USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. VI > Part 23
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"We demand the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, 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 pre- vent 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 an enormous profit to themselves, supply the Federal treasury with gold to main- tain 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
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of notes intended to circulate as money by national banks as in dero- gation of the Constitution, and we demand that all paper which is made a legal tender for public and private debts, or which is receiv- able for dues 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 through- out 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 pro- ducers of the great American staples of access to their natural markets.
"Until the money question is settled we are opposed to any agita- tion for further changes in our tariff laws, except such as are neces- sary 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 uni- form 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 expense 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 artisians is greatly reduced by a vicious mone-
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tary system which depresses the price 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 em- ployers engaged in interstate commerce and their employes, 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 re- quire 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 restriction and guaran- tees in the control of railroads as will protect the people from rob- bery 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 gov- ernment by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppres- sion by which Federal Judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges, and execu- tioners; and we approve the bill passed at the last session of the United States Senate, and now pending in the House of Representa- tives, relative to contempts in Federal courts and providing for trials by jury in certain cases of contempt.
"No discrimination should be indulged in by the government of the United States in favor of any of its debtors. We approve of the refusal of the Fifty-third Congress to pass the Pacific Railroad Fund-
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ing bill, and denounce the effort of the present Republican Congress to enact a similar measure.
"Recognizing the just claims of deserving Union soldiers, we heartily endorse the rule of the present Commissioner of Pensions that no names shall be arbitrarily dropped from the pension roll; and the fact of enlistment and service should be deemed conclusive evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.
"We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mexico, Ari- zona, and Oklahoma into the Union as States; 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 gov- ernment of any Territory, together with the District of Columbia and Alaska, should be bona fide residents of the Territory or District in which their duties are to be performed. The Democratic party be- lieves in home rule, and that all public lands of the United States should be appropriated to the establishment of free homes for Ameri- can citizens.
"We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a Dele- gate in Congress, and that the general Land and Timber laws of the United States be extended to said Territory.
"The Monroe doctrine, as originally declared and as interpreted by succeeding Presidents, is a permanent part of the foreign policy of the United States and must at all times be maintained.
"We extend our sympathy to the people of Cuba in their heroic struggle for liberty and independence.
We are opposed to life tenure in the public service, except as pro- vided in the Constitution. We favor appointments based on merit, fixed terms of office, and such an administration of the Civil Service laws as will afford equal opportunities to all citizens of ascertained fitness.
"We declare it to be the unwritten law of this republic, estab- lished by custom and usage of one hundred years, and sanctioned by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded and have maintained our government, that no man should be eligible for a third term of the Presidential office.
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"The Federal government should care for and improve the Mis- sissippi River and other great waterways of the republic, so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to tide- water. When any waterway of the republic is of sufficient impor- tance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be extended upon a definite plan of continuous work until permanent improve- ment is secured.
"Confiding in the justice of our cause and the necessity of its success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration of princi- ples and purposes to the considerate judgment of the American people. We invite the support of all citizens who approve them and who desire to have them made effective through legislation for the relief of the people and the restoration of the country's prosperity."
This platform was the majority report of the com- mittee on resolutions. A minority report, signed by sixteen members of the committee, was presented to the convention by David B. Hill; it embodied two resolu- tions, proposing first, a substitute for the financial plank, and second, an endorsement of the Cleveland administration. These resolutions were :
1. "We declare our belief that the experiment on the part of the United States alone of free silver coinage and a change of the exist- ing standard of value independently of the action of other great nations, would not only imperil our finances but would retard or en- tirely prevent the establishment of international bimetallism, to which the efforts of the government should be steadily directed. It would place this country at once upon a silver basis, impair contracts, dis- turb business, diminish the purchasing power of the wages of labor, and inflict irreparable evil upon the nation's commerce and industry.
"Until international cooperation among leading nations for the coinage of silver can be secured, we favor the rigid maintenance of the existing gold standard as essential to the preservation of our na- tional credit, the redemption of our public pledges, and the keeping inviolate of our country's honor. We insist that all our paper and
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silver currency shall be kept absolutely at a parity with gold. The Democratic party is the party of hard money, and is opposed to legal- tender paper money as a part of our permanent financial system; and we therefore favor the gradual retirement and cancellation of all United States notes and treasury notes under such legislative pro- visions as will prevent undue contraction. We demand that the national credit shall be resolutely maintained at all times and under all circumstances."
2. "We commend the honesty, economy, courage, and fidelity of the present Democratic national administration."
The substitute for the financial plank was debated on the floor of the convention in speeches of great ability and warmth-one of which was Mr. Bryan's famous deliverance against the financial interests that termi- nated with the words: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." The substitute was rejected by 626 votes against 303; not voting, 1.
The vote on the proposed commendation of Cleve- land's administration stood: No, 564; yes, 357; not voting, 9.
Republican Party
Convention held in St. Louis, June 16-18, 1896; tem- porary chairman, Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana; permanent chairman, John M. Thurston, of Nebraska.
William McKinley was nominated for President on the first ballot. The vote stood: Mckinley, 6611/2; Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, 841/2; Matthew S. Quay, of Pennsylvania, 611/2 ; Levi P. Morton, of New York,
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58; William B. Allison, of Iowa, 351/2; J. Donald Cameron, of Pennsylvania, 1; not voting, 8.
The Vice-Presidential nominee was Garrett A. Ho- bart, of New Jersey, who received on the first ballot 5331/2 votes to 3591/2 for eight others.
Platform :
"The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their repre- sentatives in national convention, appealing for the popular and his- torical justification of their claims to the matchless achievements of thirty years of Republican rule, earnestly and confidently address themselves to the awakened intelligence, experience. and conscience of their countrymen in the following declaration of facts and princi- ples.
"For the first time since the Civil War the American people have witnessed the calamitous consequences of full and unrestricted Demo- cratic control of the government. It has been a record of unparal- leled incapacity, dishonor, and disaster. In administrative manage- ment it has ruthlessly sacrificed indispensable revenue, entailed an unceasing deficit, eked out ordinary current expenses with borrowed money, piled up the public debt by $262,000,000 in time of peace, forced an adverse balance of trade, kept a perpetual menace hanging over the redemption fund, pawned American credit to alien syndicates, and reversed all the measures and results of successful Republican rule. In the broad effect of its policy it has precipitated panic, blighted industry and trade with prolonged depression, closed factories, re- duced work and wages, halted enterprise, and crippled American pro- duction while stimulating foreign, !production for the American market. Every consideration of public safety and individual interest demands that the government shall be wrested from the hands of those who have shown themselves incapable of conducting it without disaster at home and dishonor abroad, and that it shall be restored to the party which for thirty years administered it with unequaled success and prosperity. And in this connection we heartily endorse the wisdom, the patriotism, and the success of the administration of President Harrison.
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"We renew and emphasize our allegiance to the policy of protec- tion as the bulwark of American industrial independence and the foundation of American development and prosperity. This true American policy taxes foreign products and encourages home indus- tries ; it puts the burden of revenue on foreign goods; it secures the American market for the American producers; it upholds the Ameri- can standard of wages for the American workingman; it puts the factory by the side of the farm, and makes the American farmer less dependent on foreign demand and prices; it diffuses general thrift, and founds the strength of all on the strength of each. In its rea- sonable application it is just, fair, and impartial; equally opposed to foreign control and domestic monopoly, to sectional discrimination and individual favoritism.
"We denounce the present Democratic tariff as sectional, inju- rious 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 ade- quate 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 ques- tion of rates is a practical question to be governed by the conditions of time and of production ; the ruling and uncompromising principle is the protection and development of American labor and industries. 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 reestablished. Protection for what we produce; free admission for the necessaries of life which we do not produce; reciprocal agreements of mutual interest which gain open
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markets for us in return for our open markets for 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 to those of the shop and the factory; to hemp; to wool, the product of the great industry of sheep husbandry, as well as to the most finished woolens of the mill-we promise the most ample protection.
"We favor restoring the 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 agree- ment with the leading commercial nations of the earth, which we pledge ourselves to promote ; and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be maintained. 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.
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"The veterans of the Union armies deserve and should receive fair treatment and generous recognition. Whenever practicable they
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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 fulfillment 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 adminis- tration, of reducing pensions and arbitrarily dropping names from the roll, 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 should be carefully watched and guarded. The Hawaiian Islands should be controlled by the United States, and no foreign power should be per- mitted 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 de- stroyed. There, as everywhere else, American citizens and Ameri- can 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 interven- tion 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 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
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other American peoples to free themselves from European domina- tion. 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 there- fore favor the continued enlargement of the navy and a complete sys- tem of harbor and seacoast defenses.
"For the protection of the equality 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 heartily 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, and the killing of human beings suspected or charged with crime without process of law. i 1 1 1
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"We favor the creation of a national Board of Arbitration to settle and adjust differences which may arise between employers and employed 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 the sat-
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isfactory free-homestead measure which has already passed the House and is now pending in the Senate.
"We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the ear- liest practicable date, having due regard to the interest 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 them 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 sympathize fully with all legitimate efforts to lessen and pre- vent the evils of intemperance and promote morality. The Republi- can party is mindful of the rights and interests of women, and be- lieves that they should be accorded 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 cooperation in rescuing the country from Democratic and Populistic mismanage- ment and misrule.
"Such are the principles and policy of the Republican party. By these principles we will abide, and these policies we will put into execution. We rely on the faithful and 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 following substitute for the financial plank was offered by a minority of the committee on resolutions, headed by Henry M. Teller, of Colorado:
"The Republican party authorizes the use of both gold and silver as equal standard money, and pledges its power to secure the free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at our mints at the ratio of sixteen parts of silver to one of gold."
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