Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1896-07-17
The Democratic Platform

in National Convention assembled, do re.
affirm our allegiance 10 those great essntial
principles of justice and liberty upon which
our institutions are founded, and which the
Democratic party has advocated from JET.
ferson's time TO our own-freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, freedom of conscience,
the preservation of personal rights, the
equality of all citizens before the law, and
the faithful obser vance Of constitutional
limitations.
The Constitution of the United States
guarantees to every citizen the rights of
civil and religious liberty. The Democratic
party has always been the exponent of polit-
ical liberty and religious freedom, and it re-
news its obligations and reaffirms the devo
ton to these fundamental principles of the
Constitution.
During all these years the Democratic
party has resisted the tendency of selfish in
terests to the Capitalization of governmental
power, and steadiastly maintained the in
tegrity of the dual scheme of government,
established by the founders of this republic
of republics. Under its guidance and teach.
ings the great principle of local self govern
nent has found its best expression in the
maintenance of the rights of the States and
in its assertion of the necessity of combining
the general government to the exercise Of
the powers granted by the Constitution of
the United States.
Recognizing that the money question is
paramount to all others at this time, we in.
vite 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
Congress under the Constitution made the
silver dollar the monetary unit, and admit.
ted gold to free coinage at ratio based up
on the silver unit
We declare that the act of 1878 demone-
tizing silver without the knowledge or ap.
proval of the American people has resulted
in the appreciation of gold and correspond
ing fall in the prices OF commodities pro.
duced by the people.
We are unalterably opposed to Mono
metalism, which has locked fast the pros
perity OF an industrial people in the paraly-
sis OF hard times. Gold monometallism is
British policy, and its adoption has brought
other nations into financial servitude to
London. 1t is not only unAmerican but
anti American, and it can be fastened on
the United 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 coin
age of both gold and silver 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 full
legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts,
public and private, and we favor such legis
lation as will prevent for the future the de-
monetization of any kind Of legal-tender
money by private contract.
We are opposed to the policy and prac
tice of surrendcring to the holders of the
obligations of the United States the option
reserved by law to the government of re-
deeming 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 syndicates which, in exchange for
bonds and at an enormous profit to them.
selves, supply the Federal Treasury with
gold to main the policy OF gold monometal-
ism
Congress alone has power to coin and
issue money, and President jackson de-
clared that this power could not be dele
gated TO corporations or to individuals. We
therefore denounce the issuance OF notes as
money for national banks as in derogation
of the Constitution, and we demand that all
paper which is made legal tender for public
and private debts, or which is receivable for
dues to the United States, shall be issued by
shall be redeemable in coin.
We hold that the 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 limited by the needs of the gov
eminent honestly and economically admin
istered. We denounce as disturbing to bust
ness the Republican threat to restore the
Mckinley law, which has been twice con-
demned by the people in national elections,
and which, enacted under the false plea OF
protection to home industry, proved pro-
life breeder of trusts and monopolies, en-
riched the few at the expense of the many,
restricted trade and deprived the producers
of the great American staples of access to
their natural markets. Until the money
question is settled we are opposed to any
agitation for further changes in our tariff
laws, except such as are necessary to meet
the deficit in revenue caused by the adverse
decision of the Supreme Court on the in
come tax.
There would be no delft in the revenue
but for the annulment by the Supreme Court
of law passed by Democratic Congress
in strict pursuance of the uniform decisions
of that court for nearly one hundred years,
that court having in that decision sustained
which had previously been overruled by the
ablest judges who have ever sat upon that
bench. We declare that it is the duty OF
Congress to use all the constitutional power
which remains after that decision, or which
may come from its reversal by the court, as
it may hereafter be constituted so that the
burdens of taxation may be equally and
impartially laid, to the end that wealth may
bear its due proportion OF the expenses OF
the government
We hold that the most efficient way OF
protecting American labor Is to prevent the
importation of foreign pauper labor to com
pete with it in the home market, and that
the value Of the home market to our Amer
lean farmers and artisans is greatly reduced
by vicious monetary system, which de-
presses the prices of their products below
the cost of production, and thus deprives
them of the means of purchasing the pro
ducts of our home manufactures.
We denounce the profligate waste of the
money wrung from the people by oppres.
sive taxation and the lavish appropriations
of recent Republican Congresses, which
have kept taxes high, while the labor thai
pays them is unemployed, and the products
OF the peoples tot, are depressed in price
till they no longer repay the cost of produc
ton. We demand return to that sim
pllCltg dnu CSOhOuh1 uulSu OChbS q DStnO
cratic government and reduction in the
number of useless offices, the salaries Of
which drain the substance of the people.
We denounce arbitrary Interference by
Federal authorities in local affairs as a VIC
lation of the Constitution of the United
States and crime against free institutions
and we especially object to government by
injunction as a new and highly dangerous
form OF oppression, by which Federal
Judges, in contempt of the laws of the
States and rights of citizens, become at once
Legislators, judges and executioners, and we
approve the bill passed at the last session Of
the United States Senate, and now pending
in the House, relative to eontempts in Fed