'18 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



We favor the immediate construction, owner- 

 ship, and control of the Nicaraguan Canal by the 

 1'niti'd States, and we denounce the insincerity 

 of the plank in the Republican national platform 

 for an isthmian canal, in the face of thj failure 

 of the Republican majority to pass the bill pend- 

 ing in Congress. We condemn the Hay-Paunce- 

 fofe treaty as a surrender of American rights and 

 interests, not to be tolerated by the American 

 j>eople. We denounce the failure of the Republican 

 party to carry out its pledges to grant statehood 

 to the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and 

 Oklahoma, and we promise the people of those 

 Territories immediate Statehood, and home rule 

 during their condition as Territories; and we favor 

 home rule and a territorial form of government 

 for Alaska and Porto Rico. We favor an intelli- 

 gent systi-m of improving the arid lands of the 

 West, storing the waters for the purposes of irri- 

 gation, and the holding of such lands for actual 

 settlers. We favor the continuance and strict en- 

 forcement of the Chinese exclusion law and its 

 application to the same classes of all Asiatic races. 



" Jefferson said : ' Peace, commerce, and honest 

 friendship with all nations, entangling alliances 

 with none.' We approve this wholesome doctrine 

 and earnestly protest against the Republican de- 

 parture which has involved us in so-called world 

 politics, including the diplomacy of Europe and 

 the intrigue and land-grabbing in Asia, and we 

 especially condemn the ill-concealed Republican 

 alliance with England, which must discriminate 

 against other friendly nations and which has al- 

 ready stifled the nation's voice while liberty is 

 being strangled in Africa. Believing in the prin- 

 ciples of self-government and rejecting, as did our 

 forefathers, the claims of monarchy, we view with 

 indignation the purpose of England to overwhelm 

 with force the South African republics. Speaking, 

 as we believe, for the entire American nation, ex- 

 cept its Republican officeholders, and for all free 

 men everywhere, we extend our sympathy to the 

 heroic burghers in their unequal struggle to main- 

 tain their liberty and independence. 



" We denounce the lavish appropriations of re- 

 cent Republican congresses, which have kept taxes 

 high and which threaten the perpetuation of the 

 oppressive war levies. We oppose the accumula- 

 tion of a surplus to be squandered in such bare- 

 faced frauds upon the taxpayers as the shipping 

 subsidy bill, which under the'false pretense of fos- 

 tering American shipbuilding, would put unearned 

 millions into the pockets of favorite contributors 

 to the Republican campaign fund. We favor the 

 reduction and speedy repeal of the war taxes, and 

 ;i return to the time-honored Democratic policy of 

 strict economy in governmental expenditures/ 



" Believing that our most cherished institutions 

 are in great peril, that the very existence of our 

 constitutional republic is at stake, and that the 

 decision now to be rendered will determine whether 

 or not our children are to enjoy those blessed priv- 

 ileges of free government which have made the 

 I'nited States great, prosperous, and honored, we 

 earnestly ask for the foregoing declaration of prin- 

 ciples the hearty support of the liberty-loving 

 American people, regardless of previous parly 

 affiliations. 



The Silver Republican National Convention, 

 held at Kansas City, Mo., on July 6, the day fol- 

 lowing the Democratic convention, accented the 

 nomination of William J. Bryan for President, and 

 referred the nomination of a candidate for Yicc- 

 President to its national committee, which in- 

 doned the nomination of Adlai E. Stevenson. The 

 following platform was adopted: 



"We. the Silver Republican party, in national 



convention assembled, declare these as our princi- 

 ples and invite the co-operation of all who agree 

 therewith: We recognize that the principles set 

 forth in the Declaration of Independence are 

 fundamental and everlastingly true in their appli- 

 cations of governments among men. We believe 

 the patriotic words of -Washington's farewell to be 

 the words of soberness and wisdom, inspired by the 

 spirit of right and truth. We treasure the words 

 of Jefferson as priceless gems of American states- 

 manship. We hold in sacred remembrance the 

 broad philanthropy and patriotism of Lincoln, who 

 was the great interpreter of American history and 

 the great apostle of human rights and of industrial 

 freedom, and we declare, as was declared by the 

 convention that nominated the great emancipator, 

 that the maintenance of the principles promulgated 

 in the Declaration of Independence and embodied 

 in the Federal Constitution, ' that all men are 

 created equal; that they are endowed by their 

 Creator with certain inalienable rights; that 

 among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 

 happiness; that to secure these rights governments 

 are instituted among men, deriving their just 

 powers from the consent of the governed,' is essen- 

 tial to the preservation of our republican insti- 

 tutions. We declare our adherence to the princi- 

 ple of bimetallism as the right basis of a mone- 

 tary system under our national Constitution, a 

 principle that found place repeatedly in Repub- 

 lican platforms from the demonetization of silver 

 in 1873 to the St. Louis Republican convention 

 of 1896. Since that convention a Republican Con- 

 gress and a Republican President, at the dictation 

 of the trusts and money power, have passed and 

 approved a currency bill which in itself is a re- 

 pudiation of the doctrine of bimetallism advocated 

 theretofore by the President and every great 

 leader of his party. This currency law destroys 

 the full money power of the silver dollar, provide? 

 for the payment of all Government obligations am 1 

 the redemption of all forms of paper money in gold 

 alone; retires the time-honored and patriotic 

 greenbacks, constituting one sixth of the money in 

 circulation, and surrenders to banking corpora- 

 tions a sovereign function of issuing all paper 

 money, thus enabling these corporations to control 

 the prices of labor and property by increasing or 

 diminishing the volume of money in circulation, 

 thus giving the banks power to create panics and 

 bring disaster upon business enterprises. The pro- 

 visions of this currency law making the bonded 

 debt of the republic payable in gold alone change 

 the contract between the Government and the 

 bondholders to the advantage of the latter, and 

 is in direct opposition to the declaration of the 

 Matthews resolution passed by Congress in 1878, 

 for which resolution the present Republican Pres- 

 ident, then a member of Congress, voted, as did 

 also all leading Republicans, both in the House 

 and Senate. We declare it to be our intention 

 to lend our efforts to the repeal of this currency 

 law. which not only repudiates the ancient and 

 time-honored principles of the American people 

 before the Constitution was adopted, but is vio- 

 lative of the principles of the Constitution itself. 

 and we shall not cease our efforts until there has 

 been established in its place a monetary system 

 based upon the free and unlimited coinage of silvei 

 and gold into money at the present legal ratio of 

 lt to 1 by the independent action of the United 

 States, under which system all paper money shall 

 be issued by the Government and all such money 

 coined or issued sh;:ll be a full leiral tender in 

 payment of all debts, public and private, without 

 exception. We are in favor of a graduated tax 

 upon incomes, and if necessary to accomplish this 



