People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1896 — THE FIRST GUN. [ARTICLE]

THE FIRST GUN.

HON. FRANK BURKITT OPENS CAMPAIGN IN ARKANSAS Finance, Transportation L»ml ih« Three Great Distinctive Principle. at the People's Party —History of 1 at Parties. The following are extracts tak .1 from the speech of Hon. Frank Bmki.i, ex-candidate of the people’s party .>r governor of Mississippi in 1895. 1 _ie speech was delivered at Hardy, Aik., May 30, 1896. Fellow Citizens: When four thousand men own more than half the property of a nation of seventy millions; when two men are the proprietors of 14,000,000 acres of land, when corporations and foreign syndicates have been given or permitted to grab land enough in this country if in a body to make four such states as Arkansas; when fifty-two per cent of our entire population are tenants; when of 2,277 heads of families in ward 1 in the city of New York only 19 own their homes unencumbered; when heartless millionaires like Pullman exercise the power to reduce arbitrarily the wages of their employes three times in one year, at the same time declaring the usual dividends; when federal judges at the bidding of corporations enjoin men from doing what they never contemplated, and imprison them for failure or refusal to commit the crime charged; when the same tools of plutocracy attempt to compel workingmen to submit to the exaction of railway magnates or be punished for refusing to work; when the President of the United States will at the behest of soulless corporations invade a sovereign state over the protest of a governor and in defiance of the constitution and law of the land; when a servile congress farms out the right to issue, expand and contract the currency of a great nation ait will and pleasure of 3,756 national bankers; when an Incompetent and corrupt secretary of the treasury dickers in secret with the old clients and partners of the president in the sale of bonds at a price that enables the purchasers to reap a profit of millions of dollars; when a supreme court solemnly declares that the rich and powerful may escape taxation, while the products of farm, mine and factory do not yield a sufficient profit to the producers to de - cently feed, clothe and educate their children; when soup houses are re- ' garded as necessary .institutions in our ! cities, when the highways of this, the greatest nation on earth, are thronged by 2,000,000 human beings, who, like the Son of Man, are houseless and homeless, with not where to lay their heads, I assume that you will agree with me that there is something wrong in this country.

To right the wrongs from which people suffer, after earnest, prayerful efforts to induce the democratic and republican party leaders to cease to foster monopoly and adopt as a policy “the greatest good to the greatest number,” many good and true men, more patriotic than partisan, feeling that nothing would be done by either of the old parties to restore to the country much needed prosperity, resolved upon the organization of a new party which would embody in its declaration of principles the republicanism of Jefferson and Lincoln and the democracy of Jackson and Calhoun, and they christened it with the identical name which Jackson’s party assumed in 1828—The People’s Party. We hear democratic speakers often boast that Thomas Jefferson was the founder of the democratic party. Permit me to say, for the benefit of the young men of the country,' that Thomas Jefferson died years before there ever was a party organized in America bearing the name of democrat. It is true that Jefferson laid down certain great and fundamental principles of government, which were’ afterwards adopted by the democratic party under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, but in truth and fact Jefferson’s party was called the republican party, and it is a fact of history that Abraham Lincoln and his followers claimed —and with more reason and greater consistency than the modern democracy—to be the disciples of Jefferson. A resume of political parties in the earlier days of the republic discloses the interesting fact that the people’s party of today was organized under precisely the same conditions, and for precisely the same purposes, that called the democratic party into existence, as I have already stated, years after the demise of the author, of the first declaration cf American independence. So if principles rather than name can properly fix political status, the middle-of-the-road populist is the truest democrat in the land, if Jefferson and Jackson were democrats, and judged by the same standard the honest populist is the purest republican in America today, if Lincoln was a republican. In the earliest days of the republic there were Shylocks as now, and the grasping greed of the money devil was almost as arrogant and aggressive under the administration of Washington as of Grover Cleveland. Always taking advantage of the misfortune of mankind, the money leeches seek to fasten themselves upon a people impoverished by war, and hence the patriot fathers of the revolution became the victims of these scavengers of civilization, and suffered in part the same outrages which we now endure. In 1796 congress under the influence of Alexander Hamilton passed the United States bank bill, which conferred upon the incorporators similar powers and privileges as those now enjoyed by the national bankers. The charter of the bank was for twenty years, just as the present national banks, but there was no clause in the bill as in the national bank charters, reserving to congress the power to

.entif,-. noci, anreuu or rejrevi izt* charter of the U. 8. bank at will and pleasure. In that day aqd .time the courts held mere tenaciously to the doctrine of “vested rights” than now, and statesmen as well as the people recognized the fact that the bank was a fixture until 1816. Jefferson was an uncompromising enemy to the bank and he declared “banks of issue are more dangerous to the liberties of the people than standing armies.” He proclaimed the doctrine that the right to issue money must be taken from the bank and restored to 1 the government (the people) to whom I it belonged, and he proposed that when the government should stand in need of money it should issue its own bills of credit (treasury notes, greenbacks), bottomed on taxes. Although Mr. Jefferson recognized the fact that the act ; of 1796 conferred upon the U. S. bank the power to control the currency of the country until 1816, he knew it was necessary to educate the people to secure its overthrow and to this task he set himself, and in the year 1800 he organized his party, which he called the republican party. In that day nominating conventions were not the 1 fashion. A man declared himself a ! candidate for the presidency as one of “the boys” would do now, who wished to be constable of his beat, j and he wrote a letter to some friend avowing his principles, which served the purpose of the latter day convention platform. Mr. Jefferson’s letter set forth conspicuously two planks: The first was opposition to the U. S. bank—uncompromising hostility to the idea of congress farming out the right to individuals or soulless corporations to control the currency of the country,' and the second was opposition to federal Interference in the local affairs of the states. On his declaration of principles Jefferson was elected president in 1800 and again in 1804 as a republican. Madison was elected his successor in 1808 on the same platform and again in 1812. But the war of 1812 having afflicted the country and produced much financial embarrassment, the money sharks took advantage cf the situation to importune congress to re-charter the bank, which was done in 1816 and Madison in defiance of his pledges, approved the bill, which act rendered him almost as despicable in the eyes of the people as the present occupant of the White House. Realizing that the country had been iiuped by the money-changers and betrayed by their representatives, the people were disgusted and ceased to agitate the financial question for a time. Monroe was elected twice, without opposition, but in the campiign of 1824 the bank question again be :ame a leading issue. Four for president entered the race. John Quincy Adams, the federalist and a U. S. bank advoveate was one, Henry Clay, who represented that wing of the old party of Jefferson that had made friends with the bank was another, and Andrew Jackson, representing Jefferson’s Ideas on the question of banks of issue and state rights was another. Wm. H. Crawford, of Georgia, was I believe, the fourth candidate.

It will be observed that the republican or Jeffersonian party had divided on the money question just as the democratic party is now divided on the same question. There was no election by the people, and the choice of a president was relegated to the lower house of congress. In the contest the friends of Adams and Clay, under the influence of the bank combined, and Jackson, the real representative of the Jeffersonian policy was defeated. Adams, the federalist, became president, and Clay, whose position was analogous to the gold-bug democrat of the present day, was made secretary of state, and thus it was the “bargain intrigue and corruption” charge, which prevented Harry of the West” from ever being president, originated. Mark you, fellow citizens, no democratic party had up to that time sprung into existence. The party of Jefferson (who died July 4, 1826) was still called the republican party. Adams served his term of office and old Nick Biddle, president of the bank, was the power behind the throne. Senators and congressmen were seduced and corrupted by the liberality of the bank in lending money and other methods so well known among financiers. An era of corruption never surpassed, perhaps, until the infamous national banking system under which we suffer, held high carnival, dictated the policy jof the government and robbed the people unmercifully. But the end came, for in 1828 Jackson again took the field as a candidate for president, and allow me to say that he did not call himself a democrat nor his party the democratic party. He was elected as “The People’s” candidate on a platform of principles practically the same as those promulgated at Omaha in the second declaration of independence, July 4, 189*2. I hold in my hand a photographic copy of the ticket voted in Ohio in 1828. It is headed people’s (not democratic) ticket. It has for its motto, “Gratitude glory patriotism,” and its candidates, for president, Andrew Jackson; for vice president, John C. Calhoun. And I affirm, fellow citizens, here and now, that up to that time there was no organized party in this country known as the democratic party. In this campaign of 1828 the name of Locofoco democrats was given in derision tG Jackson’s followers, just as the name populist or populite has been given to the members of the people’s party by our enemies. Afterwards the name democrat was accepted and adopted by the Jackson parly, just as we have accepted the name populist, but “Old Hickory” was first elected as a people’s party man under precisely the same conditions and for precisely the same purposes that inspired honest, patriotic members of both the old parties to assemble at Omaha, Neb., on independence day, 1892. Our opponents of both the old paities, while virtually admitVng the identity

of our position with that of JWrersoß and Jackson on the flhan cfal question, usually ignore the land plank and pour out their viaU of wrath upon govern-, ment ownership of the means of transportation and communication. That, they have little or nothing to say in criticism of the populist on the land question I attribute in part to the fact that the doctrine we preach was first proclaimed by Jefferson and is therefore older than the democratic party, and because of its popularity with the masses, was championed by democratic press and orators whenever there was a chance to Secure political advantage in their contention with the republican party from ’6B to 'B4, and in part to the fear that the party’s record on this subject vital to the homeless majority of our people, would not bear close inspection. Answering the assertion, ridicule and abuse of the tools of plutocracy who denounce the transportation plank of our platform, populists maintain that the principle is as old as the government itself. It may be found in the declaration of the founders of the republic, that public highways are and shall be the property of the people. Navigable streams could not be owned in whole or in part by individuals, corporations, or by states even, but should forever remain the property of the general government. Railroads are nothing more nor less than public highways, and to permit private ownership is a dangerous innovation on the doctrine so clearly, as I conceive, laid down in the ease of dirt roads and navigable streams.