Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-09-12
BuTLER,s LETTER.

Announces His Position In an El1istle OF
Many Observation-Disclosures of Both Old
Parties.
LOWELL, Mass, Aug. 1a.-The address, as it
10 styled, instead Of letter, to his constituents
was given out yesterday by General Butter
1t is q most voluminous document. occupying
nearly five ordinary newspaper columns SGT
in small type. The following is n synopsis OF
its principal points. 1t opens rs follows;
"YO N yt~Onstituents In compliance with OFT
repeated n anxious inquiries, l hasten to
give account of my stewardship of the polit-
ical interests with which l was charged. They
were four:
II. Hostility to all m~onopolies in Gem
MERGE. industries and lands.
.2. The preservation Of the National legal
tender currency of the people, constitutions
ly issued by Congress.
IS. The needs Of all men and women h
labor in the production Of wealth, to be pro-
tected against the Entertainments of those
who absorb and consume without producing.
~. En- necessity for reform and correction
of abuses In Government, so that its pressure
on the people would be made as light as pos.
sible; its administration effective, to guard
the rights of American citizens at home and
abroad; to make public servants, individual
or incorporate, subservient to the use and
will of the people only, so as to restore the
prosperity of the country. with equa rights.
equal burdens, equal powers and equal privi-
leges of oil people.
'"Thcse latter were Specially confided to me
by tho Democratic masses of Massachusetts.
to whom alone l owe grateful dnty for high
consideration and support during years OF cf-
fort in reform Of government, but to no Dem
ocratic organization whatever. They were to
be presented to tho National Democratic
Convention for its acceptance and adoption
as tho axioms of Democratic rule as practiced
by our fathers.
81 had intended if these great principles of
Government, by the people and for the peo-
pie only, had been cordially received, and
earnesiy and honestly adopted by that
convention rs the political chart of the
democratic parry, to have permitted my
name to be presented to the conven-
ton for the SURFACES of the people as Cniet
Executive to administer and carry forward
the necessary measures; in which case l
should have been bound by its action to sup.
port both its platform and nominees. That l
should he placed in that high position 1 knew
was the will OF tho 10000 voters OF that coln-
monwealth. who had expressed thoir CONT
dcncc 10y their votes SO unanimously that no
man from that State could have, been Il del
egato to that convention II he had dared to
breathe aloud that he was opposed either to
the principles represented Or to my person.
al candidaturp. In thus doing the will of
those WHO sent inc, ! sought none OF the hon
ors OF the convention, and interfered with
mono of its proceedings, save to serve as a
member Of its comlalttec on what should have
been its platform OF principles, and not OF
eXpedicnts."
action in the Committee on Platform and its
work. He found himself holding the con-
trolling vote in the committee, one not new
to him, and presented a second minority re-
port of one which was adopted by the CON
vontion. The series OF resolutions which he
presented in the subcommittee are suinnlar-
lied in the address. The result of the action of
the subcommittee made his candidaturc in
the convention impossible.
The address then proceeds to give in sue
Zee and in the convention. All of his rcsOlu-
tons in favor OF labor were voted down.. His
resolution to sustain the legal tender curren-
s sya;n tho tho one ssw Sppo;sed, to to mo 1I1d s., that hat
people by the aristocracy and all others pre-
Eentcd, he says, suffered the same fate. He
was granted the boon of thirty minutes to
present his idoas. He warned Ihe body OF its
action.
He ADMITS that the platform as adopted con-
tains certain sweet phrases toward the for.
eign-oorn cltiAen,'' but he declares that as a
whole the work is one OF expedicnts.
The country has had no experience for q
quarter or Q century us to what the Dcmoc-
''tho farmer and tho Laboring man do know;
that Il Democratic House of Representatives
has Just appropriated more money raised by
taxation than any other House Of Representa-
tives has ever appropriated in time of peace.
We also know that the Democratic majority
would h'tvea free-t'adetariir. containing all
the Odious features OF the present war tariff,
SO far as regards its mOnstrous Inequalities,
by q horizontal reduction OF tho tariff to
break down very many rising and struggling
homes OF our w~orkingmen and the home mar
ketS OF the American producers.
who docs not know that the very fear OF
the actions OF the Democracy in Congress has
so paralyled American enterprise and bust
ness that mills are everywhere c>OSing, mines
Shut w, furnaces blow out, and every kind
of employment so curtailed that the mechan-
les and Workinglnen arc not earning enough
to support lilo i'll comfort: SO that the farm
or, even, deprived OF a home market and
crushed assed,, a ati"n n Gy d hie dorn ting. rat rates so Of
over than they have boon within the present
generation? Can the people therefore trust
me machine Democracy with power. upen u
On the Republican side he says: I'VE know
the Republicans. The country has had eX-
perlencs In Republican party rule twenty
nvo years, and know its results. We, there
fore, have No need to look at its platform,
for ny their fruits We shall know them
Tho Republican party in its inception was
had in it Substantially neither monopolist
nor capitalist. 1t was as poor as was the
convention Of delegates who framed the
Declaration OF Independence. Taking out
f%e men. tho rest could hardly pay their
board bills.
1.-The Republican party was formed upon a
lttlI tlilu 1lOblC llSf, ~ w " CHC CldSS O1
w%orklngmen what tho Democratic party, even
under Jefferson and jackson, had failed to
do. Their democracy dealt only with the
white man. The Democracy OF the kepub-
lican party dealt with the black man, and
aimed to give him freedom and
equal rights. For that purpose and
that alone was that party formed. 1t was
the radical party, and so radical n
party OF. the people that the aristocratic part
of tho Wing party, the old advorsarics of the
Democracy OF the days of Jackson. merged
themselves in the Democracy without q drop
OF democratic blood, as they hoped, in their
veins, or Il thought for the people, except as
the lower classes in their party, and such Of
them us Il quarter Of a century has spared
are found with the Democracy Of to-day
largely guiding its councils in the manner We
have sccn." At this point the adj
dress treats OF the MANNER in which
the Republican party became the party
OF monopolists. ''Thc.ncccssity for lnoaey to
carry on the war drew all the bankers and
capitalists into the Republican party, and il
any stayed in the Democratic party they were
in confederation with the same class, to SO ar
range politics that whichever party came into
power, capital, in all its varied and powerful
forms, would be sure to control, and the pcO-
pie be ground up as "bctwccn the upper and
neither milestone" Thus it will bt~ readily
seen. and he who runs may read, that the Re-
publican party is the party OF monopoly, OF
corporate interests i'll every form of industry,
ana every dcpalt mentof. busincss and finance.
He declares tina: the Anti-1innopollst can
expect nothing from the Republican party.
4 u n n n IN ,a,rs ~-A ,1~