The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-06-29
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM
HOW THE PARTY STANDS ON
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS.
Republican Protection Declared 10 he n
Fraud on Labor to Bencfit Few-A
Tariff for Revenue Only-The Coinage
Question.
Text of the Resolutions.

platform adopted by the National Dem
ocratic Convention at Chicago:
The representatives OF the Democratic party
OF the United States, in national convention
assembled, do reaifirm their allegiance to the
principles of the party as formulated by Jeffer
son and exemplified by the long and illustriOus
line of his successors In Democratic leadership
from Madison TO Cleveland. We believe the
public welfare demands that these principles
be applied to the conduct OF the Federal Gov
eminent, through the accession 20 power OF the
party that advocates them; and we solemnly
declare that the need OF q return to these fun
damental principles of free, popular govern
ment, based on home rule and individual lib
erty, was never more urgent than now when
the tendency to centrali2e all power at the
reserved rights OF the States that strikes at
the very roots OF our government under 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 insti-
elections, to which the Republican party has
committed itself, is fraught with the gravest
dangers, scarcely less momentous than would
result from revolution practically establish
ing monarchy on the ruins OF the republic. 1t
strikes at the North as well as the south and
Injuries the colored citizen even more than the
white; IL means q horde OF deputy marshals at
every polling place armed with Federal power
returning boards appointed and controlled by
Federal authority, the outrage of the electoral
rights OF the people in the several States, the
sub ugation OF the colored people to the con-
troll OF the party in power and the re-
viving OF race. antagonisms now happily
abated OF the utmost peril to the safety
and happiness of all; measure deliber-
ately and justly described by leading Repub-
llcan Senator as the most Infamous bill that
ever crossed the threshold of the Senate" Such
policy If sanctioned by law, would mean the
dominance of a self-perpetuating oligarchy of
offceholders. and the party first intrusted with
its machinery could be dislodged from power
only by an appeal to the reserved right Of the
people to resist oppression which IL inherent in
all solf-governtng communities. Two years ago
this revolutionary policy was emphatically con-
demned by the people at the polls, but in con-
tempt of that verdict the Republican party has
detantly declared in its latest authoritative ut
terance that its success in the coming elections
illmean the enactment of the force billand the
usurpation OF despotic control over elections in
all the States. Believing that the preservation
or republican government IN the united
Is dependent upon the defeat of the policy of
legalized force and fraud we invite the support
Of all citizens who desire to see the constitu-
ton maintained in its integrity with the laws
pursuant thereto which have given our country
hundred years of unexampled prosperity,
and we pledge the Democratic party, if it be
intrusted with power, not only to 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 has squandered an enormous surplus and
emptied an overlooking treasury, after ,piling
new burdens of taxation upon the already
overtaXed labor OF the country.
Declaration for Tariff Reform.
We denounce Republican protection as a
fraud on the labor of the great majority of the
American people for the benefit OF the few We
declare 1t to be fundamental principle of
the Democratic party that the Federal Govern
ment has constitutional power TO impose
and collect tariff duties except for the purposes
of revenue only, and we demand that the col
lection of such taxes shall be limited to the
necessities of the Government when honestly
and economically administered We denounce
the Mckinley tariff law enacted by the Fifty
first Congress az the eliminating atrocity Of
class legislation; we 1ndorse the efforts made
modify its most oppressive features in the
direction OF free raw materials and cheaper
manufactured goods that enter into general
consumption, and we promise its repeal as one
of the beneficent results that will follow the
action of the people in intrnsting power to the
Democratic party. Since the Mckinley tariff
went into operation there have been ten reduc-
tions OF the wages of laboring men to
one increase. We deny that there has
been any increase of prosperity to the
country since that tariff went into opera
tion, and we point TO the dullness and
distress, the wage reductions and strikes in
the iron trade, as the best possible evidence
that no such prosperity resulted from the Nc
Kinley act We call the attention of thought
full Americans to the fact that after thirty
years OF restrictive taxes against the importa-
ton of foreign wealth in exchange for our
agricultural surplus the homes and farms Of
the country have become burdened with q
real-estate mortgage debt of over n, 500 600 co.,
exclusive of all other forms OF indebtedness:
that in one of the chief agricultural States of
the West there appears real-estate mortgage
averaging SlO0 per capita OF the TOTAL pOpulH-
tion, and that similar conditions and tenden-
cies are shown to exist in the other agricul-
tural exporting States. We denOunce policy
which fosters no industry so much as it does
that of the Sheriff.
The Question of Trade Reciprocity.
Trade interchange on the basis of reciprocal
advantages TO the countries participating Is a
time-honored doctrine of the Democratic faith,
but we denounce the sham reciprocity which
iuggles with the peoples desire for enlarged
foreign markets and freer exchanges by pre-
tending to establish. closer trade relations, for
n country whose articles of export are almost
| exclusively agricultural products, with other
countries that are also agricultural, while
erecting q custom-house barrier of prohibitive
| tariff taxes against the richest countries of
| the world that stand ready to take entire
surplus of products and to exchange therefor
commodities which are necessaries and COM
forts OF life among our own people.
Trusts and Combinations.
We recognize In the trusts and combinations
which are designed TO enable capital to secure
more than its just share of the joint product of
capital and labor natural consequence of the
prohibtive taxes which prevent the free COM
petition which Is the life of honest trade, but
we believe their worst evils can be abated by
law and we demand the rigid enforcement of
the laws made TO prevent and control them,
together with such further legislation in re-
straint of their abuses as experience may
show to be necessary.
Lands for Actual settlers.
The Republican party while protesting a
policy of reserving the public land for small
holdings by actual settlers, has given away
the peoples heritage, until now few railroad
and nonresident aliens, individual and cor
porate, possess n larger area than that of all
our farms between the two seas. The last
Democratic administration reversed the inn
provident and unwise policy OF the Repub-
lican party touching the public domain and
reclaimed from corporations and syndicates,
| alien and domestic, and restored TO the people
nearly one hundred million acres of valuable
| land to be sacredly held homesteads for
| our citizens, and we pledge ourselves to con-
| tinue this policy until every acre of land so
unlawfully held shall be reclaimed and re-
! stored to the people.
The COINAGE of silver.
We denounce the Republican legislation
| known IA the Sherman act of 1890 q cow
| ardly makeshift fraught with possibilities OF
| danger i'm the future which should make all of
| its supporters, as well its author, anxious
| for it's speedy repeal. We hold to the use OF
| both gold and silver as the standard money of
| the country and TO the coinage of both gold
| and silver without discriminating against
either metal or charge for mintage, but the dol
| lar unit of coinage of both metals must be of
f! adjusted through international agreement or
sure the maintenance of the parity of the two
metals aud the equal power of every dollar at
all times in the markets and in the payment of
debts: and we demand that all paper currency
| shall be kept at par with and redeemable in
| such coin. We insist upon this policy as espe-
cially necessary for the protection OF the farm
/ Ii, al Nl..A rat Ia