Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-09-24
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
Party Principles as Set Forth in Con.
vention Assembled at Chicago
Read and Pass to Your
Neighbor.


We, the Democrats of the United
States, in national convention assem-
bIed do reaffirm our allegiance to those
great essential principles of justice and
liberty upon which our institutions are
founded and which the Democratic
party has advanced from Jefferson's
time to our own-freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, freedom of con-
science, the preservation of personal
rights, the equality of all citizens be-
fore the law and the faithful obsery-
ance of constitutional limitations.
During all these years the Demo-
cratic party has resisted the tendency
of selfish interests to the centraliza-
ton of Government power and stead
lastly maintained the integrity OF the
dual scheme of Government establish
ed by the founders of this Republic OF
Republics. Under its guidance a
teachings the great principle OF local
Government has found its best ex-
preston in the maintenance of the
rights of the States and in its asser-
ton of the necessity of confiding the
general Government to the exercise
| Of the powers granted by the Consti-
| tULlOu VI ZIG Sh1tSa SeosSSs
THE CURRENCY.
Recognizing that the money system
is paramount to all others at this time,
we invite attention to the fact that the
Federal Constitution names silver and
| gold as the money metals of the
United States, and that the first coin
age law passed by Congress under the
Constitution made the silver dollar the
monetary unit and admitted gold to
free coinage at a ratio based upon the
silver dollar unit.
We declare that the act of 1873 de-
monetizing silver without the knowl-
eye or approval of the American peo-
pie, has resulted in the appreciation OF
gold and a corresponding fall in the
prices of commodities produced by the
people; a heavy increase in the ur-
den of taxation and of all debts, pub
lie and private; the enrichment of the
money lending class at home and
abroad, prostration of industry and
imprisonment of the people.
We are unalterably ~opposedto mono
ometalIism, which has locked fast the
prosperity of an industrial people in
the paralysis as hard times. Gold
monOmetallIsm IS a British policy, and
I It's duOptlOu htt6 pIOuSAI ~ 4Rt4ShS
in financial servitude to London. 1t
is not un-Ame-ican, but anti-Ameri-
can, and it can be fastened on the
United States only by the sitting OF
that spirit and love of liberty which
| proclaimed our political independence
in 1776 and won it in the war of the
Revolution.
We demand the free and unlimited
coinage of both gold and silver at the
present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without
| waiting for the aid or consent OF any
other nation. We demand that the
| standard silver dollar shall be full legal
tender, equally with gold, for all debts,
| public or private, and we favor such
legislation as will prevent for the flu
ture the demonstration of any kind
of legal tender money by private con-
tract. We are opposed to the policy
and practice of surrendering to the
holders of the obligations of the United
States the option reserved by law to
the Government of redeeming such
obligations in either silver coin or gold
coin. We are opposed to the issuing
of interest-bearing bonds of the United
States in time of peace and condemn
the trafficking with banking syndI-
Gates, which, in exchange for bonds
at an enormous profit to themselves,
supply the Federal Treasury with gold
to maintain the policy of gold mono
metallism.
Congress alone has the power to
coin and issue money, and President
Jackson declared that his power could
not be delegated to corporations or in
dividuals. We, therefore, demand
that the power to issue notes to circu-
Lotto &c Yonnnu he fa Hny1 frnrn tho M.
tional banks, and that all paper money
shall be issued directly by the Treas
ury Department., be redeemable in
coin and be receivable for all debts,
public and private.
THE TARIFF.
We hold that tariff duties should be
levied for purposes of revenue, such
duties to be SO adjusted as to operate
equally throughout the country and
not discriminate between class or sec
ton, and that taxation should be linn
tied by the needs of the Government
honestly and economically admins
tered. We denounce as disturbing to
business the Republican threat to re-
store the Mckinley law, which has
twice been condemned by the people
in national elections, and which, en-
acted under the false plea of protection
to home industry, proved a prolific
breeder OF trusts and the monopolies,
enriched the few at the expense of
the many, restricted trade and de-
prived the producers of the great
American staples of Gee to their
natural markets.
Until the money question is settled,
we are opposed to any agitation for
further changes in our tariff laws, ex-
cept such as are necessary to supply
the deficit in revenue caused by the
adverse decision of the Supreme Court
on income tax. But for this decision
by the Supreme Court there would be
no deficit in the revenue under the
law passed by a Democratic Congress,
in strict pursuance of the uniform de-
cisions of that court for nearly 100
years, that court having under that
decision sustained constitutional OBJ
jections to Its enactment which had
been overruled by the ablest Judges
who have ever set On that bench. We
declare that it is the duty of Congress
to use ali the constitutional power
which remains after that decision, or
which may come from its reversal by
the court as it may hereafter be con-
stituted, so that the burdens of taxa
ton may equally and impartially lead
to the end that wealth may bear it's
due proportion of the expenses of the
Government.
We hold that the most efficient way
of protecting the American labor is to
prevent the Importation of foreign
pauper labor to compete with it in
the home market, and that the value
of the home market to our American
farmers and paruisans is greatly re-
duced by a vicious monetary system
which depresses the prices of their
products below the cost of production,
and thus deprives them of the means
of purchasing the products of our
nome manufactures.
The absorption of wealth by the
few, the consolidation of our leading
railroad systems and the formation Of
trusts and pools require a stricter con-
troll by the Federal Government of
those arteries of commerce. We de-
mand the enlargement of the powers
of the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion and such restrictions and guar
antees in the control OF railroads as
will protect the people from robbery
and oppression. We denounce the
proligate waste of money wrung from
the people by oppressive taxation and
the lavish appropriations of recent