Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1892-07-06
". B. GALLAHER, Editor.
July O, 1892.
THE PLATFORM.
Tariff, Financial, CirU Serctce and
Other Reforms Demanded.

Other Reforms Demanded.
The following is the platform as submit
ted by the committee on resolutions and
adopted by the convention.
Section l. The representatives of the dem
ocratic party of the United States, in ma
tional convention assembled, do reafiirm
their allegiance to the principles of the par
ty as formulatedby Jefferson and exemplifed
by the long and illustrious line of his sue
cessors in democratic leadership from Mad
ison to Cleveland We believe the public
welfare demands that these principles be ap-
piled 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 return to these
fundamental principles of free popular
government, based on home rule and indi
vidual liberty, was never more urgent than
now, when the tendency to centralize all
power at the federal Capital has become
a menace to the reserved rights of the States
that strikes at the very roots of our govern
ment under the constitution as framed by
the fathers of the republic.
FORCE BILL.
Section , We warn the people of our
common country, jealous for the preserya-
ton of their free institutions, that the poll
cy of federal control of elections to which
the republican party has committed itself is
fraugh with the grayest danger, scarcely less
momentous than would result from reyolu-
tion practically establishing monarchy on
the ruins of republic. 1t strikes at the
North as well as the South, and Injuries the
colored citizens even more than the white
it means a horde of deputy marshals at
every polling place armed with federal pow
er. returning boards appointed and control
led by federal authority, the outrage of the
electoral rights of the people in the several
States, the subugation of the colored peo-
pie to the control of the party in power and
the reyiving' of the race antagonism now
happily abated, of the utmost peril to safety
and happiness of all, measure deliberately
and Justly described by leading republi-
can Senator as "the most infamous bill that
ever crossed the threshold of the Senate. -
Such a policy, if sanctioned by law, would
mean the dominance of self-perpetuating
oligarchy of office holders, and the party first
entrusted with its machinery could be dis
lodged from power only by an appeal to the
reserved right of the people to resist oppres-
sion, which is inherent in all self-governing
communities Two years ago this revolu-
tionary policy was emphatically condemned
by the people at the polls, but in contempt
of that verdict the republican party has de-
family declared in its latest authoritative ut
terance that its success in the coming elec-
ton will mean the enactment OF the force
bill, and the usurpation of despotic control
over elections in all the States.
Believing that the preservation of repub-
lcan government in the United States is de-
pendent upon the defeat of this poll
cy of legalized force and fraud, we
invite the support of all citizens who desire
to see the constitution maintained in its in
tegrity, with the laws persuant thereto
which have given our country hundred
years of unexampled prosperity, and we
pledge the democratic party, if it be entrust-
ed with power, not only to the defeat of the
force bill, but also to relentless opposition
to the repub ican policy of profigate expen-
diture, which, in the short space Of two
wears, has squandered an enormous surplus
emptied an oyerhowing treasury, after pill,
ing new burdens of taxation upon the al
ready overtaxed labor of the county.
TARIFF REFORM.
Section 3. We denounce the republican
protection as a fraud, taxing the labor of the
great majority of the American people for
the benefit of the few. We declare it to be
fundamental principle of the democratic
party that the federal government has no
constitutional power to impose and collect
tariff duties except for the purposes OF reye-
nue. only, and we demand that the collec-
ton of such taxes shall be limited to the ne
cessities of the government when honestly
and economically administered.
THE NTKINLEY BILL.
We denounce the Mckinley tariff law en-
acted by the Fifty first Congress as the cul-
minating 'atrocity of class legislation; We
indorse the efforts made by the democrat:
of the present Congress to modify its mos
oppressive features in the direction of free
raw materials and cheaper manufacturer
goods that enter into general consumption
and we promise its repeal as one Of the ben
efcent results that will follow the action O
the people in entrusting power to the demo