UNITED STATES. 



771 



acy 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 de- 

 stroying that balance of rights and powers which en- 

 ables a continent to be developed in peace, and social 

 order to be maintained by means of local self-govern- 

 ment. But it is indispensable for the practical appli- 

 cation and enforcement of these fundamental princi- 

 ples that the Government should not always be con- 

 trolled 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 the gen- 

 eral welfare, becomes an instrumentality for impos- 

 ing heavy burdens on the many who are governed, 

 for the benefit of the few who govern. Public serv- 

 ants 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 con- 

 cerned, is a reminiscence. In practice it is an organiza- 

 tion for enriching those who control 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 Eepublican party, 

 yet those in authority, made reckless by the long pos- 

 session of power, have succumbed to its corrupting in- 

 fluence, and. have placed in nomination 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, hi 1880, 

 the change demanded by the people was defeated by 

 the lavish use of money contributed by unscrupulous 

 contractors and shameless jobbers, who had bar- 

 gained for unlawful profits or high office. The Ee- 

 publican 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 hun- 

 dreds 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 im- 

 posed and has continued those burdens. It professes 

 the policy of reserving the public lands for small hold- 

 ings 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 for 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 working-men to the com- 

 petition of convict and imported contract labor. It 

 professes 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 com- 

 mission 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 compe- 

 tition with manufacturing nations, not one of which 

 taxes raw materials. It professes to protect all Ameri- 

 can industries it has impoverished many to subsi- 

 dize a few. It professes the protection of Ameri- 

 can labor it has depleted the returns of American 

 agriculture, an industry followed by half our people. 

 If professes the equality of all men before the law at- 

 tempting to fix the status of colored citizens the acts 

 of its Congress were overset by the decisions of its 

 courts. It u 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 inde- 

 pendent journals, no longer maintain a successful con- 

 test for authority in its councils or a veto upon bad 

 nominations. That change is necessary is proved by 

 an existing surplus of more than $100,000,000, which 

 has yearly been collected from a suffering people. 

 Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. We de- 

 nounce the Republican party for having failed to re- 

 lieve the people from crushing war- tuxes, which have 

 paralyzed business, crippled industry, and deprived 

 labor of employment and of just reward. 



The Democracy pledges itself to purify the Admin- 

 istration 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 operations of the people should be cautious and 

 conservative in method, not in advance of public 

 opinion, but responsive to its demands, the Demo- 

 cratic party is pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit 

 of fairness to all interests. But, in making reduction 

 in taxes, it is not proposed to injure any domestic in- 

 dustries, but rather to promote their healthy growth. 

 From the foundation of this Government taxes col- 

 lected 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 

 upon legislation for successful continuance, so that 

 any change of law must be at every step regardful of 

 the labor and capital thus involved. The process of 

 the reform must be subject in the execution to this 

 plain dictate of justice. All taxation shall be limited 

 to the requirements of economical government. The 

 necessary reduction in taxation can and must be ef- 

 fected without depriving American labor of the ability 

 to compete successfully with foreign labor, and with- 

 out imposing lower rates of duty than will be ample 

 to cover any increased cost of production which may 

 exist in consequence of the higher rate of wages pre- 

 vailing in this country. Sufficient revenue to pay all 

 the expenses of the Federal Government economically 

 administered, including pensions, interest and prin- 

 cipal of the public debt, can be got under our present 

 system of taxation from custom-house taxes on fewer 

 imported articles, bearing heaviest on articles of luxury 

 and bearing lightest on articles of necessity. We 

 therefore denounce the abuses of the existing tariff, 

 and, subject to the preceding limitations, we demand 

 that Federal taxation shall be exclusively for public 

 purposes, and shall not exceed the needs of the Gov- 

 ernment economically administered. 



The system of direct taxation known as the " inter- 

 nal revenue" is a war-tax, and so long as the law 

 continues the money derived therefrom should be 

 sacredly devoted 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 time to time grant to such soldiers, 

 a like fund tor the sailors having been already pro- 

 vided, and any surplus should be paid into the Treas- 

 ury. 



We favor an American continental policy based 

 upon more intimate commercial and political relations 

 with the fifteen sister republics of North, Central, 

 and South America, but entangling alliances with 

 none. 



We believe in honest money, the gold and silver 

 coinage of the 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, race, color, 

 or persuasion, religious 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 Forty-fifth and Forty-six* 



