Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1896-06-12

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stand he divergent
views, rel of Virgin
plause.)
After Mr.. Tuc1 1ssd, Capt. camm
Patterson of Buckingham, began to speak,
but considerable confusion had already
begun in the ball and be could not be heard.
After a few silver remarks from Gen.
Hunton, Senator Daniel at the head OF
the committee on resolutions made the
following report:
The Democrat party of Virginia, in conven-
ton assembled, declares as follows:
1st. We adhere to the principles OF Demo-
cracy as announced by Jefferson, Madison.
Monroe and Mason and the patriots OF their
day that this is government of and for the
people, and we deprecate the growing In
fuence Of trusts and great combinations OF
capital as dangerous to the welfare of our peo-
| pie and fraught with disaster to our institute
| tions.
End. We are opposed to McKinleyism,
which proposes to tax the poor man for the
benefit of trusts and capitalists; and we favor
a tariff tax for revenue. limited to the neces-
sites of an economically administered gov
eminent and adjusted so as throw its burdens
| most lightly upon the great producing classes
of our country.
, 3rd. We oppose the Republican party be-
cause, while protesting to protect our labor
ing men and mechanics they are in practice
filling their mines and factories with pauper
labor foreign to our laws and language and
uncongenial to our Institutions. We point to
the fact that that party was the author of all
the acts Of financial legislation which stimu-
lated the panic and brought on hard times to
the country, and that it has utterly failed to
suggest any measure of relief.
4th. 1t is the unwritten law of this republic
established by the custom and usage of hun
dred years and sanctioned by the example Of
the greatest and wisest of those who have
! founded and maintained our government, that
no man should be eligible for third term of
the Presidential Office.
5th. We denounce as false and slanderous
the charges made by Republicans against the
Democrats of Virginia as to the reasons which
actuated the General Assembly of the State
in submitting to the People the question of
| having Constitutional Convention. We
| point to the Public School system of the State,
to the settlement of the Public Debt, and to
the good will that exists among all the differ
ent races and sections of the commonwealth
as evidences of the wisdom of Democratic
rule.
| 9th. We are for sound money-the sound
| est that the world has ever had or can have;
the money OF our constitution, the money of
| the people, the money of civilization through
ages past and destined to be such, as we be-
li&ve, for ages to come. 1t can not be that
this great nation, the foremost Of the earth in
in riches and power, is unable to frame i'm
ancial system of its own, and while we should
welcome an International agreement that
would settle the vexed question we are I'M
| willing to defer action or make the interest
of our own people dependent upon the course
of others. We hold to the use of both gold
| and silver as the standard money of the coun
| try, and to the coinage of both gold and silver
without discriminating against either metal
or charge for mintage. The immediate and
complete restoration of the bimetallic system
of money which existed in the United States
| from 1892 until 1878 is, in our opinion, de-
manded by the interests of commerce, manu-
features and agriculture which are alike
suffering from the continuous fall of prices
and the consequent embarrassment or bank
ruptcy of those engaged therein. And in Or
der so to restore it we demand the free and
unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at
the ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the
assent or concurrence of any other nation.
7th. This sound money should consist Of
silver and gold, and of paper redeemable in
silver at the option of the payer, the unit of
t,olo cofr, oil To no hoY,
at parity by equal coinage rights and equal
n legal tender functions-the only method by
which the parity of the two metals has ever
been continuously and successfully maintain
ed.
9Th. We warn our country that unless sill
yer be upheld as money of redemption, and
sustained at parity with gold by equal privi-
leges at the mint and by equal legal tender
functions, the further contraction of the cur
rency circulation will be inevitable. We have
81 less per capita circulation now than we had
in November, 1898, when the Sherman law
was repealed, and in the present strained con-
dition of our resources, the deficit of revenue
and the fall of prices, such further contrac-
ton of money and accumulation of debt would
paralyze business lower prices and bring upon
the country widespread panic and ruin.
9th. We hereby instruct the delegates from
Virginia to the National Democratic Conven-
ton at Chicago to vote for platform of sill
yer declaring for the free coinage Of silver
and gold at the ratio OF Is to 1. and for can
didates for president and vice-president who
! openly advocate the principle.
| Col. Beverley B. Munford of Richmond.
then presented the following resolutions
(agreed upon at a conference of the gold
standard men Wednesday night) as SUBJ
stitute for the committee platform
The Democratic party of Virginia, in con-
vention assembled in conformity with the
oft-repeated declarations of the party in every
national convention, reasserts its unfaltering
adherence to the cause of sound money, and
declares that the present business depression
is due in large measure to the continued agi-
tation of the question Of our national cur
rency and the threatened change in our STAN
dard of value.
Every consideration of party policy and re-
gard for the public veal. requires an unequi-
vocal declaration of our party's position with
reference to this question, and its speedy set
Element. The Democrat party of Virginia
stands ready to abide by the declarations of
the national Democracy as set forth by it's
convention soon to assemble in the city of
Chicago. but as Indicative of its own views
upon this subject, it declares as follows:
| We demand that the volume of our currency
Il shall be commensurate with the growing
population and business development of the
| hot dali of