The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1897-07-30
THE DEMOCRATIC STATE
CONVENTION.

The Democratic State convention
met in Baltimore on Wednesday. The
following State ticket was nominated:
For State COMPREHENSIVE Sena-
tor Thomas \. Smith, of Caroline
county
For Clerk to the Court of Appeals
Hon. j. Frank Ford, of st. Mary's
county, the incumbent.
Senator German as chairman of the
Committee on Resolutions read the
following platform which was unani-
mously adopted:
The representatives of the Democratic
party of Maryland, in State Convention
assembled, do hereby reaffirm their allie
glance to the principles of the party as
formulated by Jefferson and eXemplifed
by Madison and Jackson. As the nation
advances and develops new issues are pre-
scented and old issues disappear, but the
fundamental principles of Democracy born
of human needs and Graded in events
The preservation of personal liberty,
The equality of all citizens before the
law,
Freedom of speech,
Freedom of the press,
Freedom of conscience,
The reserved rights of the States,
And the supremacy of the Federal Gov
ernment within the limits of the COnstitu-
ton
These remain untouched by the vicissi
tudes of time and evolutions, and will ever
stand as the best and only guarantee of
the perpetuation of free Institutions.
The Democracy of Maryland, in com
mon with the Democracy of the Union,
believe now, as they always have believed,
in honest money, the gold and silver mon
ey of the Constitution and the coinage of
both metals without discrimination against
either into standard dollars of final pay
ment and redemption.
We note with satisfaction that the de-
mand of more than six and one-half mill
ions of Democratic voters expressed at the
polls last November has compelled Presi-
dent Mckinley and Republican Congress
to urge upon the European powers,
through the medium of a duly appointed
commission, the necessity for an interna-
tional conference to arrange the terms of
a bimetallic system under the operation of
which both gold and silver shall be used
and recognized as money of final redemp
ton.
The suffering of the masses, the honest
toilers, the bone and sinew, the brain and
courage and manhood Of the land, have
met with the sympathy of the Democracy
and the protests of our great party, SO elo
quently voiced in last years elections, has
forced the Republican party, despite its
arrogance and recklessness, to recognize
the needs of an aroused and patriotic peo
ha,,ncrotp
not approved all the expressions Of their
party in national convention, bimetallsm
will surely come. 1t may come through
the instrumentalities set in motion by the
present administration, though in truth
inspired by the intrepid action of the Dem
ocratic voters But it will come, and the
prosperity and happiness that follow in its
train will be due to the courage, the I'M
daunted fidelity and the intelligent pa
triotism of the Democracy.
In all respects other than this reluctant
performance. the Republican party has
been false to the pledges and professions
upon the strength of which, last Noyem-
Der. it secured the suffrag res of the Ameri-
can people.
Triumphing upon an issue of financial
reform, it was bound by every obligation
of good faith to redeem its promises to the
country Every existing act relating to
the currency is the work Of the Republi-
can party. That party is responsible for
every one of the defects in a system now
universally regarded as being vicious and
unwholesome. That party is, therefore
responsible for their correction.
Yet President Mckinley convened til,
Congress in extra session within the foIt
night following his inauguration, and now
after more than four months OF delibera
ton, which the Democrats have had nc
power to interrupt or influence, the Con
gress has adjourned without giving the
neople the smallest measure of financial
relief and with the sole result of imposing
upon them a tariff law more oppressiy,
and Ubiquitous than has ever disgrace(
our statute books-a law which taxes the
masses for the benefit of the classes, which
narrows the field of individual opportuni
tv. which forbids the expansion of Oul
commerce. and which has not even the
merit of providing Il sufficient revenue fol
the proper conduct of the Government
1t is in all respects more OdlOus and alb
horrent measure than the Mckinley act OF
1890 That act was overwhelmingly repu
dated and rebuked by the people in 1892
The Dingley act will be still more signally
condemned in 1898.
The Democratic party, in the interest OF
the whole people, VIII continue 10 wage
war against the iniquities of this act, and
will insist upon tariff for revenue suffi.
GENTLY for the needs of the Government
economically administered, and will al
ways maintain that unnecessary taxation
is I'm uSt taxation.
Thus, in time of widespread industrial
depression, when the agricultural classes
are confronted by poverty in its direst
FORM and when the toilcrs in the mines
and factories find themselves forced into
despair and suffering, the Republican par