The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-07-01
miscrll allrn1ts.
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM
Principles and Issues Upon Which Dem
ocrats Will Run the Campaign.

Ocrat1c Convention is as follows
The representatives of the Democ-
ratio party of the United States, in
national convention assembled, do re-
affirm their allegiance to the princi-
pies of the party as formulated by
Jefferson and exemplified by the long
and illustrious line of his successors
in Democratic leadership from Madi-
son to Cleveland. We believe that
the public welfare demands that these
principles be applied to the conduct
of the Federal Government through
the accession to power of the party
that advocates them we solemnly de-
clare that the need of a return to
these fundamental principles of a free
government, based on home rule and
individual liberty, were never more
urgent than now, when the tendency
to centralize all power at the Federal
capitol has became a menace to the
reserved rights of the States, that
strikes at the very roots of our govern
ment under the Constitution as franz
ed 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 pol
icy of Federal control of elections, to
which the Republican party has com
United itself. is fraught with the
gravest dangers scarcely less momen-
tous than would result from q revolu-
ton, practically establishing monar-
chy on the ruins of the republic. 1t
strikes at the North as we'll as the
South and Injuries the colored citizens
even more than the white. 1t means
a 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
subsection of the colored people to
the control of the party in power and
the reviving of race antagonisms, now
happily abated of the utmost peril to
the safety and happiness of all a
measure deliberately and justly de-
scribed by q leading Republican Sen
ator as 1.-The most infamous bill that
ever crossed the threshold of the Sen
ate.n
CONDEMNED BY THE PEOPLE.
Such policy, if sanctioned by law,
would mean the dominance of a self
perpetuating oligarchy of officehold-
ers, and the party first entrusted with
its machinery could be dislodged from
power only by an appeal to the re-
served right of the people to resist OPP
preston, which is inherent in all self
governing communities. Two years
ago this revolutionary policy was
emphatically condemned by the peo-
pie at the polls but in contempt of
that verdict the Republican party has
defantly declared, in its latest author
itative utterance, that it's success in the
coming elections will mean the enact
ment of the Force Bill and the usur-
patton of despotic control over cleo
tions in all the States.
Believing that the preservation of
q republican 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 maintained in it's integ-
rity with the laws pursuant thereto
which have given the country hun
bred years of uneXampled prosperity;
and we pledge the Democratic party,
if it be entrusted with power, not
only to the defeat of the Force Bill,
but also to relentless opposition to the
Republican policy of profiigate eX-
penditure which, in the short space
of two years, has squandered an enor-
nous surplus, emptied an OVERLOOKING
treasury. after piling new burdens of
taxation upon the already overtaXed
labor of the country.
UNNECESSARY TAXATION.
We reiterate the oft-repeated doc
trines of the Democratic party that
the necessity of the government is the
only justification for taxation and
when a tax is unnecessaryit is unius-
tifiable; that when Custom House
taxation is levied upon articles of any
kind produced in this country the diff
ferences between the cost of labor
here and labor abroad, when such diff
ferences exist, fully measures any pos
sible benefits to labor, and the enor-
nous additional impositions of the eX-
listing tariff fall with crushing force
upon our farmers and workingmen
and for the mere advantage of the
few whom it enriches exact from
labor grossly unjust share OF
the expenses of the government, and
we demand such revision of the tar
if laws as will remove their iniquit
Gus inequalities, Tighten their oppres.
sions and put them on Il constitution
al and equitable basis.
But in making reduction in taxes ii
is not proposed to iniure any domes-
tic industries, but rather to promote
their healthy growth. From the
foundation of this government the
taxes collected at the Custom House
have been the chief source of Federal
Nc
to he. Moreover, many industries
have eOake to rely upon legislation fol
successful continuation, so that any
changes OF law must be at every steI
regardful of the labor and capita
thus involved. The process of reform
must be subject to the execution OF
this plain dictate of justice.
We denoupee the Mckinley tariff
law enacted by the Fifty-first Con
gress as the eliminating atrocity
forts made by the Democrats of the
present Congress to modify it's most
oppressive features in the direction OF
free raw materials and cheaper manu-
featured goods that enter into genera
consumption, and we promise its re
peal as one of the most beneficent re
suits that will follow the action of the
people in entrusting power to the
Democratic party.
EFFECTS OF THE TARIFF.
Since the Mckinley tariff went into
operation there have been ten reduc
tions of the wages of laboring men tt
one increase. We deny that there ha.
been any increase of prosperity to thu
country since the tariff went into
operation and we point to the dullness
and distress, the wage reductions anC
strikes in the iron trade as the bes1
possible evidence that no such pros
perity has resulted from the McKin
ley act.
We call the attention of thoughtful
Americans to the fact that after thirt!
years of restricted taxes against the
importation of foreign wealth in ex
change for our agricultural surplus
the homes and farms of the country
have become burdened with a real es
tate mortgage debt of over two thou
sand five hundred million dollars, ex
elusive of other forms of Indebtedness
that in one of the chief agricultural
States of the West there appears g.;
! S16J per capita of the total popula
| ton and that similar conditions anC
tendencies are shown TO exist i'll thu
other agricultural exporting States
| We denounce a policy which foster
no industry SO much as it does that O
| the Sheriff.
RECIPROCITY.
Trade interchange on the basis o
reciprocal advantages to the countrie
| participating is time-honored doc
J trine of the Democratic faith, but w