The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1892-07-09
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

The representatives of the Democratic
party of the United States, i'll THEN
national convention assembled, do re,
affirm their allegiance to the principles
of the party as--formulated by jefferson
and exemplified by the long and illus,
trious line of his successors in Demo
cratic leadership, from Madison to
Cleveland; we believe the public welfare
demands that these principles be applied
to the conduct of the Federal Govern
ment through the accession to power OF
the party that advocates them; and we
sOlemnlY declare that the need of a re-
turn to these fundamental principles of
free popular government, based on home
rule and individual liberty, was never
more neededthann now, when the tenden-
cy to c%entraliZe all power ut the Federal
capital has become q menace to the
reserved rights of the States that strikes
at the very roots of our Government I'M
der the Constitution as framed by the
fathers of the Republic.
FEDERAL CONTROL OF ELECTIONS
We warn the people of our common
country, jealous for the preservation of
their free institutions, that the policy
of Federal control of elections to which
the Republican party has committed it.
self is fraught with the gravest dangers,
scarcely less momentous than would re-
suit from Il revolution practically estab-
fishing monarchy OF the ruins of the
Republic. 1t strikes at the North as
well as theSOuth, and Injuries the colOred
citizen more than the white; it means a
horde of deputy. marshals at every polling
place armed with Federal power, return
ing boards appointed and controlled by
Federal authority, the outrage of the
electoral right of the people in several
states, thei subjugation of the colored
people to the party in power and the re-
viving Of race antagonisms, now happi-
ly abated, of the utmost peril to the
safety and happiness of all; a measure
deliberately and justly described by a
leading Republican Senator as 1.-The
most infamous bill that ever crossed the
threshold of the Senate" Such a pol
icy, if sanctioned by law, would mean
the dominance of self-perpetuating
oligarchy of officeholders, and the party
first intrusted with its machinery could
be dislodged from power only by an ap-
peal to the reserved right of the people
to resist oppression which is inherent
in all se~lf-gOverning communities.
Two years ago this revolutionary policy
was e~mphatically condemned by the peo-
pie at the polls, but in contempt of that
verdict the Republican party has defiant
ly declared in its latest authoritative
utterance that its success in the coming
elections will mean the enactment of
the force bill and the ursurpation of
despotic control I'VE elections in all the
states.
B ewing that the preservation of
repnvrican government in the United
States is dependent upon the defeat of
this policy of legalized force and fraud,
we invite the support of all citizens who
desire to see the Constitution main
tanned in its integrity with the laws pur-
suant thereto which have given our
country a hundred years of unexampled
prosperity; and we pledge the Demo-
party, if it be intrusted with
power, not only the defeat of the force
bill, but also to relentless opposition to
the Republican policy of profligate ex-
penditure which, in the short space of
two years, squandered an enormous sur
plus and emptied an overlooking Treas
ury, after piling new burdens of taxa
ton upon the already overtaxed labor
Of the country.