The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1896-07-16
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PLAT
FORM ADOPTED AT CHICAGO.

States, in national convention assem-
bled, 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 advocated from Jefferson 8
time to our own-freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, freedom of con-
science, the preservation of personal
rights, and equality of all citizens be-
fore the law and the faithful obsery-
ance of constitutional limitations.
During all these years the Democratic
party has resisted the tendency of self
ism interests toward the Capitalization
of governmental power, and stolidly
maintained the integrity of the dual
rights of government established by
the founders of this republic OF repub-
lies. Under its guidance and teaching
the great principle of local self-govern-
ment has found its best expression in
the maintenance of the rights of the
States, and in it's assertion of the neces-
sity of confinlng the General Govern
ment to the exc else of the powers
granted by the Constitution of the
United States.
"The Constitution OF the United
States guarantees to every citizen the
right of civil and religious liberty
The Democratic party has always been
the exponent of political liberty and
religious freedom, and it renews its OBJ
legations and reaffirms its devotion to
the fundamental principles of the
Constitution"
MONEY QUESTION.
Recognizing that the money ques-
ton is paramount to all others at this
time, we invite attention to the fact
that the Federal Constitution names
silver and gold together as the money
metals of the United States, and that
the first coinage law passed by Con-
gress under the Constitution made the
silver dollar the monetary unit and ad-
mitted gold to free coinage at ratio
based upon the silver dollar unit.
We declare that the act of 1873 de.
monetizing silver without the knowl-
edge or approval of the American peo-
pie has resulted in the appreciation Of
gold and corresponding fall in the
prices of commodities produced by the
people; heavy increase in the bur:
den of taxation, and OF all debts, pub.
lie and private; the enrichment of the
money-lendlng class at home and
abroad the prostration of industry
and the impoverishment of the poor.
eve are unalterably opposed tc
monometallism, which has locked fast
the prosperity of an industrious PEG.
pie In the paralysis of hard times.
Gold recommendation is British policy
and its adoption has brought other
nationsainto financial servitude to Lon
don. 1t is not only un-American, but
anti-American, and it can be fastened
upon the United States only by the
stiffling of that spirit and love of liber-
ty which proclaimed our political in
dependence in 1776, and won it in the
war of the Revolution.
FREE COINAGE AT l6 TO l.
eve demand the free and unlimited
coinage of both silver and gold at the
present legal ratio of 16 to l, without
waiting for the aid or consent of any
other nation. We demand that the
standard silver dollar shall be of tull
legal-tender, equally with gold, for all
debts, public and private, and we favor
such legislation as will prevent for The
future the decentralization of any kind
of legal-tender money by private con-
tract.
eve are opposed to the policy and
practice of surrendering to the holders
OF the obligations of the United States
the option reserved by the government
of redeemlng such obligations in either
silver coin or gold coin.
ave are opposed to the issuing
OF interest-bearing bonds of the United
States in time of peace, and condemn
the trafficking with banking syndicates
which, in exchange for bonds and at
an enormous profit to themselves, sup
ply the Federal Treasury with gold to
maintain the policy of gold monomet-
allism.
AGAINST NATIONAL-BANK NOTES.
Congress alone has the power to
coin and Issue money, and President
Jackson declared that this power could
no be delegated to corporations or in
dividuals.
1--WE therefore denounce the issuance
of notes intended to circulate as money
by national banks, as in derogation OF