Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-06-05
TIE VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS.


and Endorsed John W. Daniel for a
place on the Presidential ticket at Chi
cago.
About fifteen hundred delegates we're
present and great enthusiasm prevailed.
On the vote to instruct for free silver
four-6fths of the delegates voted aye
and two. thirds voted for the unit rule.
Although the Second district elected
gold standard delegates, the unit rule
makes the Virginia delegation to Chi
cago solid for free silver.
The delegates .at-large to the national
convention are:
John W. Daniel. W. A. Jones. Claude
A. Swanson, and II. S. K. Morrison; al
ternates, w. o. Hardaway, Roger
Gregory, George B. Keezell, and Frank
Hume.
The electors.at- large are:
w. B. McIlwaine, of Dinwiddie, and
J. w. Marshall, of Craig. Peter ].
Otey was chosen for national commit
teeman.
The names of the district delegates
and electors were published yesterday.
The committee on permanent organl-
cation submitted the name of Micajah
Woods, of Charlottesville, as perma-
nent chairman, and J. Bell Bigger and
Joseph Button, secretaries. MIR. ID. ID.
Russell, of Loudoun was named as Vice
President for the Eighth district. These
recommendations were confirmed by
the convention.
The following is the platform as pre-
sented by the majority of the commit
tee on resolutions and read by it's chair
man, Senator Daniel.
The democratic party of Virginia, in
convention assembled, declare as fol-
lows:
1. We adhere to the principles of de-
mocracy as announced by Jefferson,
Madison, Monroe, and Mason, and the
patriots of their day, that this is gov
eminent of and for the people, and we
deprecate the growing influence OF
trusts and great com 5instions of capital
as dangerous to the welfare of our peo-
pie and fraught with disaster to our in
situations.
2. We are opposed to McKinleyism,
which proposed to tax the poor man for
the benefit of trusts and capitalists, and
we favor tariff tax for revenue limited
to the necessities of an economically ad.
ministered government and adjusted so
as to throw its burden most lightly upon
the great producing classes of our coun-
try.
3. We oppose the republican party be-
. cause, while protesting to protect our
laboring men and mechanics, they are
in practice filling their mines and facto-
ries with pauper labor from Europe,
foreign to our laws and language and
iuimical to our institutions. We point
to the fact that that party was the au-
thor of all the acts of financial legisla-
ton which stimulated the panic and
brought on hard times to the country
and that it has utterly failed to suggest
any scheme ofrelief.
1. 1t is the unwritten law of this re-
public, established by the custom and
usage of 100 years, and sanctioned by
the example of the greatest and wisest
of those who founded and have main
tanned our government, that no man
should be eligible for third term of the
presidential Office.
5. We denounce as false and SANDER
Gus the charges made by the republi-
cans against The democrats of Virginia
as to the reasons which actuated the
General Assembly of the State in sub
hitting to the people the question OF
holding constitutional convention.
We point to the public school system,
to the settlement of the public debt,
and to the good will that exists among
all the different races and sections OF
the Commonwealth as evidence OF the
wisdom of democratic rule.
6. We are for sound money-the
soundest that the world has ever
had or can have-the money of our
constitution, the money of the people,
the money of civilization through the
ages past and destined to be such, as
we believe, for ages to come. This sound
money should consist of silver and gold
and of paper redeeemable in silver
or gold. at the option of the payer, the
units of the whole mass to be kept at
parity by coinage rights, and equal
legal tender functions, the only method
by which the parity of the two metals
has been continuously and successfully
maintained.
Z. We hold to the use of both gold
and silver as the standard money of
the country, and to the coinage of both
gold and silver, without discriminating
against either metal or charge for mint
age. The immediate and complete res
toration of the bimetalism of money
which existed in the United States from
1898 to 1878, is, in our opinion, demand
ed by the interests of commerce, manu-
features and agriculture, which are
alike suffering from the continuous fall
of prices, and the consequent embar-
rassment or bankruptcy of those en-
gagged therein. And, in order so to re-
store it, we demand the full and unlim.
tied coinage of both silver and gold, at
the ratio of 16 to /, without waiting for
the assent or concurrence of any other
nation. 1t cannot be that this great
nation, the foremost of the earth in
riches and in power, is unable to form
financial system of its own; and,
while we would welcome an interna-
tional agreement that would settle the
yexed question, we are unwilling to de-
fer action, or make the interest of our
own people dependent upon the course
of others.
We warn our countrymen that, until
silver be upheld as money of redemp-
ton and sustained at parity with gold,
by equal privileges at the mint, and by
equal legal tender functions, further
r