Year: 1876

treasury, but into somebody else's pock-
ct, is no longer taxation; it is eonfiscation
and robbery,


sUNpTUARY LEGISLATION.


With equal boldness and manliness the
st. Louis Convention has pronounced
against the paternal or interference the
ory of Government in the shape of
sumptuary laws; laws by which the care
fer individual morality is to be intrusted
to the constabulary and local politicians /;
laws which rest on the presumption that
the plan of creation can be amended
and human nature be changed by acts of
the General Assembly, laws which are
based on the belief that municipal au-
thority can make of certain weaker yes.
sells what the family, the school and the
church had been unable to make of
them; laws which declare that man must
not be a free agent, but perpetually stands
in need of guardian, and that that guar
dian must be the State, Or in other
words, the legislative and executive pro-
ducts of our beautiful system of caucuses
and primaries. The political representa-
tive and embodiment of this illiberal and
intolerant spirit is the Republican party,
which, on economical as we'll as social
questions, is welded to the idea that man
must not be left to himself, but that the
Government Federal State or munich
pal-must regulate him in everything, do
everything for everybody, and take away
the rattle for fear it might swallow the
child. / do not dispute the fact that now
and then the Democratic party, or, to
speak more correctly individual mem
bers of it. have allowed themselves to be
misled by timid Difference to what they
mistook for the prevailing opinion, into
acts or uiterances inconsistent with the
natural opposition of the party to the in
reference theory Of Government; but its
general sentiments, drift and tendencies
on this question were right, while those
of the Republican party were radically
and persistently wrong. Still, up to this
time, the Democratic opposition to sumpt-
uary legislation had been a sentiment OF
tendency merely; but now it has be.
come an article OF faith, The party has
now openly and boldly declared its belize
in individual liberty unvexed by such
legislation; and henceforward the spirit
of Thomas Jefferson will battle against
the spirit of Cotton Mather, on the same
side on which the weapons of Adam
Smith, Bastait and Herbert Spencer will
be arrayed against the fallacies Of Pig.
iron Kelly and Charles Henry Carey.


THE CURRENCY QUESTION.


And now, as to the currency question
The pithiest way of expressing what the
st. Louis platform is on this subject
would be to say that it is Sound as dol
lar" l do not mean printed dollar
containing the broken promise of the
Government, which the law compels you
to accept for a real dollar; but mean "the
dollar that chinks;" the old Democratic
dollar in which you and | had believed
before the dilapidated survivors of thu
old Whig party had arisen to teach III


Democracy. The st. Louis platform de
clares squarely in favor of the old Ben
ton dollar, by which nobody has eve
been deceived. 1t pledges us to the cur
rency of the civilized world, currency
which teaches economy and thrift in
stead of tempting to prodigality and ex
travagance; currency whicn is not
sham and a delusion, but has intrinsic
value and represents actual labor; cur
rency which has always bought and will
always buy the necessaries and luxurie'
of life among all nations and at all places
a currency which secures stability anC
confidence instead of producing fuctua
tons and uncertainty; currency whict
never breaks, the currency of gold anC
silver under which this country had at
tanned its highest and soundest prosper
ity, instead of the currency under which
our industry and commerce have suffered
and are now suffering, their lowest de-
preston. =.
There is one clause in the financia
plank of the St. Louis platform that | dc
not like. But even with this clause it is
better, cleaner and more decided for re-
turn to sound money than the platform
adopted at Cincinnati. A comparison Of
the record of the two Conventions will
tell the tale. The Republican Conven'
ton agreed upon a few glittering general
tiles in favor of specie basis, but dis
ayowing the work of its own Congress
voted down a proviso that thereturn to q
hard.money basis should not be delayed
beyond time fixed by the Resumption
Law. The Democratic Convention, on the
other hand, declares that law to be him
-derance to resumption, and demands the
repeal of that partof it (which fixes the lst
of January, 1879, as the time for re-
sumption. At the same time, however,
the Convention votes down motion for
the unconditional repeal of the law, and
by demanding the repeal Of merely one
clause, postponing clause, leaves in op-
Grafton the machinery created for and
the powers given to the Secretary of the
Treasury for the purpose OF ettecting re-
sumption. Now, let us have sucha Sec
retary of the Treasury as Mr.. Tilden will
appoint, and the currency problem will
be solved without trouble or difficulty on
or before the day on which we have
pledged ourselves to do what we should
have done long ago, and, let me add,
what we could have done long ago had
not the ruling party been both utterlyin-
capable and entirely unwilling to doso.
If the currency question has become a
danger and a threat, it is the fault of
those who for the last fifteen years have
been in undisturbed possession of the
whole power of Government without
using It for the fulfllment Of duty
which they now hypocritically recognize
by word OF mouth, while their deeds only
prove their dereliction.


THE EFFECTS OF THE PLATFORM.


am fully satisfied with the platform,
and | feel that by its adoption the Dem
ocratic party has attracted to itself all the
earnest men who have not heretofore, or
at least not lately, co.operated with it,
but who seriously mean what the plat
form demands, You see great many of
them in this hall tonight. Some of
them have been silent for years, but they |
will be heard from now, and their intiu-
snce will be felt all over the country.
They all realize that by boldly proclaim
ng what no political Convention had
Jared to say for nearly generation, the
men OF St. Louis have rendered a SER
vice which antilles them to the gratitude