The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1893-03-09
THE DEMOCRATIC FIGHT.
ITS AIMsa AND OBJECTS, AND MEANS
OF SUCCESS.
The People Must Rally Around the Dem
ooratio President and tho Democratic
tho Power of MonOpolv.

Congress In their Effort to ovsrthrov
tho Power OF Monopoly.
WASHINGTON. Feb. 27.-The ad-
dress of the National Association OF
Democratic Clubs, issued in April last,
outlined the issues upon which the con
test of 1882 must, it appeared, inevita-
bly, be conducted.
We were not mistaken in the view g
then expressed. The great battle was
pitched at every point upon tho lines in-
dicated. The vital principle of strict con.
structiOn was put at issue, and it was
deliberately approved by great major.
ity oftlle votes cast. The tariA question.
resolved and settled by the application
of the rule embodied in the 10th amend
mont, is question no longer, if the ov :
erwhelming judgment of the people ex-
pressed at the polls is to be respecte
and obe7ed by their representatives.
The details of tariff reform-of sys.
tenn of taxation looking only to the larg
est returns OF revenue consistent with
the widest liberty of trade--remain so
| be ad listed by Democratic Congr eta
with the aid Of an enlightened EXecu-
| tive chosen to servo alike the interests
of all classes of American citizens. In
the address above mentioned we de.
| clared:
Congress may, under the Consti-
tuition, tax the people to sustain their
own Government. 1t has however,
just as much right to take their lives or
sell their children into bondage as it has
to take dollar from them for any 9TH
or purpose. But the Federalist party,
purely to create monopolies upon which
it may rely for political support, and to
further enrich it's wealthy tavorites. bold
ly assumes the ungranted and forbidden
power to lay taxes, with no view what
ever to public revenue, but with q sole
and avowed view to transfer untold mill
lions of money annually from the pock-
cts of MANY, who have earned it, to the
Golfers of the few who are licensed to
| seize it ia virtue of their unconstitution-
al monopoles. Ifthls can be done,
there is an end OF liberty; our Federal
Government is utterly perverted; it ls
not merely fraud, but despotism;
and there is nsthiug left worth q strug-
gle. The power to take and approprl-
ate to others the proceeds of the peoples
labor is the power TO enslave the peo-
pie. None such can be found in the
Federal Constitution. And the question
whether it shall be exercised, though
ungranted, and, therefore, forbidden, ia
the question, as Mr.. Jefferson stated it.
between limited and unlimited gov
ernment,' between self government and
| corrupt Capitalization, between popular
| liberty and Grasping and greedy tyran-
ny, between the masses and classes, be-
tween Federalist-Republican and the
Democratic parties"
With great deliberation and solemn
emphasis the Chicago Convention took
the same position. 1t is unnecessary
to set out here that clear and definate
provision of the platform. IT was one
which could neither be misunderstood
nor misconstrued. 1t planted the Dem
ocratic party and its candidates of al
grades, from the highest to lowest, in
that campaign on the original and i'm
pregnable Democratic ground-upon
the constitution strictly construed
which forbids under any pretence what
ever every form of taxation except tax
alton for purely public purposes. The
people, plundercd by gigantic combi-
nation of monopolies under favor Of the
government and actually threatened
with the subversiOn of free institutions
by force aud corruption, united for the
aggrandlzement OF private interests at
the general expense, approved the Chi.
cago platform by unprecedented ma jori-
ties, 80 distributed geographically as to
demonstrate the universality of the sem
tlmeht and The permanence of the re-
suits.
But while power steals readily and
almost imperceptibly from the many to
the few, the process Of reclamation is
ever painful and slow. The enormous
ly rich beneticiarles OF tho Federal poll.
cy, taxing the many for the benefit of
the few, circumscribing the industries
OF the mass to enlarge the license of q
class, are still Gin power" as they have
peen ior more than a quarter of a cent
urY. They are in full possession of the
monopolles, which have enriched them
as no privileged class was ever before
enriched in the same length of time, and
enabled them to protect the party pro.
tecting them. Trey will remain sin
power" until a just revision of tax laws
on the lines of the Constitution, as de.
creed by the people in the late election,
snail Top on their undue profits and re.
store to the common people that pro.
portion of their own earnings which the
Federal Government does not plainly
require for objects legitimate and sprci-
lied. They are banded still, as hereto
fore, in defence of their unconstitutional
privileges. They will resist stubbornly
at every point and stage, and tariff re-
form tariff reform in it's whole wide
beneficient scope-as contemplated by
the Democratic party and the majority
OF the people, will be accomplished on.
ly after q fierce and prolonged struggle.
The people, it is true, have selected
their instruments, an Executive and a
Congress to makr this battle for them.
But the battle is to be made, and is yet
TO be won. Everything substantial re.
mains to this hour with the enemy, In
Guiding the vast wealth of the monopoly
combination, increased every day the
monopoly laws stand unrepealed.
The object of this address is 10 urge
the Democratic people and those who
united with them at the election in