People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-11-19
10 THE PEOPLES PARTY OF THE UNITED

ADDRESS.
10 THE PEOPLES PARTY OF THE UNITED
STATES:
Disclaimipg any inten ton to dictate
TO the Populist voters of the United
States, or any feeling of bitterness
towards those who may have honestly
differed from us in the past on matters
of party policy, in the words of the i'm
mortal Lincoln, with malice toward
none, with charity for all, with firm
ness in the right as God gives us to see
the right; we submit to every patriotic
citizen the following address:
In 1891 there was organized at Gin
ciEnati great political party, whose
principles were as vast an innovation
upon existing beliefs as were the grand
generalization of Thomas jefferson in
the Declaration of Independence an adj
vance upon the ideas commonly held
by the world in 1878.
The latter proclaimed the legal
equality of all men, and their right to
liberty and happiness; the former de-
clared that government is a mere in
strumentality, formed by all for the
enforcement of the welfare of all; that
labor of brain and Drawn is the sole
parent of prosperity, society and civili-
cation, That wealth belongs to him
who creates it, and that every dollar
taken from industry, without an equiv
Alent, is robbery, that if any man will
not work, neither shall he eat; that the
interests of rural and civic labor are
the same, while their enemies sre iden-
teal"
These ideas are the natural sequence
and supplement to the Declaration of
Independence. Without them the v ords
of jefferson are a mere "brutum full
men" The right to pursue happi-
ness" is of no avail if men are prevented
by misgovernment from attaining it
Liberty is but an idle word if the
human family are to be swept through
poverty and suffering in bondage. Life
itself is not worth having It the price
of shame and degrade IN. The New
World is no better tn the Old World
II the condition of people Is the
same,
We escaped from England in 177e
We are again her subjects in 1897. We
are not permitted to pass laws neces-
sary for our own welfare, without her
consent; and that consent cannot be
had since she thrives by plundering us.
Cheap production in the United States
means cheap supplies for her citizens.
Instead of sovereign people, leading
the world to higher levels of state
craft and development. as the greatest,
most powerful and most thoroughly
educated Commonwealth on earth, we
are dwarfed into mere provincials, toll
ing to enrich our cunning masters,
side by aide with the starving Hindoo,
the wretehed Egyptian and the inn
poveriShed Irishman.
The peoples party was born to live
and not to die. 1t was created not to
put few men in office, but to give to
all men that happiness guaranteed by
the Constitution of the United States.
The conditions which five years ago
demanded the esta blishment of our or
ganization, insist today, with ten-fold
force, that 1t shall live as long as a
single wrong exists anrighted on the
face of the earth.
To resist these evils, we organized in
1891 We meet in 1897 to renew the
faith; to proclaim that the battle is not
yet over; that it is just beginning, and
that we will continue the good fight as
long as God let's us live.
While we have the largest federation
for all honest differences of opinion,
and will welcome to our ranks all pa
triots, we declare that those who think
the party ought to de have no more
place in it's ranks than Benedict Arnold
had in the Continental army or Judas
1scariot in the Christian Church. FL
deity to principle is above all other
considerations. since such fidelity