The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1892-06-30
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

The representatives of the demo-
cratic party of the United States, in
national convention assembled, do re-
affirm their allegiance to the princi
Piles of the party as formulated by
Jefferson and exemplifed by long,
illustrious line of successors in dem
ocratic leadership from Madison to
Cleveland. We believe the public
welfare demands that these principles
should be applied to the conduct Of
the federal government through the
accession to power of the party that
advocates them; and we solemnly de-
clare that the need of a return to the
fundamental principles of popular
government, based on home rule and
individual liberty, was never more
urgent than now, when the tendency
to cectralize power at the fedesal cap
ital has become a menace to the re-
served rights of the states that strikes
at the roots of our government under
the constitution as framed by the ia
theirs of the republic.
We warn the people of our common
country, jealous of the preservation
of their free institutions, that the
policy of federal control of elections
to which the republican party has
committed itself, is fraught with
gravest dangers, scarcely less momen-
tous than would result from revolu-
ton, practically establishing monarchy
on the ruins of the republic. II
strikes at the north as well as the
south, and Injuries the colored citizens
more than the whites. 1t means
hordes of deputy marshals at every
polling place armed with fedora
power; returning boards appointed
and controlled by federal authority
outrage of the electoral rights of the
people in the states; the suDjugatior
of the colored people to the control o
the party in power and reviving race
antagonism now happily abated; o
utmost peril to their safety and hap
piness; a measure deliberately anC
justly described by leading republi
can senator as the most infamous bill
that ever crossed the threshold of TIN
senate Such a policy, if sanctioned
by law, would mean the dominance o
sects, pepetuate an olegarchy of offic
, holders; and the party first intruste'
, with the machinery could be dis
} lodged from power only by appeal t
the reserved right of the people t
| resist oppression, which is inheren
in all self-governing communities.
Two years ago this revolutionar
policy was practically condemned b
the people at the polls, but, in cor
} tempt of that verdict, the republica
e party has defiantly declared in il
/ latest authoritative utterances that il
r success in the coming elections wi
o mean the enactment of a force bi
e and usurpation of police control ov'
e elections.
Believing that the preservation I
republican government is dependel
o upon the defeat of policy of lega
e lied force and fraud, we invite Il
y support of all citizens who desire Il
Il constitution maintained in its inte
= rity, as well as the laws pufsua
IS thereto, which have given our count
o hundred years Of unexampled pro
perity.
And we pledge the democratic pa
ty, not only to defeat force bill, b
So also to relentless opposition to the ]
l. publican policy Of profigate expen'
i'll ture which, in the short space of t
Sc years, has squandered the enormo
Id surplus and emptied an overflow