USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. VI > Part 22
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"Section 8 .- We recommend that the prohibitory 10 per cent. tax on State bank issues be repealed.
"Section 9 .- Public office is a public trust. We reaffirm the declaration of the Democratic national convention of 1876 for the reform of the civil service, and we call for the honest enforcement of all laws regulating the same. The nomination of a President, as in the recent Republican convention, by delegations composed largely of his appointees holding office at his pleasure, is a scandal- ous satire upon free popular institutions and a startling illustration
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of the methods by which a President may gratify his ambition. We denounce a policy under which Federal office-holders usurp control of party conventions in the States, and we pledge the Democratic party to the reform of these and all other abuses which threaten indi- vidual liberty and local self-government.
"Section 10 .- The Democratic party is the only party that has ever given the country a foreign policy consistent and vigorous, com- pelling respect abroad and inspiring confidence at home. While avoiding entangling alliances, it has aimed to cultivate friendly rela- tions with other nations, and especially with our neighbors on the American continent whose destiny is closely linked with our own, and we view with alarm the tendency to a policy of irritation and bluster which is liable at any time to confront us with the alternative of humiliation or war. We favor the maintenance of a navy strong enough for all purposes of national defense, and to properly maintain the honor and dignity of the country abroad.
"Section 11 .- This country has always been the refuge of the oppressed from every land-exiles for conscience's sake ;- and in the spirit of the founders of our government we condemn the oppres- sion practiced by the Russian government upon its Lutheran and Jewish subjects, and we call upon our national government, in the interest of justice and humanity, by all just and proper means to use its prompt and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these cruel persecutions in the dominions of the Czar and to secure to the oppressed equal rights. We tender our profound and earnest sym- pathy to those lovers of freedom who are struggling for home rule and the great cause of local self-government in Ireland.
"Section 12 .- We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to pre- vent the United States from being used as the dumping-ground for the known criminals and professional paupers of Europe; and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immigra- tion or the importation of foreign labor under contract to degrade American labor and lessen its wages; but we condemn and denounce any and all attempts to restrict the immigration of the industrious and worthy of foreign lands.
"Section 13 .- This convention hereby renews the expression of
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appreciation of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of the Union in the war for its preservation, and we favor just and liberal pen- sions for all disabled Union soldiers, their widows and dependents ; but we demand that the work of the Pension office shall be done industriously, impartially, and honestly. We denounce the present administration of that office as incompetent, corrupt, disgraceful, and dishonest.
"Section 14 .- The Federal government should care for and im- prove the Mississippi River and other great waterways of the repub- lic, so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transporta- tion to tidewater. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient importance to demand the aid of the government, such aid should be extended with a definite plan of continuous work until permanent improvement is secured.
"Section 15 .- For purposes of national defense and the promo- tion of commerce between the States, we recognize the early con- struction of the Nicaragua canal, and its protection against foreign control, as of great importance to the United States.
"Section 16 .- Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition as a national undertaking of vast importance, in which the general gov- ernment has invited the cooperation of all the powers of the world, and appreciating the acceptance by many of such powers of the invitation so extended and the broad and liberal efforts being made by them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking, we are of the opinion that Congress should make such necessary financial pro- vision as shall be requisite to the maintenance of the national honor and public faith.
"Section 17 .- Popular education being the only safe basis of popular suffrage, we recommend to the several States most liberal appropriations for the public schools. Free common schools are the nursery of good government, and they have always received the fostering care of the Democratic party, which favors every means of increasing intelligence. Freedom of education being an essential of civil and religious liberty, as well as a necessity for the develop- ment of intelligence, must not be interfered with under any pretext whatever. We are opposed to State interference with parental
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rights and rights of conscience in the education of children, as an infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government.
"Section 18 .- We approve the action of the present House of Representatives in passing bills for admitting into the Union as States the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, and we favor the early admission of all the Territories having the necessary population and resources to entitle them to statehood; and while they remain Territories we hold that the officials appointed to administer the government of any Territory, together with the District of Colum- bia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of the Territory or Dis- trict in which their duties are to be performed. The Democratic party believes in home rule and the control of their own affairs by the people of the vicinage.
"Section 19 .- We favor legislation by Congress and State Legis- latures to protect the lives and limbs of railway employes and those of other hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the in- activity of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican Senate, for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protective to this class of wage-workers.
"Section 20 .- We are in favor of the enactment by the States of laws for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing contract convict labor, and for prohibiting the employment in facto- ries of children under fifteen years of age.
"Section 21 .- We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an inter- ference with the individual rights of the citizen.
"Section 22 .- Upon this statement of principles and policies the Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the American people. It asks a change of administration and a change of party, in order that there may be a change of system and a change of methods, thus assuring the maintenance unimpaired of institutions under which the republic has grown great and powerful."
As originally reported to the convention by the com- mittee on resolutions, the platform contained only a
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moderate declaration on the tariff question, modelled upon the expression in the Democratic platform of 1884 and making no reference to the constitutional subject in connection with the levying of duties. By a vote of 564 to 342 the convention rejected this original plank and substituted for it the first paragraph of Section 3 above.
People's Party
This organization was generally known as the Popu- list party. Convention held in Omaha, July 2-5; tem- porary chairman, C. H. Ellington, of Georgia ; perma- nent chairman, H. L. Loucks, of South Dakota.
Nominations :- For President, James B. Weaver, of Iowa; for Vice-President, James G. Field, of Vir- ginia.
Platform :
"Assembled upon the one hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the People's party of America, in their first national convention, invoking upon their action the blessing of Almighty God, puts forth, in the name and on behalf of the people of this country, the following preamble and declaration of princi- ples :
"The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling-places to prevent uni- versal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsi- dized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land con- centrating in the hands of the capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauper-
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ized labor beats down their wages, a hireling standing army, un- recognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are bodily stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes-tramps and millionaires.
"The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich bondholders; a vast public debt payable in legal-tender currency has been funded into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions to the burdens of the people.
"Silver, which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of his- tory, has been demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms of property as well as human labor, and the supply of currency is purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprises, and enslave industry. A vast con- spiracy against mankind has been organized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world. If not met and over- thrown at once, it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruc- tion of civilization, or the establishment of an absolute despotism.
"We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder, while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering people. We charge that the controlling influences dominating both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful conditions to develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them. Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They have agreed together to ignore, in the coming campaign, every issue but one. They pro- pose to drown the outcries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver, and the oppressions of the usurers may all be lost sight of. They pro- pose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and children on the altar of Mam- mon; to destroy the multitude in order to secure corruption funds from the millionaires.
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"Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the nation, and filled with the spirit of the grand general chief who established our independence, we seek to restore the government of the republic to the hands of 'the plain people,' with whose class it originated. We assert our purposes to be identical with the purposes of the national Constitution, 'to form a more perfect union and establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, pro- mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for our- selves and our posterity.'
"We declare that this republic can only endure as a free govern- ment while built upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the nation; that it cannot be pinned together by bayonets; that the Civil War is over and that every passion and resentment which grew out of it must die with it, and that we must be in fact, as we are in name, one united brotherhood.
"Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which there is no precedent in the history of the world. Our annual agri- cultural productions amount to billions of dollars in value, which must within a few weeks or months be exchanged for billions of dol- lars of commodities consumed in their production; the existing cur- rency supply is wholly inadequate to make this exchange. The results are falling prices, the formation of combines and rings, the impoverishment of the producing class. We pledge ourselves that, if given power, we will labor to correct these evils by wise and reasonable legislation in accordance with the terms of our platform.
"We believe that the powers of government-in other words, of the people-should be expanded (as in the case of the postal serv- ice) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, to the end that oppres- sion, injustice, and poverty shall eventually cease in the land.
"While our sympathies as a party of reform are naturally upon the side of every proposition which will tend to make men intelli- gent, virtuous, and temperate, we nevertheless regard these questions, important as they are, as secondary to the great issues now pressing for solution, and upon which not only our individual prosperity but the very existence of free institutions depend; and we ask all men to
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first help us to determine whether we are to have a republic to ad- minister before we differ as to the conditions upon which it is to be administered, believing that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease to move forward until every wrong is righted and equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of this country. We declare, therefore :-
"1. That the union of the labor forces of the United States this day consummated shall be permanent and perpetual: may its spirit enter into all hearts for the salvation of the republic and the uplifting of mankind !
"2. Wealth belongs to him who creates it, and every dollar taken from industry without an equivalent is robbery. 'If any will not work, neither shall he eat.' The interests of rural and civic labor are the same; their enemies are identical.
"3. We believe that the time has come when the railroad cor- porations will either own the people or the people must own the railroads; and should the government enter upon the work of owning and managing all railroads, we should favor an amendment to the Constitution by which all persons engaged in the government service shall be placed under a civil service regulation of the most rigid character so as to prevent the increase of the power of the national administration by the use of such additional government employes.
"We demand a national currency safe, sound, and flexible, issued by the general government only, a full legal tender for all debts public and private, and that without the use of banking corporations; a just, equitable, and efficient means of distribution direct to the people, at a tax not to exceed 2 per cent. per annum, to be provided as set forth in the sub-treasury plan of the Farmers' Alliance, or a better system; also, by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements.
"We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of sixteen to one.
"We demand that the amount of circulating medium be speedily increased to not less than $50 per capita.
"We demand a graduated income tax.
"We believe that the money of the country should be kept as
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much as possible in the hands of the people; and hence we demand that all State and national issues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government economically and honestly administered.
"We demand that postal savings banks be established by the gov- ernment for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and to facili- tate exchange.
"Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, the government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of the people.
"The telegraph and telephone, like the post office system, being a necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and oper- ated by the government in the interest of the people.
"The land, including all the natural sources of wealth, is the heritage of the people and should not be monopolized for speculative purposes, and alien ownership of land should be prohibited. All land now held by railroads and other corporations in excess of their actual needs, and all lands now owned by aliens, should be reclaimed by the government and held for actual settlers only.
"Resolved, 1. That we demand a free ballot and a fair count in all elections, and pledge ourselves to secure it to every legal voter, without Federal intervention, through the adoption by the States of the unperverted Australian secret ballot system.
"Resolved, 2. That the revenue derived from a graduated in- come tax should be applied to the reduction of the burdens of taxa- tion now levied upon the domestic industries of this country.
"Resolved, 3. That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pen- sions to ex-Union soldiers and sailors.
"Resolved, 4. That we condemn the fallacy of protecting Ameri- can labor under the present system, which opens our ports to the pauper and criminal classes of the world and crowds out our wage- earners, and we denounce the present ineffective law against contract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable immigra- tion.
"Resolved, 5. That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor, and demand a
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rigid enforcement of the existing Eight-hour law on government work and ask that a penalty clause be added to the said law.
"Resolved, 6. That we regard the maintenance of a large stand- ing army of mercenaries, known as the Pinkerton system, as a menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition; and we condemn the recent invasion of the Territory of Wyoming by the hired assassins of plutocracy assisted by Federal officers.
"Resolved, 7. That we commend to the thoughtful consideration of the people and the reform press the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum.
"Resolved, 8. That we favor a constitutional provision limiting the offices of President and Vice-President to one term, and providing for the election of Senators of the United States by a direct vote of the people.
"Resolved, 9. That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any private corporation for any purpose."
Other Parties
Prohibition Party .- Convention held in Cincinnati, June 29, 1892. For President, John Bidwell, of Cali- fornia; for Vice-President, J. B. Cranfill, of Texas.
Socialist Labor Party .- Convention held in New York, August 28, 1892. For President, Simon Wing, of Massachusetts ; for Vice-President, Charles H. Match- ett, of New York.
The Election
Electoral vote for President and Vice-President :
Grover Cleveland and Adlai E. Stevenson, Democrats :- Ala- bama, 11; Arkansas, 8; California, 8; Connecticut, 6; Delaware, 3; Florida, 4; Georgia, 13; Illinois, 24; Indiana, 15; Kentucky, 13; Louisiana, 8; Maryland, 8; Michigan, 5; Mississippi, 9; Missouri, 17; New Jersey, 10; New York, 36; North Carolina, 11; North
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Dakota, 1; Ohio, 1; South Carolina, 9; Tennessee, 12; Texas, 15; Virginia, 12; West Virginia, 6; Wisconsin, 12. Total, 277. Elected.
Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, Republicans :- Califor- nia, 1; Iowa, 13; Maine, 6; Massachusetts, 15; Michigan, 9; Min- nesota, 9; Montana, 3; Nebraska, 8; New Hampshire, 4; North Dakota, 1; Ohio, 22; Oregon, 3; Pennsylvania, 32; Rhode Island, 4; South Dakota, 4; Vermont, 4; Washington, 4; Wyoming, 3. Total, 145.
James B. Weaver and James G. Field, Populists :- Colorado, 4; Idaho, 3; Kansas, 10; Nevada, 3; North Dakota, 1; Oregon, 1. Total, 22.
Popular vote :
Cleveland, 5,554,414; Harrison, 5,190,802; Weaver, 1,027,329; Bidwell, 271,028; Wing, 21,164.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president; born at Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822; lawyer; served in war of the rebellion; member of congress, 1865-67; governor of Ohio, 1867-76; nomi- nated for president in 1876 and declared elected over Samuel J. Tilden by an electoral commission; died January 17, 1893, Fremont, Ohio.
1896 Democratic Party
Convention held in Chicago, July 7-11, 1896. The supporters of free silver were largely in the majority and enforced their will at every stage of the proceed- ings. For permanent chairman the national com- mittee nominated David B. Hill, of New York, an opponent of free silver ; but by a vote of 556 to 349 the convention rejected the nomination and chose John W. Daniel, of Virginia. Stephen M. White, of Califor- nia, was permanent chairman.
On the first ballot for President Richard P. Bland, of Missouri, received 235 votes; William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, 137; Robert E. Pattison, of Pennsylvania, 97; Joseph C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky, 82; Horace Boies, of Iowa, 67; John R. McLean, of Ohio, 54; Claude Matthews, of Indiana, 37; Benjamin R. Till- man, of South Carolina, 17; Sylvester Pennoyer, of Or- egon, 8; Henry M. Teller, of Colorado, 8; Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, 6; William E. Russell, of Massa- chusetts, 2; James E. Campbell, of Ohio, 1; David B. Hill, of New York, 1 ; and 178 delegates were absent or refrained from voting. Bryan gained on each of the next three ballots, and was nominated on the fifth, re-
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ceiving (after changes) 652 votes to 116 for five others, with 162 delegates not voting.
Five ballots were taken for Vice-President, Arthur Sewall, of Maine, being nominated on the fifth ballot by 568 votes against 111 for six others; 251 delegates did not vote.
Platform :
"We, the Democrats of the United States, in national convention assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential princi- ples 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 con- science, the preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens before the law, and the faithful observance of constitutional limita- tions. 1
"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 repub- lics. 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 confin- ing 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 citi- zen the rights of civil and religious liberty. The Democratic party has always been the exponent of political liberty and religious free- dom, 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 Consti- tution named 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 monetary unit and
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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 com- modities 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 adop- tion 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.
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