American financial system. We are unalterably opposed to the single
gold standard, and demand the immediate return to the constitutional
standard of gold and silver, by the restoration by this Government,
independently of any foreign power, of the unrestricted coinage of
both gold and silver into standard money, at the ratio of sixteen to
one, 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 legislation
as will prevent for the future the destruction of the legal 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.
We are unalterably opposed to the issue 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
Republican House of Representatives, 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.
The demonetization of silver in 1873 enormously increased the demand
for gold, enhancing its purchasing power and lowering all prices
measured by that standard; and, since that unjust and indefensible
act, the prices of American products have fallen, upon an average,
nearly fifty per cent., carrying down with them proportionately the
money value of all other forms of property.
Such fall of prices has destroyed the profits of legitimate industry,
injuring the producer for the benefit of the non-producer; increasing
the burden of the debtor, swelling the gains of the creditor,
paralyzing the productive energies of the American people, relegating
to idleness vast numbers of willing workers, sending the shadows of
despair into the home of the honest toiler, filling the land with
tramps and paupers, and building up colossal fortunes at the money
centres.
In the effort to maintain the gold standard, the country has, within
the last two years, in a time of profound peace and plenty, been
loaded down with $262,000,000 of additional interest-bearing debt
under such circumstances as to allow a syndicate of native and foreign
bankers to realize a net profit of millions on a single deal.
It stands confessed that the gold standard can be only upheld by so
depleting our paper currency as to force the prices of our products
below the European, and even below the Asiatic, level to enable us to
sell in foreign markets, thus aggravating the very evils of which our
people so bitterly complain, degrading American labor and striking at
the foundations of our civilization itself.
The advocates of the gold standard persistently claim that the real
cause of our distress is overproduction—that we have produced so much
that it made us poor—which implies that the true remedy is to close
the factory, abandon the farm, and throw a multitude 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 overproduction, and at the same time tens of thousands of
our fellow-citizens remaining half clothed and half fed, and piteously
clamoring for the common necessities of life.
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 Constitution—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 unsound
standard, appreciated one hundred 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
advantage which tariff legislation cannot overcome.
We, therefore, confidently appeal to the people of the United States
to hold in abeyance all other questions, however important and even
momentous they may appear, to sunder, if need be, all former party
ties and affiliations, and unite in one supreme effort to free
themselves and their children from the domination of the money power—a
power more destructive than any which has ever been fastened upon the
civilized men of any race or in any age. And upon the consummation of
our desires and efforts we invoke the aid of all patriotic American
citizens, and the gracious favor of Divine Providence.
The sound-money Democrats of the country called a national convention
that met at Indianapolis on the 2d of September, and adopted the title
of the National Democratic party. Governor Flower, of New York, was
temporary chairman, and Senator Caffery, of Louisiana, was permanent
president. General John M. Palmer, of Illinois, was nominated for
President on the 1st ballot, receiving 769-1/2 votes to 118-1/2 votes
for General Edward S. Bragg, of Wisconsin. General Simon B. Buckner,
of Kentucky, was nominated for Vice-President by acclamation. The
following platform was unanimously adopted:
This convention has assembled to uphold the principles on 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.
The Democratic party is pledged to equal and exact justice to all
men, of every creed and condition; to the largest freedom of the
individual consistent with good government; to the preservation of the
Federal Government in its constitutional vigor, and to the support
of the States in all their just rights; to economy in the public
expenditures; to the maintenance of the public faith and sound money;
and it is opposed to paternalism and all class legislation.
The declarations of the Chicago convention attack individual freedom,
the right of private contract, the independence of the judiciary, and
the authority of the President to enforce Federal laws. They advocate
a reckless attempt to increase the price of silver by legislation,
to the debasement of our monetary standard, and threaten unlimited
issues of paper money by the Government. They abandon for Republican
allies the Democratic cause of tariff reform, to court the favor of
protectionists to their fiscal heresy.
In view of these and other grave departures from Democratic
principles, we cannot support the candidates of that convention nor be
bound by its acts.
The Democratic party has survived defeats, but could not survive a
victory won in behalf of the doctrine and policy proclaimed in its
name at Chicago.
The conditions, however, which make possible such utterances from a
national convention are the direct result of class legislation by the
Republican party. It still proclaims, as it has for years, the power
and duty of Government to raise and maintain prices by law, and it
proposes no remedy for existing evils, except oppressive and unjust
taxation.
The National Democracy here convened therefore renews its declaration
of faith in Democratic principles, especially as applicable to the
conditions of the times. Taxation—tariff, excise, or direct—is
rightfully imposed only for public purposes, and not for private gain.
Its amount is justly measured by public expenditures, which should be
limited by scrupulous economy. The sum derived by the Treasury from
tariff and excise levies is affected by the state of trade and volume
of consumption. The amount required by the Treasury is determined by
the appropriations made by Congress. The demand of the Republican
party for an increase in tariff taxation has its pretext in the
deficiency of revenue, which has its causes in the stagnation of trade
and reduced consumption, due entirely to the loss of confidence that
has followed the Populist threat of free coinage and depreciation of
our money, and the Republican practice of extravagant appropriations
beyond the needs of good government.
We arraign and condemn the Populist conventions of Chicago and
St. Louis for their co-operation with the Republican party in
creating these conditions, which are pleaded in justification of
a heavy increase of the burdens of the people by a further resort
to protection. We therefore denounce protection and its ally, free
coinage of silver, as schemes for the personal profit of a few at the
expense of the masses, and oppose the two parties which stand for
these schemes as hostile to the people of the Republic, whose food
and shelter, comfort and prosperity, are attacked by higher taxes
and depreciated money. In fine, we reaffirm the historic Democratic
doctrine of tariff for revenue only.
We demand that henceforth modern and liberal policies toward American
shipping shall take the place of our imitation of the restricted
statutes of the eighteenth century, which were long ago abandoned by
every maritime power but the United States, and which, to the nation’s
humiliation, have driven American capital and enterprise to the use of
alien flags and alien crews, have made the Stars and Stripes almost an
unknown emblem in foreign ports, and have virtually extinguished the
race of American seamen. We oppose the pretence that discriminating
duties will promote shipping; that scheme is an invitation to
commercial warfare upon the United States, un-American in the light of
our great commercial treaties, offering no gain whatever to American
shipping, while greatly increasing ocean freights on our agricultural
and manufactured products.
The experience of mankind has shown that, by reason of their natural
qualities, gold is the necessary money of the large affairs of
commerce and business, while silver is conveniently adapted to minor
transactions, and the most beneficial use of both together can be
insured only by the adoption of the former as a standard of monetary
measure, and the maintenance of silver at a parity with gold by its
limited coinage under suitable safeguards of law. Thus the largest
possible enjoyment of both metals is gained with a value universally
accepted throughout the world, which constitutes the only practical
bimetallic currency, assuring the most stable standard, and especially
the best and safest money for all who earn their livelihood by labor
or the produce of husbandry. They cannot suffer when paid in the best
money known to man, but are the peculiar and most defenceless victims
of a debased and fluctuating currency, which offers continual profits
to the money-changer at their cost.
Realizing these truths, demonstrated by long and public inconvenience
and loss, the Democratic party, in the interests of the masses and of
equal justice to all, practically established by the legislation of
1834 and 1853 the gold standard of monetary measurement, and likewise
entirely divorced the Government from banking and currency issues. To
this long-established Democratic policy we adhere, and insist upon
the maintenance of the gold standard, and of the parity therewith of
every dollar issued by the Government, and are firmly opposed to the
free and unlimited coinage of silver and to the compulsory purchase
of silver bullion. But we denounce also the further maintenance of
the present costly patchwork system of national paper currency as a
constant source of injury and peril. We assert the necessity of such
intelligent currency reform as will confine the Government to its
legitimate functions, completely separated from the banking business,
and afford to all sections of our country uniform, safe, and elastic
bank currency under governmental supervision, measured in volume by
the needs of business.
The fidelity, patriotism, and courage with which President Cleveland
has fulfilled his great public trust, the high character of his
administration, its wisdom and energy in the maintenance of civil
order and the enforcement of the laws, its equal regard for the rights
of every class and every section, its firm and dignified conduct of
foreign affairs, and its sturdy persistence in upholding the credit
and honor of the nation, are fully recognized by the Democratic party,
and will secure to him a place in history beside the fathers of the
Republic.
We also commend the administration for the great progress made in the
reform of the public service, and we endorse its effort to extend the
merit system still further. We demand that no backward step be taken,
but that the reform be supported and advanced until the un-Democratic
spoils system of appointments shall be eradicated.
We demand strict economy in the appropriations and in the
administration of the Government.
We favor arbitration for the settlement of international disputes.
We favor a liberal policy of pensions to deserving soldiers and
sailors of the United States.
The Supreme Court of the United States was wisely established by the
framers of our Constitution as one of the three co-ordinate branches
of the Government. Its independence and authority to interpret the law
of the land without fear or favor must be maintained. We condemn all
efforts to degrade that tribunal or impair the confidence and respect
which it has deservedly held.
The Democratic party ever has maintained, and ever will maintain, the
supremacy of law, the independence of its judicial administration, the
inviolability of contracts, and the obligations of all good citizens
to resist every illegal trust, combination, or attempt against the
just rights of property and the good order of society, in which are
bound up the peace and happiness of our people.
Believing these principles to be essential to the well-being of the
Republic, we submit them to the consideration of the American people.
The National Prohibition party held its national convention at
Pittsburg on the 27th of May. A. A. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, was
temporary chairman, and Oliver W. Stewart, of Illinois, permanent
president. The deliberations of the convention were seriously disturbed
by the free-silver issue, and the opposing factions known as the
“Narrow-Gaugers” and the “Broad-Gaugers,” the latter being favorable
to a general platform covering free coinage and all other national
questions, while the former wanted the issue confined to the liquor
question. The majority and minority reports were made on the platform,
and the convention decided to bring both reports before the body and
pass upon them seriatim. It was finally decided by a vote of 427 to 387
to reject the free-coinage plank, and the “Narrow-Gaugers” then adopted
their own platform as follows:
We, the members of the Prohibition party, in national convention
assembled, renewing our declaration of allegiance to Almighty God as
the rightful Ruler of the universe, lay down the following as our
declaration of political purpose:
The Prohibition party, in national convention assembled, declares its
firm conviction that the manufacture, exportation, importation, and
sale of alcoholic beverages has produced such social, commercial,
industrial, and political wrongs, and is now so threatening the
perpetuity of all our social and political institutions, that the
suppression of the same, by a national party organized therefor, is
the greatest object to be accomplished by the voters of our country,
and is of such importance that it of right ought to control the
political actions of all our patriotic citizens until such suppression
is accomplished.
The urgency of this course demands the union, without further delay,
of all citizens who desire the prohibition of the liquor traffic;
therefore be it
_Resolved_, That we favor the legal prohibition by State and national
legislation of the manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic
beverages. That we declare our purpose to organize and unite all the
friends of prohibition into one party, and in order to accomplish this
end we deem it of right to leave every Prohibitionist the freedom of
his own convictions upon all other political questions, and trust our
representatives to take such action upon other political questions as
the changes occasioned by prohibition and the welfare of the whole
people shall demand.
_Resolved_, That the right of suffrage ought not to be abridged on
account of sex.
Immediately after the adoption of the platform, the “Broad-Gaugers”
withdrew, and those who remained nominated Joshua Levering, of
Maryland, for President by acclamation, and on a ballot for
Vice-President, Hale Johnson, of Illinois, was chosen, receiving 309
votes to 132 for T. C. Hughes, of Arizona.
The seceders from the Prohibition convention met in Pittsburg on the
next day, May 28th, with A. L. Moore, of Michigan, as chairman, and the
roll-call showed 299 delegates present. Rev. Charles E. Bentley, of
Nebraska, was nominated for President, and James A. Southgate, of North
Carolina, was nominated for Vice-President, both by acclamation. The
following platform was adopted:
The National party, recognizing God as the author of all just power in
government, presents the following declaration of principles, which
it pledges itself to enact into effective legislation when given the
power to do so:
1. The suppression of the manufacture and sale, importation,
exportation, and transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage
purposes. We utterly reject all plans for regulating or compromising
with this traffic, whether such plans be called local option,
taxation, license, or public control. The sale of liquors for
medicinal and other legitimate uses should be conducted by the State,
without profit, and with such regulations as will prevent fraud or
evasion.
2. No citizen should be denied the right to vote on account of sex.
3. All money should be issued by the General Government only, and
without the intervention of any private citizen, corporation, or
banking institution. It should be based upon the wealth, stability,
and integrity of the nation. It should be a full legal tender for all
debts, public and private, and should be of sufficient volume to meet
the demands of the legitimate business interests of the country. For
the purpose of honestly liquidating our outstanding coin obligations,
we favor the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold, at
the ratio of 16 to 1, without consulting any other nation.
4. Land is the common heritage of the people and should be preserved
from monopoly and speculation. All unearned grants of land subject
to forfeiture should be reclaimed by the Government, and no portion
of the public domain should hereafter be granted except to actual
settlers, continuous use being essential to tenure.
5. Railroads, telegraphs, and other natural monopolies should be owned
and operated by the Government, giving to the people the benefit of
service at actual cost.
6. The national Constitution should be so amended as to allow the
national revenues to be raised by equitable adjustment of taxation on
the properties and incomes of the people, and import duties should
be levied as a means of securing equitable commercial relations with
other nations.
7. The contract convict labor system, through which speculators are
enriched at the expense of the State, should be abolished.
8. All citizens should be protected by law in their right to one day
of rest in seven, without oppressing any who conscientiously observe
any other than the first day of the week.
9. The American public schools, taught in the English language,
should be maintained, and no public funds should be appropriated for
sectarian institutions.
10. The President, Vice-President, and United States Senators should
be elected by direct vote of the people.
11. Ex-soldiers and sailors of the United States army and navy, their
widows and minor children, should receive liberal pensions, graded on
disability and term of service, not merely as a debt of gratitude, but
for service rendered in the preservation of the Union.
12. Our immigration laws should be so revised as to exclude paupers
and criminals. None but citizens of the United States should be
allowed to vote in any State, and naturalized citizens should not vote
until one year after naturalization papers have been issued.
13. The initiative and referendum, and proportional representation
should be adopted.
The Socialist Labor party held a national convention in New York on the
4th of July, and gave a full week to the deliberations of the body,
which were devoted almost wholly to disputation as to the policy and
purposes of the organization. The attendance was limited, as Charles H.
Matchett, of New York, was nominated for President on the 1st ballot,
receiving 43 votes to 23 for Matthew Maguire, of New Jersey, and 4
for William Watkins, of Ohio. Matthew Maguire was then nominated for
Vice-President by acclamation. The following platform was adopted:
The Socialist Labor party of the United States, in convention
assembled, reasserts the inalienable right of all men to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
With the founders of the American Republic, we hold that the
purpose of government is to secure every citizen in the enjoyment
of this right; but in the light of our social conditions, we hold,
furthermore, that no such right can be exercised under a system of
economic inequality, essentially destructive of life, of liberty, and
of happiness.
With the founders of this Republic, we hold that the true theory
of politics is that the machinery of government must be owned and
controlled by the whole people; but in the light of our industrial
development we hold, furthermore, that the true theory of economics is
that the machinery of production must likewise belong to the people in
common.
To the obvious fact, that our despotic system of economics is the
direct opposite of our democratic system of politics, can plainly
be traced the existence of a privileged class, the corruption of
government by that class, the alienation of public property, public
franchises, and public functions to that class, and the abject
dependence of the mightiest nations upon that class.
Again, through the perversion of Democracy to the ends of plutocracy,
labor is robbed of the wealth which it alone produces, is denied the
means of self-employment, and, by compulsory idleness in wage slavery,
is even deprived of the necessaries of life. Human power and natural
forces are thus wasted that the plutocracy may rule. Ignorance and
misery, with all their concomitant evils, are perpetuated, that the
people may be kept in bondage. Science and invention are diverted from
their humane purpose to the enslavement of women and children.
Against such a system the Socialist Labor party once more enters its
protest. Once more it reiterates its fundamental declaration, that
private property in the natural sources of production and in the
instruments of labor is the obvious cause of all economic servitude
and political dependence.
The time is fast coming when, in the natural course of social
evolution, this system, through the destructive action of its failures
and crises on the one hand, and the constructive tendencies of its
trusts and other capitalistic combinations on the other hand, shall
have worked out its own downfall.