The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1884-07-18

change oflaw must be at every step regard
full of the labor and capital thus involved.
The process of reform must be subject in the
execution to this plain dictate of justice.
All taxation shall be limited to the require
ments of economical government. The ne
cessary reduction in taxation can and must
be effected without depriving American labor
of the ability to compete successfully with
foreign labor, and without 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
prevailing in this country.
Sufficient revenue to pay all the expenses
of the federal government economically adj
ministered, including pensions, interest and
principal of thepublic debt, can be got under
our present system of taxation from custom
house taxes on fewer imported articles, bear
ing heaviest on articles of luxury, and bear
ing highest ON articles of necessity. We
therefore denounce the abuses of the existing
tariff, and, subject to the preceding limita-
tons, we demand that federal taxation shall
be exclusively for public purposes and shall
not exceed the needs OF the government,
economically administered.
INTERNAL REVENUE TAXES.
The system of direct taxation know as the
internal revenue" is a war tax, and so long
as the law continues the money derived
therefrom should be sacredy devoted to the
relief of the people from the remaining bur
dens OF the war, and be made II fund to de.
fray the expense of the care and comfort of
worthy soldiers disabled in The line of duty
in the wars of the republic, and for the pay
ment of such pensions as Congress may from
time to time grant to such soldiers, II like
fund for the sailors having been already pro-
vided, and any surplus should be paid into
the treasury.
A CONTINENTAL POLICY.
We favor an American continental policy
based upon more intimate commercial and
political relations with the fifteen sister re-
publiCs of North, Central and South Amer-
On, but entangling alliances with none.
HONEST MONEY.
We believe in honest money; the gold and
silver coinage OF the constitution and cir
culatiDg 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 citi-
zens of whatever nativity, race, color or per-
suasion, religious or political.
FREE BALLOT.
We believe In free ballot and fair count,
and we recall to the memory of the people
the noble struggle of the Democrats in the
Forthwith and Forty sixth Congresses, by
which reluctant Republican opposition was
compelled to assent to legislation making
everywhere illegal the presence of troops at
the polls, as the conclusive proof that II Dem
ocratic administration will prove liberty with
order.
The selection of federal officers for the
Territories should he restricted to citizens
previously resident therein. We oppose
sumptuary laws which vex the citizen and
interfere with individual liberty. We favor
honest civil service reform and the compen-
sation of United States officers by fixed sala-
ries the separation of Church and State, and
the diffusion OF free education by common
schools, so that every child in the land may
be taught the rights and duties of citizenship.
MoNoPoLIEs.
While We favor all legislation which will
tend to the equitable distribution ofproperty,
to the prevention of monopoly and to the
corporate abuses we hold that the welfare of
society depends upon scrupulous regard for
the rights ofproperty as defined by law. We
believe that labor is best rewarded where it
is freest and most enlightened. 1t should,
therefore, be fostered and cherished.
We favor the repeal of all laws restricting
the free action of labor and the enactment of
laws by which labor organizations may be
incorporated, and of all such legislation as
will tend to enlighten the people as to the
true relation of capital and labor. We be-
lieve that the public land ought as far as pos
slble to be keptas homesteads for actual set
tiers that all unearned lands heretofore i'm
providently granted to railroad corporations
by the action of the Republican party should
be restored to the public domain, and that no
nfo of lon oh In al IN,
tions, or be allowed to fall into the owner
ship of alien absentees.
We are opposed to all propositions which
upon any preteyt would convert the general
government into machine for collecting
taxes to be distributed among the States or
the citizens thereof
OLD PRINCIPLES REAFFIRMED.
In reafflrming the declaration OF the Demo-
cratic platform of 1856 that the liberal prin.
ciples embodied by Jefferson in the Declara-
ton of Independence and sanctioned in the
constitution, which make ours the land of
liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of
every nation, have ever been cardinal princi.
pies in the Democratic faith, we nevertheless
do not sanction the importation of foreign
labor or the admission of servile races unfit
ted by habits, training, religion or kindred
for absorption into the great body of our peo-
pie, or for the citizenship which our laws
confer. American civilization demands that
against the immigration or Importation of
Mongolians to these shores our gates be
closed
The Democratic party insists that it is the
duty of the government to protect with equal
fidelity and vigilance the rights of its citizens,
natives and naturalize,l, at home and abroad
and to the end that this protection may be
assured, United States papers of naturalza.
ton issued by courts of competent jurisdic-
ton must be respected by the executive and
legislative departments of our own govern
ment and by all foreign powers.
PROTECTION OF AMERICAN CITIZENS.
1t is an imperative duty of this govern
| ment to efficiently protect all the rights of
persons and property of every American
citizen in foreign lands, and demand and en-
force full reparation for any invasion there
of. An American citizen is only RESPONSE
BILE 10 his own government for any act
done in his own country or under her flag,
and can only be tried therefor on her own
soil and according to her laws, and no power
exists in this government to expatriate an
| American citizen to be tried in any foreign
land for any such act.
| Charcoal.
| Charcoal is valuable as fuel but it has
other uses which make it one of the most SER