher laws; Rnd no power exists in this Government to expatriate an American citizen to be tried in any foreign land for su h act. This country has never had a well-defined and executed foreign policy sat e under Demo—oratic administration; that policy has ever been* in regard to foreign nations, so long as they do not act detrimental to the interests of the country or hurtful to our citizens, to let them alone; that as the result of this policy we recall the acquisition at Louisiana, Florida, California, and of the adjacent Mexican territory by purchase alone;, and contrast, these grand acquisitions of Democratic statesmanship with the purchase of Ala ska, the sole fruit of a Republican administration of nearly A quarter ot a entury. The Federal Government should care tor and improve the Mississippi River and other great waterways of the republic, so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tide water. Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy our merchant marine was fast overtaking and on the point of outstripping that of Great. Bi itain. Under twenty years of Republican rule and policy our commerce has been left to British bottoms, and almost lifts the American flag been, swept off the high seas. Under Democratic rule and policy eur merchants and sailors, flying the stars and stripes in every port, successfully searched out a market lor tue varied products of American industry. Under a quarter century of Republican rule and policy, despite our manifest advantage over all other nations in high-paid labor, favorable climates and teeming soils; despite freedom of trade among all these United States; despite their population by the foremost races of mm, and an annnal imrnigt ation of the young? th- ifty and adventurous of all nations; despite ourfreedom here from the Inherited burdens of life and industry in old-world mo archies —theircostly war navies, their vast tax-i onsnmiug, non-preduotng st • nding armies; despite twenty years of peace—Republican rule and policy have managed to surrender to Great Britain, along with our commerce, the control of the markets of the world. nstead of the Republican party’s British policy, wp demand in behalf of the AmerLan Democracy an Americ n policy. Instead of tbe Republican party’s discredited scheme and false pretense of friendship for American labor, expressed by imposing taxes* we demand In behalf of the Democracy free om for American' labor by reducing taxes, to the end that these United s tates may c ompete with unhindered powers for the primacy among nations in all tbe arts of peace and fruits of liberty. With profound regret we have been apprised by the venerable statesman through whose person was;s ruck that, blow at the vital principleof republics (acqnlesoence in the will of t e majority), that he cannot, permit ns again to place inh,s hands the leadership of the Democrat hosts, for the reason that the achievement of relo; min the administration of the Federal Government is an undertaking now too heavy for his age and failing strength. Rejoicing that his lit" has been prolonged until the general Judgment of our feilow-country-men is united in the wmh that that wrong were righted in his person, .or the Democracy of theUnited Slates we offer to him, in his withdrawal from public cares, riot on y our respect, sympathy and estem. bn also that best boma.e of freemen—the pledge of our devotion to the principles and the cause now inseparable in the history of this Republic from the labors and thename of f-amuel J. 'lilden. With this statement of the hopes, principles, and purposes of the Democratic party, the greatissue of reform and change in administration is. submitted to the people in calm confidence thatthe popular voice will pronounce in favor of new men and new and more favorable conditions for the growth of industry, the extens on of trade, the employment and due reward, of labor and of capital, and the general welfare of the whole country.