768 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Pensions. We favor just pensions for our disabled 

 Union soldiers. 



The Ballot. Believing that the elective franchise and 

 untrammeled ballot are essential to a government of, for, 

 and by the people, the People's party condemn the whole- 

 sale system of disfranchisement adopted in some States 

 as unrepublican and undemocratic, and we declare it to 

 be the duty of the several State legislatures to take such 

 action as will secure a full, free, and fair ballot and an 

 honest count. 



Finance. While the foregoing propositions constitute 

 the platform upon which our party stands, and for the 

 vindication <>f which its organization will be maintained, 

 we, recognize that the great and pressing issue of the 

 pending campaign, niton which the present election will 

 turn, is the financial question, and upon this great and 

 specific issue between the parties we cordially invite the 

 aid and co-operation of all organizations and citizens 

 agreeing with vis upon this vital question. 



A minority submitted a substitute platform de- 

 nouncing " the methods and policies of the Demo- 

 cratic and Republican parties " for their " mutual 

 co-operation with the money power " ; also their 

 policies of tariff and the issuance of interest-bear- 

 ing United States bonds in time of peace ; demanded 

 a national currency ; the free and unlimited coinage 

 of silver and gold at a ratio of 16 to 1 ; that the cir- 

 culating medium shall consist of gold, silver, and 

 paper currency ; a graduated income tax ; economy 

 in Federal administration ; Government ownership 

 of the telegraph and telephone; the prohibition of 

 alien ownership of land and pauper immigration, 

 and legislation by means of the initiative and ref- 

 erendum. The minority platform was defeated by 

 a large majority. 



By a vote of 785 to 615 it was resolved to nomi- 

 nate the candidate for Vice-President first. 



The names presented were Congressman Harry 

 Skinner, of North Carolina ; Thomas E. Watson, of 

 Georgia: Frank Burkitt, of Mississippi; A. L. 

 Mirams, of Tennessee ; Mann Page, of Virginia; and 

 Arthur Sewall, of Maine. The balloting began after 

 midnight, July 24, and the result of the first ballot 

 gave Watson 469f ; Sewall, 257f, and the others 

 ranging lower. A motion to declare Watson the 

 nominee was carried. 



On the following day William J. Bryan, nominee 

 of the Democratic Convention, was made the head 

 of the Populist ticket. He had telegraphed to Sen- 

 ator Jones to withdraw his name if Sewall, Demo- 

 cratic nominee for Vice-President, was not indorsed 

 for Vice-President, but it was allowed to stand. 

 James B. Weaver nominated Mr. Bryan : Henry W. 

 Call nominated S. F. Norton, of Chicago; Mr. Liv- 

 ingston nominated J. S. Coxey, but withdrew the 

 name later. The ballot showed the following result : 

 Bryan, 1,042 ; Norton, 321 : Eugene V. Debs, 8 ; Ig- 

 natius Donnelly, 3 ; J. S. Coxey, 1. 



Silver Party Convention. The convention of 

 the National Silver party was also held at St. Louis, 

 on July 22, 1896. It was called to order by Dr. J. J. 

 Mott, of North Carolina. Representative F. G. 

 Newlands, of Nevada, was made temporary chair- 

 man. William P. St. John, of New York, was 

 selected as permanent chairman. The platform was 

 as follows : 



First, the paramount issue at this time in the United 

 States is indisputably the money question. It is between 

 the British gold standard, gold bonds, and bank currency 

 on the one side, and the bimetallic standard, no bonds, 

 Government currency (and an American policy), on the 

 other. 



Silver. On this issue we declare ourselves to be in 

 favor of a distinctively American financial system. We 

 are unalterably opposed to the single gold standard, and 

 demand the immediate return to the constitutional stand- 

 ard of gold and silver, by the restoration by this Govern- 

 ment, independently of any foreign power, of the unre- 

 stricted coinage of both gold and silver into standard 

 money at the ratio of 16 to 1, and upon terms of exact 



equality, as they existed prior to 1873 ; the silver coin to 

 be of full legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts and 

 dues, public and private; and we demand such h-^isla 

 tion as will prevent for the future the destruction of the 

 leiral-tender quality of any kind of money by private 

 contract. 



We hold that the power to control and regulate a 

 paper currency is inseparable from the power to coin 

 money, and hence that all currency intended to circulate 

 as money should be issued and its volume controlled by 

 the General Government only, and should be a legal 

 tender. , 



Ilniiil Aw ?/ *.-- -We are unalterably opposed to the-is.Mie 

 by the United States of interest-bearing bonds in time 

 of' peace ; and we denounce as a blunder, worse than a 

 crime, the present Treasury policy, concurred in by a 

 Kepublican House, of plunging the country into debt by 

 hundreds of millions in the vain attempt to maintain the 

 gold standard by borrowing gold; and we demand the 

 payment of all coin obligations of the United States, as 

 provided by existing laws, in either gold or silver coin, 

 at the option of the Government and not at the option of 

 the creditor. 



I'roduction. The advocates of the gold standard per- 

 si>teiitly claim that the real cause of our distress is over- 

 production that we have produced so much that it 

 made us poor ; which implies that the true remedy is to 

 the factory, abandon the farm, and throw a multi- 

 tude of people out of employment a doctrine that leaves 

 us unnerved and disheartened, and absolutely without 

 hope for the future. We affirm it to be unquestioned that 

 there can be no such economic paradox as overproduc- 

 tion and at the same time tens of thousands of our fellow- 

 citizens remaining half clot lied and half fed, and who 

 are piteously clamoring for the common necessities of 

 life. 



Jlliiiitttlllxm. Over and above all other questions of 

 policy we are in favor of restoring to the people of the 

 United States the time-honored money of the Constitu- 

 tion gold and silver, not one, but both the money of 

 Washington and Hamilton, and Jefferson and Monroe, 

 and Jackson and Lincoln, to the end that the American 

 people may receive honest pay for an honest product ; 

 that the American debtor may pay his just obligations 

 in an honest standard, and not in a dishonest and un- 

 sound standard, appreciated 100 per cent, in purchasing 

 power and no appreciation in debt-paying power, and to 

 the end, further, that silver-standard countries may be 

 deprived of the unjust advantage they now enjoy in the 

 difference in exchange between gold and silver an ad- 

 vantage which tariff legislation can not overcome. 



Candidates. Inasmuch as the patriotic majority of the 

 Chicago convention embodied in the financial plank of 

 its platform the principles enunciated in the platform of 

 the American bimetallic party, promulgated at Wash- 

 inirton, D. C., Jan. 22, 1896, and herein reiterated, which 

 is not only the paramount but the only real issue in the 

 pending campaign, therefore, recognizing that their 

 nominees embody these patriotic principles, we recom- 

 mend that this convention nominate William J. Bryan, 

 of Nebraska, for .President, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine, 

 for Vice-President. 



The nominees recommended in the platform were 

 indorsed by acclamation. 



National Democratic Convention. The con- 

 vention of the National Democratic party was held 

 at Indianapolis on Sept. 2 and 3, 1896. It was opened 

 by Senator Palmer, chairman of the National Com- 

 mittee. Prayer was offered by Bishop Hagen 

 White, of Indiana. Forty-one States, with 888 

 delegates, responded to the first roll call. Alaska, 

 Arizona, and New Mexico were represented in the 

 above total. Ex-Gov. Roswell P. Flower, of New 

 York, was chosen as temporary chairman ; Senator 

 Donelson Caffery, of Louisiana, was selected as per- 

 manent chairman. The platform was as follows : 



This convention has assembled to uphold the princi- 

 ples upon which depend the honor and welfare of the 

 American people, in order that Democrats throughout the 

 Union may unite their patriotic efforts to avert disaster 

 from their country and ruin from their party. 



Democratic Principles. The Democratic party is 

 pledged to equal and exact justice to all men of every 

 creed and condition ; to the largest freedom of the indi- 



