Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1892-07-02

convention assembled, do reaffirm their
allegiance to the principles of the party rs
formulated by Jefferson and e~xemplitied
by n long, illustrious line Of successors in
democratic leadership from Madison TO
Cleveland. We believe that the public
welfare demands that these principles be
applied to the conduct of the federal gov.
ernmen through the accession to power of
the party that advocates them and we do
solemnly declare that the need of n return
TO these fundamental principles of free
popular government, based on home rule
and individual liberty, was never mo C
urgent than now, when the tendency to
centralize all power ut the federal capital
has become a menace to the reserved
rights Of the states that strikes ut the
root of our government under the constitu-
ton as framed by the fathers of the re-
public.
We warn the people of our common
country, jealous for the preservation of
their free institutions, that the policy of
the federal control of elections to which
the republican party has committed itself
is fraught with toe gravest dangers,
scarcely less momentous than would
result from a revolution p actic-
ally establishing n monarchy on
the ruins OF the republic. 1t
strikes at the north as well as the south
and Injuries the colored citizen more than
the white: 1t means deputy marshals at
every polling place armed with federal
power, returning boards appointed to con-
troll federal authority, the outrage of the
electoral rights of the people in the states,
the subjugation OF the colored people to
the control of the party in power and re-
viving race antagonisms, now happily
nbated, of the utmost peril to the safety
and happiness OF ala measu @ deliber-
ately and justly descr. bed by a leading re-
publican senator a. the most infamous
~ .I-a a. A.
senate.
Such q policy, IL sanctioned by law,
would mean the dominance of n self-per-
petuating oligarchy of office holders, and
the party first entrusted with the ma
| chinery could be dislodged from power
only by an appeal to the reserved right of
| the people to resist oppression, which is
inherent in all self-gove rning cor NUM-
ties. Two years ago this revolutionary
measure was condemned by the people at
the polls, but in contempt of that verdict
the republican party has d~efiantly de-
clared in In authoritative utterance that
its success at the coming elections will
mean the enactpent of n force bill and
the usurpation of despotic control over the
elections in all states.
Believing that the preservation OF re-
publican governments is dependent upon
the defeat of a policy of legalized force
and fraud, we invite the support Of oil
cltlZcne VINO dcsire 10 see Tue constitution
maintained In its integrity with the laws
pursuant thereto which have given our
country a hundred years of unexamplcd
prosperity.
We pledge the democratic party not
only to defeat the force bill, but also to
relentless opposition of the republican
policy Of profigate expenditure which In
the short space OF two years has squan-
dered the enormous surplus and emptied
the overlooking treasury, after piling new
burdens of taxation upon the already
ovettaxed labor of the country.
We reitcratc the oft repeated doctrines
Of the democratic party that necessities
Of the government IL the only justification
for taxation, and whenever a tax Is un-
necessary it Is unjnstihable that when q
custom house exaction Is levied upon ar
ticles OF any kind produced In this conn
Lt-y, the difference between the cost of the
labor here and the labor abroad, when
such q difference exists. fully measures
any possible benefits to labor; md the
enormous additional imposiuons of the
existing tariff fall with crushing force
upon our farmers aud w~orkingmen: and
for the advantage OF the few whom II en-
riches. 10 exacts from labor q grossly I'M
Just share Of the expenses Of the go~=r=-