The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-10
THE PLATFORM.

The man who holds in good faith
and with firm and lasting conviction
those principles which he has been
wont to consider the basis of Demo-
cratic faith will feel himself pilgrim
and a stranger when he reads the
| platform adopted by the majority Of
the convention at Chicago. We beg
leave to state right here that large
number of Democrats in this country,
much more than a majority of all of
them, as we believe, will refuse to
| accept it, Their Democracy is not the
faith of a day, to be shifted from point
to point of the compass with every
varying gust Of popular impulse. They
are not to be forced to trample upon
the beliefs and traditions that have
come down to them unsullied through
generations of honorable Democratic
record, because wing of the party
that is hostile to the present admins
tration has signalized its control by
denying to Democracy everything that
the only president of the party since
the war has affirmed or approved. It
is time Of shifting, of confusion, of
unrest and of the loosening of party
ties. It is a time in which mass meet
ings Of excited men and even political
conventions lose hold Of the old things
and grasp wildly at the new. It is,
therefore, a time when those whose
Democracy is not made for the day or
the hour, and is not measured by
chances Of immediate success. should
fling out the old banner to the breeze
and take their unalterable stand upon
the principles which are as immutably
founded on the right as they are alone
consistent with national and individ-
ual honor Therefore, in the name of
the great Democracy of the people
that has come down to us from the
days Of Jefferson and Jackson, we re-
ject and repudiate as false to Demo-
cratic principle, to the public welfare
to national honor and to economic
fact, the foremost proposition put for
ward by this platform under a party
seal whose regularity every Demo-
crat has the right to challenge
The free coinage Of silver of to-day by
the United States alone at the ratio of
16 to 1 is not Democratic dactrine as
vouched for by the fathers of Democ-
racy in this republic It stands for an
economic blunder and political
crime. We do not hold ourselves SUI
perior to party or claim a dicta-
torship of party policy. We believe
in and admit the rule Of the majority.
But that rule, even when acknowl-
edged in the utmost good faith, applies
to matters of policy, and not to cues
lions of fact No gathering~of men,
be 1t in the name Of political party
or church or mass meeting of the
whole people, no political platform. no
ecclesiastical creed, and no decree of
Imperial power can change q fact or
alter the operation of a law of nature
We may bow with the utmost defer
ence to the decision of party in mat
tiers of expediency, and it's determine
ton OF affairs within the Jurisdiction
and subject to the law of political ac-
ton. For example, the man who be-
lieves in free trade, and believes fur
Their that free trade is undiluted Dem
ocratlc doctrine. may accept at the
hands OF his party a tariff which is
not strictly for revenue only: because
the limitations Of tariff duties are
wholly within the scope of legislative
action, and are to be decided by con-
siderations as to which the opinions of
individuals may properly differ. The
will of the majority in such case is
definite and final. But if that conven-
ton, by unanimous vote, il YOU
| please, declares that white is black.
| or denies the operation of the law of
| gravity, or affirms that there is no
| such thing as the succession of the
| seasons or the alteration of day and
night, it cannot demand subscription
| TO those doctrines as a test of party
faith. 1t has entered upon the region
not of opinion but of fact, and in that
realm the convictions of men pass be-
| yond their control
| Therefore. subscribing anew our 10y
atty and our allegiance to the Demo-
cratic faith, 1we deny utterly and en-
phatically. as a matter of demonstrate