The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-18
ABANDONED BY Mr.. BRYAN.
WITHOUT SAVING ACTION THE OLD
PARTY MUST CEASE TO
EXIST.
NATIONAL HONOR Is IT'S SLOGAN.
Democracy the Party of Freedom
Minneapolis Man for Sergeant
alarms.

the following call for a national con-
vention at Indianapolis, Sept q:
To the Democrats of the United States:
The Democratic party is the only existing
political organization with a history ex-
tending back to the birth of the republic.
Party after party has attempted Its overthrow.
Some have achieved temporary trumphs. With
each triumph was heard the prophecy that
the Democratic party would surely die. 1t
has survived all defeats. BY virtue Of its
indestructible principles, it has witnessed
the birth and death of every rival save one,
and this, its present great antagonist, with
a history Of no more than forty years, had no
part in laying the foundations of constitution
al popular government. For more than a
century men of high principles noble ambi-
tions and unselfsh and patriotic aims, have
adhered to the Democratic party with a con-
stancy of devotion unparalleled in the history
of politics. For more than a century through
good and evil report in times Of prosperity
and days Of adversely, it has kept its faith.
Without variablenesS or shadow of turn
ing" it has held fast to the fundamental prin-
cples of free government formulated by its
founders, and subsequently enforced by its
great leaders from Jefferson to Cleveland.
For more than century no man was ever
in doubt as to what constituted Democracy.
He who proclaimed himself Democrat de-
fined his principles. He believed, and this
in the ability of every individual, unassisted,
if unfettered by law to achieve his own hap
plness; ana, therefore, that TO every citizen
there should be secured the right and oppor-
tunity peaceably to pursue whatever course
of conduct he would, provided such conduct
deprived no other individual of the equal en-
joyment of the same right and opportunity.
He stood for freedom of speech, freedom of
conscience, freedom of trade and freedom Of
contract, all of which are implied by the
century-old battle cry of the Democratic
party. Individual liberty.''
AS consequence, every Democrat believed
in the rule of law, and the rule of an i'm
partial law; in the unhesitating protection
not only of the lives of citizens, but of pri-
vate rights and property, and In the enforce
ment of obedience to duly constituted author
ity. Every true Democrat insisted upon q
strict observance Of the mandates of the fed
eral constitution and of the limitations there
in prescribed well as upon loyal sup
port OF all the institutions thereby created,
to be guarantees of the liberty it sought to
perpetuate. He profoundly disbelieved in
the ability Of the government through pa
ternal legislation or supervision, to increase
the happiness of the nation He was opposed
to attempts to conjure comfort into homes of
its citizens or wealth into their pockets He
believed that it is the function of govern
ment to provide the people with an honest
and stable medium of exchange thus en-
abling them to transact their business safely
and conveniently in every mart of the world.
He reprobated every attempt to supply to
money by means of legislation that value
which 1t can possess only by reason of those
qualities that render 1t acceptable to the
world, when unsupported by the legislative
nat He believed in the greatest measure Of
freedom of trade and industry compatible with
the necessity to obtain, by constitutional
uSdnS al adequate revenue Tor the support
of the government He believed In simple
economical, honest and efficient admnistra-
ton of the affairs of the nation, to the end
that the prime object of government. the lib
erty OF the people, should be preserved with
the least possible resulting burden and the
greatest possible certainty.
With such record and such a creed the
president moreover, being a Democrat
elected on a platform reaffirming the sound
principles of Democracy the Democratic party
was called upon to select delegates to ma
uonal convention The delegates to the con-
vention held at Chicago were authorized and
had the power to proclaim a platform embody-
ing their views of the true solution of the
particular problems of the government now
agitating the nation, but upon the condition
that such a platform should be consistent
with the
CARDINAL PRINCIPLES
held by the party throughout its existence
These principles constitute the essential ele-
ment of the partyS life They distinguish it
from all other political organizations. If they
are abandoned, the party ceases to exist 1t
was, therefore, not within the power of any
majority Of the delegates assembled at Chi
cago TO bind the Democrats of the United
States to platform inconsistent with the
party's principles, or to any action that should
result in their surrender
In violation of the trust committed to them.
majority OF the delegates assembled in that
convention, ignoring the rights of the minor
ny, unseated regularly elected delegates to
make places for others in sympathy with
themselves They proclaimed a sectional
combination of the South and West against
the North and East. They impeached the
honesty and patriotism of President Cleveland
who, under exceptional embarrassments pro
duced by past errors of legislation has he
rolcally maintained the honor and integrity of
Vne natlon. Against the protest of one-third
of the delegates they promulgated platform
at variance with the essential principles of
the Democratic party
This platform is in it's policies danperous
TO the welfare and life of free government
1t is mischievous in its tendencies But
even more threatening and mischievous was
the spirit Of the convention that adopted #
a spirit manifested not alone by its afirma-
tive action, but as well by its reckless re-
lection Of every proposition tending to temper
the declarations of the convention with con
servatism and justice.
The platform proposes to degrade the coin
of the United States by means of the free
unlimited and independent coinage of silver
by our government, and by the exercise of
the power of the nation to compel the ac-
ceptance of deprecated coins at their pomi-
nal value thereby working an injustice to
creditors defrauding the laborer of a large
part of his earnings and savings. robbing pen
stoned soldiers of a part of their pensions
contracting the currency by the expulsion
OF gold coin from circulation injuring if
not destroying, domestic trade and foreign
commerce
While protesting to advocate policy of
bimetallism, it censures the present Demo-
cratic administration for maintaining the
parity of gold and silver. 1t proposes to
reduce this country to condition of silver
reliable standard of values, and tends to
bring the farmer, the wage Garner and the
Salarled man TO the wretched condition of
the same classes in countries in which the
silver standard prevails and where the re-
wards of agriculture and labor are lower than
anywhere else in the world.
With what seems to be a deliberate attempt
to mislead the people, 1t asserts that by the
coinage act Of 1873, the United States aban-
doned the use of silver money and that
gold has appreciated and commodities have
fallen in prices solely by reason of this legjs-
lation. 1t ignores the fact that the prices of
commodities have fallen because Of the en-
larged use of laborsaving machinery, in
creased production and resulting competition
1t suppresses the fact that potent reason for
the decline in the price of silver has been
mines, resulting in an enormous increase in
its production. Instead of recognizing these
facts, it appeals to the prejudice of the people
1t demands the free coinage of silver at the
arbitrary and fictitious rate of 16 to al
though the ratio established in the world S
market is about 32 to l, and although neither
experience or reason warrants the belief that
be reduced by the action of this government
to ratio even approximating that proposed.
1t threatens in certain contingencies TO in
crease to an unlimited extent the volume
of legal tenders issued by the federal govern
ment the ultimate effect of which would he
to force the withdrawal of all coin from
circulation and to compel public and private
business to be transacted In
DEPRECATED PAPER CURRENCY.
constantly huctuatfng in value and to in
vite the ruin and confusion that have always
followed the adoption of such policy.
Its declarations invite and have almost pro-