The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-07-10
vision naivcly suggested that they had better
make it even $500, and tho suggestion was
PARTY PLATFORMS.
adopted


| The New York Ucmld, which has thus far
been reasonably firm in the maintenance Of iS
position rs an Independent journal as between
parties in the pending presidential contest
has devoted several able leaders during the
past week to Il consideration of the platforms
adopted by the two great party conventions,
and while 1t criticlses both with entire free.
dom and candor, Is yet constrained to admit
that Of the two the democratic platform is alto
gether the more creditabe and manly produc-
ton. We make few extracts:
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
A closer examination of the republican plat
form compels us to regard 1t as a joke II Is
impossible to imagine that the gentlemen who
drew 1t regarded 1t as anything else. Take
away from it the brag and the buster which
constitute its comic portions and there is moth
ing lett but commonplace.
1t begins with Dragging. The republican
party, says the first section, suppressed the re-
belllon, abolished slavery, raised the value Of
the paper currency from thirty-eight cents 70
par, increased the foreign trade paid the pen.
sions, paid off a third of the debt revived in
dustry. 1t seems pity to stop just there.
Why not have added that the republican party
raised the great crops of the last few years,
caused the droughts and rains in Europe
which made so great and profitable an eXpOr-
tation of our products, created the fine wheat
aad corn weather with which we have been
blessed for years, put stop to the cattle plague,
discovered and developed the new mines of
precious metals and dug out the Erie canal.
If the republican party really furnished all
the soldiers of the war and paid all the taxes
since the war undoubtedly it did all the other
things we have suggested The PLAIN truth OF
course is that the republican party has had
control of the government for twenty years
on the whole has mismanaged affairs very
badly, and Is not bit sorry for its misconduct
In putting down the rebellion and in freeing
the slaves Mr. Lincoln took counsel at every
step with leading democrats rs well rs repub-
licans; he was the president of the whole
country, and democrats were constantly among
his most cherished counsellors. AS for pay
the taxes, the democrats lave not been exempt
ed from that; the pleasing and republican
part was to collect them and spend them, pay
ing their part and no more.
Where the platform ceases to brag it begins
to bluster, the connection being made bv
brief section in which polygamy internal i'm
provements and protective tariffs are huddled
together a few cold words in commentator
of Mr. Hayes vetoes being thrown IN. The
buster concerns, naturally, the solid South
and those dreadful democrats whose only OBJ
ject, it seems to turn their minority into
a majority as though the only object
of the republican chiefs were not to retain
possession OF the government The buster is,
on the whole, more strongly comic than the
brag; 1t draws picture of the democratic
lust of Office and patronage" which If it were
not labelled democrat" would be generally
mistaken for description Of the republicans
drawn by themselves. Surely party which
Saivn ha DraS 80 fhn linnn did
1867, and then quarreled with the man they
forced INTO the White House because he would
not crafty to the extent OF their demands their
unsuitable lust of Office and patronage" but
honoraby preferred to serve the country rather
than the party leaders surely such party
should Sing small" to use sea phrase, when
the topic is greed of office and power
The DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
The Cincinnati platform seems the more
sincere and stralg htforward of the two, and 1t
has the great merit that it looks ahead. 1t
promises the country something; the republi-
cans promise nothing, except continuance Of
high protective tariff. The democratic plat
form speaks of living questions; it proposes
reform of the revenue laws so that they shall
yield revenue and not mainly embarrass COM
merce and foster monopolies; it proposes TO
spend the money of the taxpayers for public
purposes alone and to reserve the public
lands for the people who will settle on them.
1t may contain some superluous declarations,
but none, 50 far AS we can discover, which are
not honest. II denounces Capitalization, but
nobody doubts that this is the real and settled
view of the democratic party. 1t declares
against sumptuary laws, and the democratic
party has always consistently opposed them.
Separation of church and state for the good
of each" is doctrine which has been held by
the democratic party since the days of Jeffer-
son, its founder. THE subordinatiOn of the
military to the civil power" Is a principle
which has always been maintained by the de-
mocracy. In this enumeration we are not
considering the justice but only The sincerity
of the democratic declarations. Who can doubt
that they are sincere in asserting that the
right to free ballot is right preservatlve of
all rights" and denouncing the presence OF
troops and federal marshals at the polls to
overawc the voters? 1t is for the country to
decide whether this view is correct, but nobody
can dispute that the democratic platform is
sincere in this declaration. AS little can its
good faith be called in question IN denouncing
the means by which Mr.. Tilden was counted
out at the election of 1876 Without going
further into detail we may safely assert that
the Cincinnati platform says nothing which it
does not mean and although some parts of 1t
NAV be crudey expressed 1t holds out no false
lights to the unwary.
Talking about the unit rule, the Chicago