Part 42

We denounce the present Democratic tariff as sectional, injurious to the public credit, and destructive to business enterprise. We demand such an equitable tariff on foreign imports which come into competition with American products as will not only furnish adequate revenue for the necessary expenses of the Government, but will protect American labor from degradation to the wage level of other lands. We are not pledged to any particular schedules. The question of rates is a practical question, to be governed by the conditions of the time and of production; the ruling and uncompromising principle is the protection and development of American labor and industry. The country demands a right settlement, and then it wants rest.

We believe the repeal of the reciprocity arrangements negotiated by the last Republican administration was a national calamity, and we demand their renewal and extension on such terms as will equalize our trade with other nations, remove the restrictions which now obstruct the sale of American products in the ports of other countries, and secure enlarged markets for the products of our farms, forests, and factories.

Protection and reciprocity are twin measures of Republican policy, and go hand in hand. Democratic rule has recklessly struck down both, and both must be re-established. Protection for what we produce; free admission for the necessaries of life which we do not produce; reciprocity agreements of mutual interests which gain open markets for us in return for our open market to others. Protection builds up domestic industry and trade, and secures our own market for ourselves; reciprocity builds up foreign trade and finds an outlet for our surplus.

We condemn the present administration for not keeping faith with the sugar-producers of this country. The Republican party favors such protection as will lead to the production on American soil of all the sugar which the American people use, and for which they pay other countries more than $100,000,000 annually.

To all our products—to those of the mine and the fields, as well as those of the shop and factory; to hemp, to wool, the product of the great industry of sheep husbandry, as well as to the finished woollens of the mills—we promise the most ample protection.

We favor restoring the early American policy of discriminating duties for the upbuilding of our merchant marine and the protection of our shipping in the foreign carrying trade, so that American ships—the product of American labor, employed in American shipyards, sailing under the Stars and Stripes, and manned, officered, and owned by Americans—may regain the carrying of our foreign commerce.

The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of specie payments in 1879; since then every dollar has been as good as gold.

We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. We are, therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved. All our silver and paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably the obligations of the United States and all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the earth.

The veterans of the Union armies deserve and should receive fair treatment and generous recognition. Whenever practicable, they should be given the preference in the matter of employment, and they are entitled to the enactment of such laws as are best calculated to secure the fulfilment of the pledges made to them in the dark days of the country’s peril. We denounce the practice in the Pension Bureau, so recklessly and unjustly carried on by the present administration, of reducing pensions and arbitrarily dropping names from the rolls, as deserving the severest condemnation of the American people.

Our foreign policy should be at all times firm, vigorous, and dignified, and all our interests in the Western Hemisphere carefully watched and guarded. The Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the United States, and no foreign power should be permitted to interfere with them; the Nicaragua Canal should be built, owned, and operated by the United States; and by the purchase of the Danish islands we should secure a proper and much-needed naval station in the West Indies.

The massacres in Armenia have aroused the deep sympathy and just indignation of the American people, and we believe that the United States should exercise all the influence it can properly exert to bring these atrocities to an end. In Turkey, American residents have been exposed to the gravest dangers and American property destroyed. There and everywhere American citizens and American property must be absolutely protected at all hazards and at any cost.

We reassert the Monroe Doctrine in its full extent, and we re-affirm the right of the United States to give the doctrine effect by responding to the appeal of any American State for friendly intervention in case of European encroachment. We have not interfered and shall not interfere with the existing possessions of any European power in this hemisphere, but those possessions must not on any pretext be extended. We hopefully look forward to the eventual withdrawal of the European powers from this hemisphere, and to the ultimate union of all English-speaking parts of the continent by the free consent of its inhabitants.

From the hour of achieving their own independence, the people of the United States have regarded with sympathy the struggles of other American people to free themselves from European domination. We watch with deep and abiding interest the heroic battle of the Cuban patriots against cruelty and oppression, and our best hopes go out for the full success of their determined contest for liberty.

The Government of Spain, having lost control of Cuba, and being unable to protect the property or lives of resident American citizens, or to comply with its treaty obligations, we believe that the Government of the United States should actively use its influence and good offices to restore peace and give independence to the island.

The peace and security of the Republic and the maintenance of its rightful influence among the nations of the earth demand a naval power commensurate with its position and responsibility. We therefore favor the continued enlargement of the navy and a complete system of harbor and seacoast defences.

For the protection of the quality of our American citizenship and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal competition of low-priced labor, we demand that the immigration laws be thoroughly enforced, and so extended as to exclude from entrance to the United States those who can neither read nor write.

The civil service law was placed on the statute book by the Republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew our repeated declarations that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended wherever practicable.

We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast.

We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the uncivilized and barbarous practice, well known as lynching, or killing of human beings suspected or charged with crime, without process of law.

We favor the creation of a national Board of Arbitration to settle and adjust differences which may arise between employers and employés engaged in interstate commerce.

We believe in an immediate return to the free-homestead policy of the Republican party, and urge the passage by Congress of a satisfactory free-homestead measure such as has already passed the House, and is now pending in the Senate.

We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the earliest practicable date, having due regard to the interests of the people of the Territories and of the United States. All the Federal officers appointed for the Territories should be selected from _bona fide_ residents thereof, and the right of self-government should be accorded as far as practicable.

We believe the citizens of Alaska should have representation in the Congress of the United States, to the end that needful legislation may be intelligently enacted.

We sympathise with all wise and legitimate efforts to lessen and prevent the evils of intemperance and promote morality.

The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of women. Protection of American industries includes equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing the country from Democratic and Populist mismanagement and misrule.

Such are the principles and policies of the Republican party. By these principles we will abide and these policies we will put into execution. We ask for them the considerate judgment of the American people. Confident alike in the history of our great party and in the justice of our cause, we present our platform and our candidates in the full assurance that the election will bring victory to the Republican party and prosperity to the people of the United States.

The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago on the 7th of July, and the emphatic deliverance of the Republican convention in favor of the gold standard greatly strengthened the free-silver Democratic element, but the sound-money Democrats had control of the national committee, with William F. Harrity, chairman, whose duty it was to call the convention to order. Earnest efforts were made to harmonize the party in the organization, but the Free Silverites were aggressive from the start, and when the national committee named Senator Hill, of New York, as temporary chairman, a bitter debate was precipitated, and Senator Daniel, of Virginia, an out-and-out Free Silverite, was elected by 556 to 349. On the second day the report of the committee on credentials strengthened the free-silver wing by the admission of the Bryan delegation from Nebraska, and four sound-money Democrats were rejected from Michigan, and their places given to free-silver delegates. Senator White, of California, was made permanent president. The platform was adopted, as is usual, before the nomination for President, and it was in the protracted and intensely bitter debate of the money question that brought out the eloquent and dramatic address of William J. Bryan, that carried him into the Democratic nomination with a tidal wave.

A sound financial plank was offered by the minority, but rejected by 626 to 303. Another resolution, declaring, “We commend the honesty, economy, courage, and fidelity of the present Democratic (Cleveland) administration,” was greeted with a yell of derision and rejected by 564 to 357. Senator Hill offered two amendments to temper the repudiation plank, but they were rejected without a division. The platform was then adopted by 628 to 301. The sound-money Democrats found themselves in a helpless and hopeless minority. Many of them desired to withdraw from the convention, but the more considerate refused to do so, and all of them remained, 178 of them refusing to vote on the 1st ballot for President. Chairman Harrity, of the national committee, with his delegation participated in all the ballots and steadily voted for ex-Governor Pattison. Five ballots were had for President, with Bryan starting at 119 to 235 for Bland, of Missouri, who was the father of the silver dollar, and should have been accepted as the logical candidate of the free-silver party, but Bryan’s “crown of thorns” had captured the convention, and he won an easy victory. The following table gives the five ballots for President in detail:

═══════════════════════════════════╤══════╤═══════╤══════╤═══════╤══════ │First.│Second.│Third.│Fourth.│Fifth. ───────────────────────────────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼───────┼────── Whole number of votes │ 752 │ 768 │ 768 │ 769 │ 768 Necessary for a choice (two─thirds)│ 502 │ 512 │ 512 │ 513 │ 512 William J. Bryan, Nebraska │ 119 │ 190 │ 219 │ 280 │ 500 Richard P. Bland, Missouri │ 235 │ 283 │ 291 │ 241 │ 106 Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania │ 95 │ 100 │ 97 │ 97 │ 95 Horace Boies, Iowa │ 85 │ 41 │ 36 │ 33 │ 26 Joseph S. C. Blackburn, Kentucky │ 83 │ 41 │ 27 │ 27 │ ―― John R. McLean, Ohio │ 54 │ 53 │ 54 │ 46 │ ―― Claude Matthews, Indiana │ 37 │ 33 │ 34 │ 36 │ 31 Benjamin R. Tillman, South Carolina│ 17 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Sylvester Pennoyer, Oregon │ 8 │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Henry M. Teller, Colorado │ 8 │ 8 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Adlai E. Stevenson, Illinois │ 7 │ 10 │ 9 │ 8 │ 8 William E. Russell, Massachusetts │ 2 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― James E. Campbell, Ohio │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― David B. Hill, New York │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 David Turpie, Indiana │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ 1 Not voting │ 178 │ 162 │ 162 │ 162 │ 162 ═══════════════════════════════════╧══════╧═══════╧══════╧═══════╧══════

On the 5th ballot Bryan was only 12 votes short of the necessary two-thirds, and immediately after the roll-call was completed, and before the vote had been given, 78 delegates changed their votes from other candidates to Bryan, giving him the nomination. The convention received the result with the wildest cheers for Bryan, mingled with some hisses and general sullen silence among the sound-money Democrats.

There was a spirited contest for the Vice-Presidency, in which John R. McLean, of Ohio, was well to the front, and led all others on the 4th ballot, but on the 5th a whirl was made to Sewall, of Maine, giving him the nomination. The following table gives the ballot in detail:

═══════════════════════════════════╤══════╤═══════╤══════╤═══════╤═══════ │First.│Second.│Third.│Fourth.│ Fifth. ───────────────────────────────────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼───────┼─────── Whole number of votes │ 670 │ 675 │ 675 │ 677 │ 679 Necessary for a choice (two─thirds)│ 447 │ 450 │ 450 │ 452 │ 453 Arthur Sewall, Maine │ 100 │ 37 │ 97 │ 261 │ 568 Joseph C. Sibley, Pennsylvania │ 163 │ 113 │ 50 │ ―― │ ―― John R. McLean, Ohio │ 111 │ 158 │ 210 │ 296 │ 32 George F. Williams, Massachusetts │ 76 │ 16 │ 15 │ 9 │ 9 Richard P. Bland, Missouri │ 62 │ 294 │ 255 │ ―― │ ―― Walter A. Clark, North Carolina │ 50 │ 22 │ 22 │ 46 │ 22 John R. Williams, Illinois │ 22 │ 13 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― William F. Harrity, Pennsylvania │ 21 │ 21 │ 19 │ 11 │ 11 Horace Boies, Iowa │ 20 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Joseph S. C. Blackburn, Kentucky │ 20 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― John W. Daniel, Virginia │ 11 │ 1 │ 6 │ 54 │ 36 James H. Lewis, Washington │ 11 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Robert E. Pattison, Pennsylvania │ ―― │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ 1 Henry M. Teller, Colorado │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Stephen M. White, California │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― George W. Fithian, Illinois │ 1 │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― │ ―― Not voting │ 260 │ 255 │ 255 │ 253 │ 251 ═══════════════════════════════════╧══════╧═══════╧══════╧═══════╧═══════

The following is the full text of the Democratic platform:

We, the Democrats of the United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential principles of justice and liberty, upon which our institutions are founded, and which the Democratic party has advocated from Jefferson’s time to our own—freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, the preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens before the law, and the faithful observance of constitutional limitations.

During all these years the Democratic party has resisted the tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental power, and steadfastly maintained the integrity of the dual scheme of government established by the founders of this republic of republics. Under its guidance and teachings, the great principle of local self-government has found its best expression in the maintenance of the rights of the States, and in its assertion of the necessity of confining the General Government to the exercise of the powers granted by the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States guarantees to every citizen the rights of civil and religious liberty. The Democratic party has always been the exponent of political liberty and religious freedom, and it renews its obligations and reaffirms its devotion to these fundamental principles of the Constitution.

Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the Federal Constitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by Congress under the Constitution made the silver dollar the money unit, and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver dollar unit.

We declare that the act of 1873 demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy increase in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and private; the enrichment of the money-lending class at home and abroad; the prostration of industry and impoverishment of the people.

We are unalterably opposed to monometallism, which has locked fast the prosperity of an industrial people in the paralysis of hard times. Gold monometallism is a British policy, and its adoption has brought other nations into financial servitude to London. It is not only un-American, but anti-American, and it can be fastened on the United States only by the stifling of that spirit and love of liberty which proclaimed our political independence in 1776 and won it in the war of the Revolution.

We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation. We demand that the standard silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally with gold, for all debts, public and private, and we favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind of legal tender money by private contract.

We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to the holders of the obligations of the United States the option reserved by law to the Government of redeeming such obligations in either silver coin or gold coin.

We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing bonds of the United States in time of peace, and condemn the trafficking with banking syndicates, which, in exchange for bonds and at enormous profit to themselves, supply the Federal Treasury with gold to maintain the policy of gold monometallism.

Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and President Jackson declared that this power could not be delegated to corporations or individuals. We therefore denounce the issuance of notes intended to circulate as money by national banks as in derogation of the Constitution, and we demand that all paper which is made a legal tender for public and private debts, or which is receivable for duties to the United States, shall be issued by the Government of the United States and shall be redeemable in coin.

We hold that tariff duties should be levied for purposes of revenue, such duties to be so adjusted as to operate equally throughout the country, and not discriminate between class or section, and that taxation should be limited by the needs of the Government honestly and economically administered.

We denounce as disturbing to business the Republican threat to restore the McKinley law, which has twice been condemned by the people in national elections, and which, enacted under the false plea of protection to home industry, proved a prolific breeder of trusts and monopolies, enriched the few at the expense of the many, restricted trade, and deprived the producers of the great American staples of access to their natural markets.

Until the money question is settled we are opposed to any agitation for further changes in our tariff laws, except such as are necessary to meet the deficit in revenue caused by the adverse decision of the Supreme Court on the income tax. But for this decision by the Supreme Court, there would be no deficit in the revenue under the law passed by a Democratic Congress in strict pursuance of the uniform decisions of that court for nearly one hundred years, that court having in that decision sustained constitutional objections to its enactment which had previously been overruled by the ablest judges who have ever sat on that bench. We declare that it is the duty of Congress to use all the constitutional power which remains after that decision, or which may come from its reversal by the court as it may hereafter be constituted, so that the burdens of taxation may be equally and impartially laid, to the end that wealth may bear its due proportion of the expenses of the Government.

We hold that the most efficient way of protecting American labor is to prevent the importation of foreign pauper labor to compete with it in the home market, and that the value of the home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly reduced by a vicious monetary system which depresses the prices of their products below the cost of production, and thus deprives them of the means of purchasing the products of our home manufactories; and, as labor creates the wealth of the country, we demand the passage of such laws as may be necessary to protect it in all its rights.

We are in favor of the arbitration of differences between employers engaged in interstate commerce and their employés, and recommend such legislation as is necessary to carry out this principle.

The absorption of wealth by the few, the consolidation of our leading railroad systems, and the formation of trusts and pools require a stricter control by the Federal Government of those arteries of commerce. We demand the enlargement of the powers of the interstate commerce commission, and such restrictions and guarantees in the control of railroads as will protect the people from robbery and oppression.

We denounce the profligate waste of the money wrung from the people by oppressive taxation and the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Congresses, which have kept taxes high, while the labor that pays them is unemployed and the products of the people’s toil are depressed in price till they no longer repay the cost of production. We demand a return to that simplicity and economy which befits a democratic government and a reduction in the number of useless offices, the salaries of which drain the substance of the people.

We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in local affairs as a violation of the Constitution of the United States and a crime against free institutions, and we especially object to government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which Federal judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges, and executioners; and we approve the bill passed at the last session of the United States Senate, and now pending in the House of Representatives, relative to contempts in Federal courts and providing for trials by jury in certain cases of contempt.