The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-05-14
THE BATTLE or 1892.

NANAA
10 PRESERVE rHE FREEDox or ELEc.
Troxs AND 10 PROPAGATE rnr PuR1
PHrxcPLEs or yHE rArHrRs o,
THE REPuBrIc.
The following address. by the Ma.
tional Association OF Democratic Clubs.
has been made public:
About to enter upon campaign IN
which the Presidency and the House Of
Representatives are immediately at stake.
and ultimately the entire control Of the
general Government, we are directed by
the Executive Committee OF the National
Association Of Democratic Clubs to urge
upon the Democratic people Of the Union
the necessity of prompt, efficient and
general organization for the impending
conflict.
If the contest were one for the Offices
alone or for the qualification Of the per-
sonal ambition Of individual leaders on
either side, and If the Administration to
be chosen, in any event, might be ex-
pected merely to s.glide through the
official routine" Of Government fol the
term Of its existence, with no IMPAIR
ment of our free institutions, no ASSAULT
upon the reserved rights of the people,
no seizure by taxation Of their property
or profits to be turned over to favored
classes, and no restriction Of their mar.
kets for the benefit OF monopolies. it
would be matter of small moment
which party might succeed. But we
know only too well that the party in
power will not, and by the very
law of its existence cannot re-
gard the limitations Of the Con.
stitution, that it is irresistibly i'm
PEELED, by its doctrines and traditions,
from Hamilton to Quay, and by the vast
aggregation of private monopolies which
it embraces and combines and by which
it is sustained, to break through the
confines of the Federal charter on every
side. This Is not the place or the time
to develop in its tremendous proper
lions, and with its dreadful menaces the
Federalist-R Republican scheme of strong,
splendid, rotten Government, resting
upon corruption and force aud employ.
ing the power Of taxation to enslave the
laboring masses, in order to build up in
luxury and wealth the ruling classes.
All American history exhibits and at
tests it. But the mostrecent experience
of the people is more than enough for
illustration.
Congress may, under the Constitution,
tax the people to sustain their own
Government. It has, however, just as
much right to take their lives, or to sell
their. children into bondage, as 1T has to
take dollar from them for any other
purpose. But the Federalist party, purely
to create monopolies upon which it mar
rely for political support, and to further
enrich its wealthy favorites, boldly as
sumes the ungranted and forbidden power
to lay taxes, with no view whatever to
public revenue, but with a sole and
avowed view to transfer untold millions
of money annually from the pockets of
the many, who have earned it, to the
Golfers of the few, who are licensed to
seize it in virtue Of their unconstitutional
monopolies. If this can be done there is
an end of liberty; our Federal Govern
ment is utterly perverted; it is not
merely fraud, but despotism, and
there is nothing left worth a struggle.
The power to take and appropriate to
others the proceeds of the peoples labor
is the power to enslave the people. No
such power can be found in the Federal
Constitution. And the question whether
it shall be exercised, though ungranted,
and, therefore, forbidden, is the ques-
ton, as Mr.. Jefferson stated it, ssbetween
a limited and an unlimited Government, !"
between self-government and corrupt
Capitalization, between popular liberty
and grasping and greedy tyranny, be-
tween the masses and the classes, between
the Federalist-R Republican and the Demo-
cratic parties.
The great battle for freedom OF cleo
tions in the last Congress was but an in
>cident, albeit a terrible and menacing
one, Of this dead struggle between the
great mass of the people and the banded
monopolists IN coalition with ruthless
political party. The passage Of the Force
bill would have terminated popular rep
resentation; it would have insured for
an indefinite period the unquestioned SUI
premacy Of the monopolists and their
political agents, and they would have
gone on taxing the people to fill their
own pockets, secure in their control of
the ballot boxes and the returns, until
overthrow by revolution. Tbs chief
newspaper organ of the conspiracy
printed but the plain truth when it de-,
clared that the Force bill would be the
end of all, since it .'carried hundred
Mckinley bills in its embrace" Thus
would the Federalist- Republican party
grasp with one hand the throat of con-
stitutional liberty, while with the other
it rifles the peoples pockets and trans
fers vast aggregate of lawless plumber
to its monopolst allies.
So the issue stands. We must not de-
ceive ourselves. Permit this conspiracy,
struck and shattered by the popular in
dignation in 1890, to retain the Presi-