Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-08-22

All of which. one after another, were
voted down.
To Sustain the Legal Tender Currency.
that the legal tender currency, under the
decision of the Supreme Court. was now
the constitutional currency of the country.
and should not he interfercd with and
that business interests should not be dis
7 turbed by financial discussion.
That also was voted down in the com
mittec and II resolution passed that the
Democracy were in favor of honest mon
cy' This was intended to be, and is an
insult To every friend of constitutional
currency. and was presented by one of the
most narrow-niudrd of capitalists.
Opposed to MonopoIics.
| also offered II resolution that all mono
poles as they tend to make two classes.
The very rich and the very poor, were
hurtful to tn" people Uf The republic.
Voted down
| also offered IL resolution that the
agents of the Government. whether state
or National, incorporated to do public
business, were the servants of the people,
and should he regulated by the power that
created them.
That was voted down.
Another resolution that il was the duty
of Congress to provide by law that rail
roads should not make discriminating
rates 50 as to enhance the price of the nee
csSarics of life between the producer and
consumer.
That suffered the same fate
Again, II resolution declaring the public
/ lands to he the heritage of the people. and
/ that they ought to be held in small guam
titles for that purpose only, aud another
resolution that public lands were held in
trust by the Government for those who
became citizens of the United States. and
ought not to he permitted to he monopo-
lzcd in large areas by corporations and
the aristocracy of Europe.
Both voted down.
also offered resolution that the var
iouS offices of the government belong to
the people thereof, and that frequent
changes of federal officials were necessary
to counterac the growing aristOcratic ten
denotes To life office rs well as for the
discovery and punishment of frauds and
entertainments of public money.
Citizens Not to be sent Away to be Tried.
Again. offered in subcommittee. re
solutions defining the duty of the United
States To- protect every citizen everywhere.
and also that no American citizen should
Ice tried for ANY act done in this country
except under its own laws, and ON its own
soil and That there was no power in the
government to send a citizen elsewhere to
he tried therefor.
The~" resolutions were voted down in
the subcommittee. but when offered in
the general committees there being moth
ing in the platform deemed by that com
mttcc to be a substantial equivalent they
were adopted, although there were some
mainly pamby statements reported by the
subcommittee on the same subject.
Fun Consideration not Permitted
Through the courtesy of the chairman
of the committee. and by personal inter
CeSSiDn obtained the boon of thirty min
utcs To present and discuss Il charter of
the peoples rights ut an hour crnwiing ON
midnight but before ii could be printed
and laid before the convention, and with
the refusal of the convention to adjourn
to the morning before il vote was taken
upon them. So eager were the members
to get at their work of prctlestincd nom
inatiOn.
And such Il convention has been called Il
deliberatiVe body
II is true, that il spent DAYS upon the
unit rule, which required Il mans vote to
he cast against his conscience and iudQ-
ment, in spite of his protest by others. and
days in trying to settle the internal dis .
sensionS of the machine politics of Il sin
gle State but it could give thirty min
utes only to the discussion of principles
for the government of the nation. there
fore could substantially present but one
plank, the most important of all, the pro |
lection of the American laborer and pro |
Queer, without which, in my Judgment |
there can be no prosperity to this country /
And this was voted down in the cOnVcu- /
tion by Il vote of ~ to 91i.1
felt it but right to warn the cOnvpn- F.
non, however unimpOrtant such warming .
might seem, of the course of my duty if
such vote was passed against the work .
lngmen and women of the country, for .
whose welfare il was well known | had .
stood from my earliest manhood
| have thus plNpl n Slccinct il ulIst
be, nut faithful account of my cOnnrc-
non with the Chicago convention and its !
action on the matters which was charged .
to present to it by the National Grecnback .
.abor party. the anti-Monopoly organiza-
non, and the Democracy of Massachusetts .
Platform one of Expedients.
will not omit the fact that in the plat
form adopted there were certain sweet .
phrases used toward the foreign born citi- /
Zen There were certain honeycd words.
'Ner and over repeated, IN order that their +
repetition might seem like earnest adVu-
:acy put in favor of labor, and upon some
If the topics of our platform, But do .
claim and submit to the just judgment
IF the people, that comparing the two .
plat forms and taking the action of the con
rention, every claim of the Anti-Mon0plst,
lnduf the National ireenback and Labor
men, was so cOntcmptuouSly rejected or 50
,mothered by plaritude> which would per
subscribe to the majority platform, that IT
: most apparent ON the face OF the reSUlu-
ions that they were simply resolutions OF
tNpcdientS to catch votes by indirectiOn.
deception and Illusion not declarations
If those high principles which shoild form
he basis of the united action ut IA great
party of the people.
Why AN Explicit Platform should be De
nanded of the Democracy.
The country has had no experience for
nearly ii quarter of century of What the
Democracy Woulddo II they bad lie power,
50 that the people are obliged 30 require
The most explicit pledges from them of in
tended action, before we can put the GOV
hrnment into their hands. But the farmer
and the iaboring man do know that II
Democratic House of Representatives has
Just appropriated more money raised by
taxation than any other House OF Repre-
has ever appropriated in time
If peace. We also know that the Demo
cratic majority would have made IA free
trade tariff, containing all the OdiOus tea
lures Of the present war tariff, 50 far as
regards its INDUSTRIOUS inequalities, by Il
fail