The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-02
Arc tho Indianapolis Democratic for
Organism ?

Are tho Indianapolis Democratic for
Bryanism Z?
Since the Democrats who refused TO fol-
low BRYAN met and nominated q ticket for
President at indianapolis, the Hon. DoNEL-
SON CAFFERy, Senator Of Louisiana, has
been their most conspicuous representative
in public life. He has been the one
to lead the opposition in the Demo-
cratic name to the Republicans revising
the tariff. So heroic has been his effort to
make the betrayed and discarded principle
of a tariff for revenue only again prominent
as Democracy, that he has denounced un.
reservedly the inclination to protection
shown by several Democratic Senators,
including his colleague, Senator Mo-
Emery, never mentioning his own
vote for tho protectionist measure
which stands in the name Of CLEVELAND
and WILSON. Senator CAFFERY was one
of the most energetic Of hat band of pa
triots whose devotion to the cardinal doc.
trines Of Democracy and the prin ciples of
JEFFERSON were of so sublimated a
character that they could not be in
duced to vote a Republican ticket
under any circumstances, even to save
the country from the portentous evil
which then threatened it in Organism.
They justified their action on the ground
that allegiance to party was a higher obli-
CATION than duty to country, and that 1t
was of supreme moment to maintain the
form Of a Democratic organization and to
keep burning the Jeffersonian light which
the Democrats of the Chicago platform had
spat upon. So ~resolute were they in up
holding the old standards that they had
the courage, cuckoos though they were in
the main, to keep out Of their platform the
Cleveland income tax. Their alleged
reason for existence then and now is
that they continue the principles of the
Democratic party as originally conceived.
Yet, in the course of the tariff debate last
week, Senator CAFFERY, this pretended
Democrat of the old school and stanch
champion Of the constitutional tariff for
revenue only, closed q carefully elabo-
rated speech preliminary to the passage Of
the tariff bill with this declaration:
"such, sir. Is the hope that encourages me, spring.
ing eternal from a Democratic breast.
ITO sum up my position:
81 believe in n tariff on luxuries.
81 believe in excise taxes.
81 believe in an income tax.
81 believe in q tariff on imports placed 90 q to put
money In tho GOLFERS of the Government and not in
tho pockets OF Individuals"
A tariff on luxuries is not a tariff for rev.
enue only. An income tax is a cardinal
plank of populism. Senator C~AFFERY's ad.
vocacy Of it puts a new mystery into the
Indianapolis movement. What other pit
fnll 10 r,nalr.I L- A. ~
formi
The Jeffersonian doctrine Is the organic
law of pure Democracy. 1t is unalterable
by any body Of men, and every departure
from it, in spirit or letter, is to that extent
a departure from Democracy. 1t is q writ
ten constitution Of political faith. The
authoritative announcement of it, as q
whole, was made by JEFFERSON in his
first inaugural message. Its essential prin-
ciples are Equal and exact justice to
all men. of whatever state or persuasion,
religious or political - "pcace and honest
friendship with all nations, ~entanglinR alli-
ances with none; ;" the support of the
State Governments in all their rights; the
preservation Of the general Government
in its whole constitutional vigor;" "a
jealous care of the right of election -
majority rule = ECONOMY in the public
expenses "honest payment of our public
debts and preservation of the public faith -
the encouragement of agriculture and
commerce" freedom of religion, freedom
of the press" and trial by juries impair
TALLY selected"
When announced these prin-
ciplcs he had inherited from the preceding
Administration a vast and elaborate sys.
TEN of internal taxation. He Immediately
resolved to uproot it, and as n result of his
efforts nearly every lbre of 1t persisted.
And he did so on two grounds: First, 1t
was an oppressive burden on the people for
which there was no financial necessity and,
secondly, because he believed a large part
of it to be unwise from n constitutional point
of view,~ although it had Its warrant in the
Constitution. THE excise law" he wrote
to Mr.. MADISON, the father of the Consti-
tuition, d" is an internal one. The first error
was to admit 1t by the Constitution; the
second to act on that admission; the third
and last will be to make it the instrument
of Remembering tho Union and setting US
all afloat to choose what part OF 1t we will
still adhere to-"
The apprehension of dissolution was not
a mere speculation, for there was grave
peril that the discomfort, e%ngendered by
the system, would lead to that most dread.
full of all calamities. In the Southern tier
OF States, one portion Of the enactments
was reprobated as odious and tyrannical
while In the East another part of them was
held in equal detestation. This was the situa.
tion as outlined by JEFFERSON seven years
before he became the Chief Magistrate, and
It had been intensified when he assumed
office. In his first annual message he rec,
commended the abolition of nearly all these
internal taxes, and Congress embodied his
suggestions in law. His policy was to rely
almost solely on Import duties to meet the
obligations of the Government. and in un,
folding 1t he said:
"other circumstances. combined with tho Increase
OF numbers. have produced an augmentation OF
revenue arising from consumption In . ratio far DO
yond that OF population alone; and though the