Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-08-19

women of the country, for whose welfare 1t
| was well known | had stood from my earliest
manhood. The notice was in this emphatic
language. ST you refuse to stand BY the
workingmen. God help you, | cannot" In
this there wzs no mistake. NJ. Watterson
I Of Kentucky. who followed ME, took warning
saying the party would look TO God for help.
/ but the scripture saith, the PRAYER OF the
wicked availeth not" 1t was due to myself
/ not to adopt the course which certain pure
minded. and upright. and highly moral poll
ticians deem il proper TO pursue. take part in
the proceedings of convention 10 Its END,
and then, without giving any notice TO any
body. and without protesting, refuse to sup
port lis doings.
General Butler calls the democratic plat
form platform of expedients, and gives the
following reasons why an explicit platform
should be demanded of the democracy:
The country has had no experience for
nearly quarter OF century of what the
democracy would DO if they had the power.
so that the people are obliged 70 require the
most explicit pledges from them of intended
action, before we can put the government IN
their hands But the farmer and the labor
ing man do know that democratic House of
Representatives has just appropriated more
House of Representatives has ever appropriate
"a in time of peace. We also know that the
democratic majority would have made free
trade tariff, containing all the odi0us features
of the present war tariff, so far as regards its
monstrOus inequalities. by a horizontal re
ducton of the tariff TO break down very many
rising and struggling industries, and destruc-
ton of the homes of our workingmen and
the home markets Of the American produc-
ers.
Who does not know that the very fear of
the action of the democracy in Congress has
so paralyzei American enterprise and bust
ness, that mills are everywhere closing,
mines shut up, furnaces blown out. and every
kind of employment so curtaied that the
mechanic and workingmen are not earning
enough to support life in comfort; so that the
farmer even. deprived of home market.
and crushed down by discriminating rates of
transportation, finds his corn. wheat and
wool lower than it has been within the pres
ent generation. Can the people therefore
trust the machine democracy with power,
upon shifting, evasive and deceptive plat
form?
The letter then turns its attention to the
republican party and arraigns it as the party
of monopoly and unfriendly to laboring peo-
Pile. The ballot for women is advocated.
The following stirring paragraph appears;
Whichever party carries on the govern
ment labOring men and women are permit,
ted to enjoy only the benefits of the prime
val CURSE: ''In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread" You enjoy none of
Gods blessings! Why not? You earn and
produce them all-all that He vouchsafes to
man, save the air we breathe. They are
yours in the sight of high heaven. Stand
together and just share of them is yours
| In other lands the just rights of the peo-
pie are only to be got out of the hands of
their enemies and rulers by the bayonet and
the bullet. But in America as yet, thank
God and your brave fathers, the ballot, the
freeman's shield and sword, is left to you
and you can if you stand together protect
yourselves against all oppressive, unjust and
purchased legislation, which burdens the peo-
pie and undermines the free institutions of
your country.
The General devotes the closing part of his
letter to an appeal to his friends to organize
and vote for electors, and gives them loud
assurances that if they do not succeed this
year they may at some time in the future.