The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-08-29
BUFFERS MANIFESTO.
a Letter TO His Constituent, and Or
ganizatiOns supporting Him.

CARNATIONS Supporting Him.
General Benjamin +. Butler, the presiden-
tial candidate of the Greenback- Labor party
and the Monopolist organization, has
issued long letter which begins thus:
To MY CONSTITUENTS:
In compliance with oft-repeated and anx-
ious inquiries hasten TO give account of my
stewardship of the, political interests with
which was charged They were four:
|. Hostility to all monopolies in commerce,
| industries and lands.
,. The preservation of the national legal
tender currency of the people, constitutionally
issued by Congress.
3. The needs of all men and women who
labor in the production of wealth to be pro
tected against the encroachments Of those who
absorb and consume without producing.
4. The necessity for reform and correction
of abuses in government, so that its pressure
| on the people would he made as light as posi-
BILE; 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 prosper
ty of the country, with equal rights, equal
burdens equal powers and equal privileges OF
all people.
Capital chatting under even n partially fair
division of its great profits with labor has
sought to relieve itself from this scant measure
| of Justice even, by the importation OF foreign
labor from every country whence it could be
| brought, from the Chinas to the western
| shores of the Atlantic.
Why have they done this, Because these
imported laborcrs can and for time do, live
on what would starve the American working
| man and so can work very much cheaper, for
it has ever been the rule, and, if the working
men do not take the remedy for this
fearful state of things into their own
hands, ever will be the rule that the
wages of labor are only 50 much and no
more as will support him and his wife and
children in the lowest degree of comfort
| when all of them are at work who can work.
In addition to this imported cheap labor. and
the use of convict labor at a nominal price
wherever it could be had, thereby debasing
and lowering the high standard of American
labor, the perfection of machinery, by which
SO great share of production is effected, has
| so lesSened muscular effort in labor that cap
| italists have been enabled to utilize the labor
| of women and children to very large extent
to do that work which men formerly did.
Thus the workingmans wife and sisters are
made the instruments of lowering his own
rate of wages.
General Butler next says he is in favor of
woman suffrage, and then speaks of financial
matters as follows: THE time has come when
the greenback is sustained by the supreme
| court as constitutional currency
against the opinions Of the paid attorneys
of every tinanCier of the country. The time
will come if the people of this country can
get the clutch of monopoly OF its currency off
| its throat. when such Il system of finance us
| have sketched will give freedom TO the in
dustrial and business interests of the country
from the terrible fluctuations VIII n the people
now suffer- Continuing, the manifesto
says: Experience, the best tcac her, establishes
the fact that commerce, the Industries, the
laboring man, the auti-nonopoliSt, the green
| hacker. the farmer OF other small producers,
all of whose interests are identical, can get
or hope nothing from either or both the
present organized PARTIES" General
| Butler attacks both the leading
parties and adds: "Let no man say that |
desire to array one cas. in this country
against another class Not so. l wish to set
all classes against the coiruptionistS, the
plunderers and the absorhels Of other peoples
earnings wrongfully by bought legislation
The manifesto then advises the formation of
a peoples party" in the following words
''rhe cry has already gone forth, III the
people put a third andidate in the field those
who vote Tor him will throw away their
votes BE it so. The voter will do worse
than throw away his vote if he votes
for either candidate of the monopolists.
Such vote thereby perpetuates the rule of his
oppressors without protest if by his vote he
puts or keeps either in power. Fear not.
The people will not have to wait eight years
for their triumph. Everything, including
politics, travels faster now as there
are more railroads and telegraphs to
distribute intelligence. In framing your
electoral ticket, make fusion in all the
States with the supposed minority, and make
1t upon this theory; agree that You will run
the same electoral ticket; and then have il
agreed that the electoral vote of the State
shall be divided i'll the electoral college ac-
cording to the number of votes thrown
| for your candidate, and the number of
votes thrown for the other candidate on the
same ticket Organize in every State and
present at the polls an electoral ticket, and
support it with your votes Therefore, let the
people stand together and vote together, and
SOW the seeds of a great and victorious party,
if not at this election, at the next. Ii
you do not sow now you will not
reap then. The producers, the
wolkingmen, the greenback men and anti
momoIolists are already organized, and if
men will but vote their convictions, irrespec-
tive of deluding party cries, the people can
achieve victory now; and there is no power
on earth that can prevent ii. Let us, then,
organize a peoples party 1t seems 10 NE
certain that at worst, even in the infancy of our
| organization, we can hold the balance of power
between the old parties; so that If we cannot
| wholly prevent bad and unjust legislation,
we can force them to band together to enact
| It. and thus show themselves in form, as they
are in fact, confederated against the people.
In many States. if we exert our strength,
we already hold the balance OF power.
| In quite one hundred congressional dis
| tricts less than one thous and votes will
de. el1niac Wheth.ra friend of lapor and the
people or the tool of monopoly shall have
seat in Congress Again, in balanced States
make an alliance with whichever of the other
| parties will choos, so to do. Minorities
naturally gravitate toward each other. Give
them some state officers and take others to
yourselves, upon an agreement that both par
d e., shall vote the same ticket
The manifesto concludes with an address
directed ITO the Greenback- Labor party and
the Anti Nonopolist organization, and to the
laboring men, and another "to the Demo
cratic party of Massachusetts" In the former
Butler says that he had presented the plat
forms of the various organizations