People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1893-06-23
PEOPLES PARTY PLATFORM.
Adopted at the Omaha Conference of
LabOring People, July 4, 1892.

Assembled upon the one hundred and
sixteenth anniversary Of the declaration
Of independence, the Peoples party of
America, in their first national conven-
ton invoking upon their action the
blessing of Almighty God, puts forth in
the name and on behalf of the people of
this country, the following preamble and
declaration of principles
The conditions which surround US best
Justify our cooperation. We meet in
the midst of a nation brought to the
verge of moral, political and material
ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot
box, the legislatures, the congress, and
touches even the ermine of the bench
The people are demoralized. Most of
the States have been compelled to isolate
the voters at the polling places to pre-
vent universal intimidation or bribery.
The newspapers are largely subsidized or
muzzled, public opinion sllenced, bust
ness Frustrated, our homes covered with
mortgages, labor impoverished and the
land concentrating IN the hands OF the
capitalists. The urban wOrkmen are de-
MED the right of organization for self
protection imported pauperlzed labor
beats down their wages hireIing
standing army, unrecOgniz9d by our
laws, is established to shoot them down,
and they are rapidly degeneratlng into
European conditions. The fruits OF the
toll Of millions are boldly stolen to build
up colossal fortunes for a few, unprece-
dented in the history Of mankind, and
the possessors Of these, in turn, despise
the republic and endanger liberty. From
the same prolific mode Of governmental
I'M hn nj
ses-tramps and millionaires.
The national power to create money is
appropriated to enrich bondholders. A
vast public debt payable in legal tender
currency has been funded into gold
bearing bonds, thereby adding millions
to the burdens of the people.
THE OLD PARTIES ARRAIGNED.
Silver, which has been accepted as
coin since the dawn Of history, has been
dem0netized to add to the purchasing
power Of gold by decreasing the value Of
all forms Of property, as well as human
labor, and the supply of currency is pur-
p0sely abridged TO fatten Insurers, bank
rupt enterprises and enslave industry. A
vast conspiracy against mankind has
been organized on two continents and is
rapidly taking possession of the world.
If not met and overthrow at once it
forebodes terrible social commissions, the
destruction Of civilization, or the estab-
lishment of an absolute despotism.
We have witnessed for more than
century the struggles of the two great
political parties for power and plumber,
while grievous wrongs have been in
flicted upon the suffering people. We
charge that the controlling influences
dominating both these parties have per-
mitted the exising dreadful conditions to
develop without serious effort to prevent
or restrain them. Neither do they now
promise us any substantial reform. They
have agreed together to ignore in the
coming campaign every issue but one.
They propose to drown the OutCries of
plundered people with the uproar Of
sham battle over the trriff, so that capt.
talists, corporations, national banks,
rings, trusts, watered stock, the demone-
tizatlOn Of silver and the expressions of
the usurers may all be lost sight of.
They propose to sacrifice our homes,
wives aud children on the altar of Mann
mon to destroy the multitude in order
to secure corruption funds from the mil
lionaires.
Assembled on the anniversary of the
birthday of the nation. and filed with
the spirit of the grand generation who
established our independence, we seek to
restore the government Of the republic
to the hands Of ''the plain people, with
which class it originated.
THE WAR is OVER.
We assert our purposes to be Identical
with the purposes of the national con-
stitution - ITO form more perfect
union, establisha JUSTICE insure dOmes-
tic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare
and secure the blessings of liberty for
ourselves and our posterity.' We de-
clare that this republic can only endure
as free government while built upon
the love of the whole people for each
other and for the nation ; that it cannot
be pinned together by bayonets that the
civil war is over, and that every passion
aud resentment which grew out of it
must die with it, and that we must be- in
fact, as we are in name, one united
brotherhood of freemen.
Our country finds itself confronted by
conditions for which there is no prece-
dent in the history of the world-our
annual agricultural productions amount
to billions Of dollars in value, which
must within few weeks or months be
exchanged for billions Of dollars Of com
moditieS consumed in their production
the existing currency supply is wholly
inadequate to make this exchange the
results are falling prices, the formation
of combines and rings and the impov-
erishment of the producing classes. We
pledge ourselves that if given power we
will labor to correct these evils by wise
and reasonable legislation in accordance
with the terms of our platform.
We believe that the powers of govern
ment-in other words, Of the people
should be expanded Gas in the case
the postal service) as rapidly and
as far as the good sense Of an intelligent
people and the teachings of experience
shall Justify, to the end that oppression,
injustice and poverty shall eventually
cease in the land.
THREEFOLD DECLARATION.
While our sympaties as a party of re-
form are naturally upon the side of
every proposition which will tend to
make men intelligent, virtuous and tenn
perate, we nevertheless regard these
questions, important as they are, as
secondary to the great issues now pres
sing for solution, and upon which not
only our individual prosperity but the
very existence of free institutions de-
pend and we ask all men to first help
us to determine whether we are to have
a republic to administer before we differ
as to the conditions upon which it is to
be administered, believing that the
forces Of reform this day organized will
never cease to move forward until every