UNITED STATES. 



777 



posed any others in their stead. Professing adher- 

 ence to the Monroe doctrine, it has seen with idle 

 complacency the extension of foreign influence in 

 Central America and of foreign trade even-where 

 among our neighbors. It has refused to charter, sanc- 

 tion, or encoiiratre any American organization for 

 constructing the Nicaragua Canal, a work of vital im- 

 portance to the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine 

 and of our national influence in Central and South 

 America, and necessary for the development of trade 

 with our Pacific territory, with South America, and 

 with the islands and further coasts of the Pacific 

 Ocean. 



We arraign the present Democratic Administration 

 for its -weak and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries 

 question, and its pusillanimous surrender of the es- 

 sential privileges to which our fishing-vessels are en- 

 titled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the 

 reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830 and the comity 

 of the nations, and which Canadian fishing-vessels 

 receive in the ports of the United States. We con- 

 demn the policy of the present Administration and the 

 Democratic majority in Congress toward our fisheries 

 as unfriendly and conspicuously unpatriotic, and as 

 tending to destroy a valuable national industry and 

 an indispensible resource of defense against a foreign 

 enemy. The name of American applies alike to all 

 citizens of the republic and imposes upon all alike the 

 same obligation of obedience to the laws. At the 

 same time that citizenship is and must be the panoply 

 and safeguard of him who wears it and protect him, 

 whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil 

 rights. It should and must afford him protection at 

 home and follow and protect him abroad in whatever 

 land he may be on a lawful errand. 



The men who abandoned the Republican party in 

 18S4, and continue to adhere to the Democratic party, 

 have deserted not only the cause of honest govern- 

 ment, of sound finance, of freedom, of purity of the 

 ballot, but especially have deserted the cause of re- 

 form in the civil service. We will not fail to keep 

 our pledges because they have broken theirs, or be- 

 cause their candidate has broken his. We therefore 

 repeat our declaration of 1884, to wit : The reform 

 of the civil service, auspiciously begun under the Re- 

 publican Administration, should be completed by the 

 further extension of the reform system already estab- 

 lished bv law to all the grades of* the service to which 

 it is applicable. The spirit and purpose of the reform 

 should be observed in ail Executive appointments, and 

 all laws at variance with the object of existing reform 

 legislation should be repealed, to the end that the 

 dangers to free institutions which lurk in the power 

 of official patronage may be wisely and effectively 

 avoided. 



The gratitude of the nation to the defenders of the 

 Union can not be measured by laws. The legislation 

 of Congress should conform to the pledge made by a 

 loyal people and be so enlarged and extended as to 

 provide against the possibility that anv man who 

 honorably wore the Federal uniform shall become an 

 inmate of an almshouse or dependent upon private 

 charity. In the presence of an overflowing Treasury, 

 it would be a public scandal to do less for those 

 whose valorous service preserved the Government. 

 We denounce the hostile spirit shown by President 

 Cleveland in his numerous vetoes of measures for 

 pension relief, and the action of the Democratic House 

 of Representatives in refusing even a consideration of 

 general pension legislation. 



In support of the principles herewith enunciated we 

 invite the co-operation of patriotic men of all parties, 

 and especially of all workingmen, whose prosperity is 

 seriously threatened by the free-trade policy of the 

 present 'Administration". 



The following addendum was adopted in the 

 closing hours of the convention : 



The first concern of all good government is the vir- 

 tue and sobriety of the people and the purity of their 



homes. The Republican partv eordiallv sympathizes 

 with all wise ana well directed efforts tor the promo- 

 tion of temperance and morality. 



Prohibition f (invention. The Prohibition Na- 

 tional Convention met at Indianapolis on May 

 30, and organized by choosing H. C. Delano, of 

 Connecticut, to be temporary chairman. The 

 permanent chairman was Ex-Gov. John P. St. 

 John, of Kansas. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, of 

 New Jersey, was nominated by acclamation for 

 President, and John A. Brooks, of Missouri, for 

 Yice-President. Considerable discussion arose 

 regarding the platform, especially upon the 

 subject of woman suffrage. The report of the 

 majority of the Platform Committee was finally 

 adopted in the following form : 



The Prohibition party, in national convention as- 

 sembled, acknowledging Almighty God as the source 

 of alljpower in government, do hereby declare : 



1. That the manufacture, importation, exportation, 

 transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages shall be 

 made public crimes, and punished as such. 



2. That such prohibition must be secured through 

 amendments of our national and State constitutions, 

 enforced by adequate laws adequately supported by 

 administrative authoritv ; and to this end the organ- 

 ization of the Prohibition party is imperatively de- 

 manded in State and nation. 



3. That any form of license, taxation, or regulation 

 of the liquor-traffic is contrary to good government ; 

 that any party which supports regulation, license, or 

 tax enters into alliance with such traffic and becomes 

 the actual foe of the State's welfare, and that we ar- 

 raign the Republican and Democratic parties for their 

 persistent attitude in favor of the licensed iniquity, 

 whereby they oppose the demand of the people for 

 prohibition, "and. through open complicity with the 

 liquor cause, defeat the enforcement of law. 



4. For the immediate abolition of the internal reve- 

 nue system, whereby our national Government is dc- 

 rivingsupport from our greatest national vice. 



5. That, an adequate public revenue being neces- 

 sary, it may properly be raised bv impost duties and 

 by an equitable assessment upon the property and the 

 le'gitimate business of the country, but import duties 

 should be so reduced that no surp'lus shall be accumu- 

 lated in the Treasury, and that the burdens of taxa- 

 tion shall be removed from foods, clothing, and other 

 comforts and necessaries of life. 



fi. That civil-service appointments for all civil 

 offices, chiefly clerical in their duties, should be based 

 upon moral, "intellectual, and physical qualifications, 

 and not upon party service or party necessity. 



7. That the right of suffrage rests on no "mere cir- 

 cumstance of race, color, sex, or nationality, and that 

 where, from any cause, it has been held from citizens 

 who are of suitable age and mentally and morally 

 qualified for the exercise of an intelligent ballot, it 

 should be restored by the people through the Legis- 

 latures of the several States, on such educational basis 

 as they may deem wise. 



8. For tfie abolition of polygamy and the establish- 

 ment of uniform laws governing marriage and divorce. 



9. For prohibiting all combinations of capital to 

 control and to increase the cost of products for popu- 

 lar consumption. 



10. For the preservation and defense of the Sabbath 

 as a civil institution without oppressing any who re- 

 ligiously observe the same on any other day than the 

 first day of the week. 



That'arbitration is the Christian, wise, and economic 

 method of settling national differences, and the same 

 method should, by judicious legislation, be applied to 

 the settlement of disputes between large bodies of em- 

 ployes and employers ; that the abolition of the saloon 

 would remove the'burdens, moral, physical, pecuniary, 

 and social, which now oppress labor and rob it of its 



