The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-10-27
AN>ADDRESs

1 - - AS43>S~S
To the Voters Of the Fourth Congregational
District Of Louisiana.
We hereby declare that Honorable 81
w. Ogden, having received majority oil
the votes cast at the primary election held
throughout the district ON October 8, 1894
is the nominee of the Democratic party
for representative to Congress from the
Fourth Congressional District of Louisi
ana, and as such is entitled to the hearty
support Of all true Democrats.
We hereby urge all Democrats to lay
aside past differences and unite in giving
him rousing majority over his opponent
at the coming general election. Our
said nominee is presented to you AZ an
earnest and avowed advocate OF the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at ratio
of 16 to l and a. favoring the repesl of the
10 per cent tax on State banks, the pas-
sage Of the anti-option bill, q tariff for
revenue only.
The canvass having been specially made
on these issues the acceptance Of the
nomination carries with it the moral and
political obligation to use all honorable
efforts to have them carried into effect,
and the vote so recently taken on same
amounts to instruction on said issues.
We take this occasion to point out the
fundamental principles of the Democratic
party and the difference between these
principles and those advocated by the Re
publican aud Populist parties.
The foundation stone OF Democracy is
its opposition to class legislation in all Of
its forms. Its shibboleth now, as always,
is. Equal rights to all, special privileges
to none." It believes that the only le-
climate functions Of government are the
due protection Ut life, liberty and prop
erty, and that whenever the government
il made to help one class of men at the
expense Of others it does an act which is
beyond its constitutional power to do, un-
wise IN policy and wrong in principle.
Both Of the other parties, on the other
hand, advocate class legislation, though
OF different kinds and for the benefit Of
d q rent classes. Both meet on the idea
OF paternalism, or the reliance OF the
people on the government for aid and
support in their business affairs.
The Republican party favors the main
tenance OF high tariff system, which IL
miscalled Protection, bot which Is in real
ity robbery Of the masses Tor the sole
benefit OF q few favored classes-the direct
result OF which system has been to build
mp in our midst monstrous trusts, monOp-
olies and made millionairee whose power
to control legislation and levy further
tribute on the toiIing muses. IL the most
humiliating spectacle for which We have
to-day to blush az citizens Of free Re-
public.
The Populist party. feeling vaguely
that the masses Of the people have been
oppressed and reduced to poverty by
class legislstion, would essay to correct
the evils from which they suffer by clsss
legislation of different kind and in the
interest Of different class.
Both are fundamentally wrong, because
both rely on the government for what
ought to be the business OF the people.
The Democratic party holds that the
government ought to b entirely and alb
solutely neutral between it's citizens, pro-
tecting all in their lives, liberty. property,
but leaving them unfsvored and unham-
pered in the pursuit of wealth, thereby
making its citizens self-reliant and indie
pendent. The evil tendency OF paternal-
ism il well illustrated by the remarkable
spectacle recently exhibited in the sugar
district Of Louisiana. A large body OF
men heretofore protesting themselves a.
Democrats in principle deliberately threw
of their political allegiance to that party
and formally entered the ranks OF Repub-
icauism.
Their sense OF right and wrong obscur-
ed and blurred by the corrupting and de-
grading influence of system which tax
ed the masses of the people in order to
give them large but unearned fortunes,
they deliberately abandoned principle as
a guide TO political action, and assumed
self-ipterest as such guide.
No better argument is needed to prove
the success OF Democratic efforts at tariff
reform than this action OF the bounty
fed sugar planters, in leaving the Demo
cratic party for the avowed reason that
it took of from the shoulders OF the
masses q burden that had been laid there
for their benefit by the Republican party.
D. C. SCARBoRoUGH,
Committee. z. G. BARRKrr,
BEN. p. EDwAREs.
The Elocution class of Mrs. Nv