The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-12
"SOME OF THE IMMORTAL PRIN-
CIPLES OF DEMOCRACY"

appeal for the support of the voters.
Some platform makers seem to thlnk
tbe people can be won by glittering
generalties, some that they can be
hoodwinked by artful straddles, and
some believe that sugar-coated Re-
pubi;canism will attract them. But
comparatively these three classes are
few in number, for the wise leaders
and the hosts of stalwart Democrats
believe in nothing but plain deliver
ances upon vital topics.
There is a county in TennesSee-the
county of Sumner-which is inhabited
by a robust type of Democracy,
which believes with Vance that DE
mocracy is immortal, and that Demo-
cratic principles are immortal. AT
the recent county convention resolu-
tons that ring true and clear were
adopted. They contain so much OF
wisdom and breathe so truly the cour-
ageous spirit of real Democracy that
we gladly PRINT the following extracts
The Democracy of Sumner county,
in mass convention assembled, reaf-
firms its allegiance and devotion to
the cardinal tenetS of the Democratic
party as announced i'll the platforms
adopted by it's national conventions
from 1910 to 1900, believing their
maintenance and enforcement in the
operation of our governments, State
and Federal, to be essential to the
preservation of our Representatives IN
situations and individual liberty.
among the fundamental principles
of the party promulgated at its Cr-
ganizatIon and upheld ever since
through all the viscissitudes of its
history by those who We're Democrats
in fact. as we'll as in name. are q
ST, let construction of the powers dele
gated to the general government un-
der the Federal Constitution. thereby
asserting the vital necessity of local
self-government through the States
and their subordinate agencies, taxa
ton, State and Federal, county and
municipal, limited to the necessities
of the government economically adj
ininistered, while performing its legal
ly defined governmental purposes;
thereby asserting that to use the tax
ing power for the benefit of any class
is a perversion of the legitimate end
of government to build UP an aristo-
cracy of concentrated wealth from the
product of labor and industry and on
the destruction of individual effort
and self-reliance: aggressive opposi-
ton to all forms of monopoly and
perpetuitieS, whether appearing IN the
guise of system of unequal taxation,
corporate domination, or trust control
in the field of production, or in the
field of governmental finance; opposi-
ton to the financial system of national
banks Of issue to furnish the money
needed by the people to transact their
business, and a bold advocacy of the
honest money of the Federal Constl-
tuition gold and silver, in an establish
ed ratio to each other, and paper
money issued by the Federal govern
ment convertible into this metal money
at the option of the holder; strict
subordinat ton of the military to the
civil power; a small standing army,
and a reliance on voluntary soldiery
to defend the country in times of war;
territorial acquisitions inhabited and
to be inhabited by "A people fit to
be freemen and to form sovereign
States of this Republic; and eternal
hatred of the principle of incorporat-
ing as a part of free America OF a
subject territory and subjugated peo-
pie.
"These be some of the immortal
principles of Democracy. They were
true when the Democratic party came
into aggressive party life under the
leadership of jefferson they were
true under the administrations of
Madison and Monroe; they were true
when jackson throttled the United
States bank; they were true when
Polk acquired California and New
Mexico; they were true when advocat-
ed by William Jennings Bryan in 1895
and 1900, and they are true today
and the Democracy of Sumner county
boldly affirms them, believing that
the freemen of the republic, upon an
appeal to their intelligence and pa
triotism, will support them and make
them effective in the administration of
our government. and knowing, If they
do not it will be because fundamental
truths forming the fabric of our con-
stitutional freedom have lost their
rightful place and force in their
thought and that it is better to bat
tie for the right and for the time
lose the right than to surrender the
right for the sake of getting the mess
of pottage" involved in filling few
Offices
'Under Democracy public office is
a public trust, and public officials are
public servants and agents. and not
will deliberately formed and legally
expressed should be obeyed in relation
to all matters, committed to govern
ment under the constitution.
"A dishonest and corrupt public Of
hclal, one VINO seeks to thwart the
will of the people in any matter about
which they have the right to speak
under the Constitution; one who
makes the public trust with which he
IS invested by the people subservienI
TO his pecuniary ACKNOWLEDGEMENT or
the demands of corporate or trust ex-
actions, is an enemy to free govern
ment and a menace to individual
rights. He has no place in the coun-
CHS, confidence, or honors of an hon
est Democracy.
The man who reads these declara-
tons will know that they are written
by a patriot, well grounded in the
immortal principles of Democracy, a
disciple of jefferson who glories in
the principles of the party. A North
Carolinian, now in Tennessee, who
sends the resolutions, in a private note
says they were written by Judge 5. f.
Wilson, of the Chancery Court of APP
peals a one-armed veteran of the
COnfoderacy and a veteran of many