Page images
PDF
EPUB

construction as to make its language unsatisfactory during the intervening time and dangerous, if continued in the future, but of the intent contained within that language there has never been a doubt. It is the rightful province of this convention to revise the party tenets and to announce anew the party purpose. The majority of this convention in the exercise of such authority has this day made official enunciation of Republican law and gospel. With much of the platform we agree, believing that in many essential particulars it compasses the needs of humanity, affirms the maintenance of right and proposes the just remedy for wrong. But it declares one elemental principal, not only in direct contravention of the expression of party faith in 1892, but in radical opposition to our solemn conviction. We recognize that in all matters of mere methods but just and helpful that the minority shall yield to the will of the majority, lest we have chaos in parties and in government. But as no pronouncement by majorities can change opposing knowledge or belief sincerely entertained, so it cannot oblige minorities to abandon or disavow their principles. Assuredly as it is requisite for peace and progress that minorities shall yield to majorities in matters of mere methods, just so surely is it necessary for the same peace and porgress that minorities shall not yield in matters of fundamental truth.

The Republican platform of 1892 affirmed that the American people from tradition and interest favored bimetallism and demanded the use of both gold and silver as standard money. This was accepted as a declaration in behalf of the principle upon which rests the interests of every citizen and the safety of the United States. In such terms the platform was then satisfactory to the believers in bimetallism within our party; only because of equivocal construction and evasion has it since been demonstrated to be insufficient. The platform this day adopted in the national Republican party convention at St. Louis says: "As the declaration of 1892 has been by a majority of the party construed to justify a single gold standard for our monetary basis, and as the recent trend of the official power of the party has been in that direction, we can but assume that the money plank of the new platform, being much more favorable to perpetuate, gold monometallism will be determinedly used in behalf of that idea. The Republican party has won its power and renown by pursuing its purposes courageously and relentlessly. It is, therefore, only in accordance with the party's history to assume that if it shall come to present authority in the United States it will crystalize into the law and administration under this tempting platform the perpetual single gold standard in our finances. This, if long continued, will mean the absolute ruin of the producers of the country, and finally of the nation itself. The American people not only favor bimetallism from tradition and interest, but from that wise instinct which has always been manifest in the affairs of a people destined for the world's leadership. Under the operation of our great demand for advancement we have become to other nations the greatest debtor nation of the world. We pay vast charges, which every year accumulate against us in the clearing house of the world with the money of the world procured by the disposal of our commodities in the markets of the world. We are a nation of

a

producers. Our creditors are nations of consumers. Any system of international or national finance which elevates the price of human product makes our burden lighter and gives promise of that day when it shall be entirely lifted and our country freed financially, as it is politically, from the domination of monarchy and foreign autocracy. Any system of finance which tends to depreciate the price of human productions, which we must sell abroad, but it so far adds to the burden of our debt, and conveys a threat of the perpetual servitude of the producers of our debtor nation to the consumers of creditor nations. To use it is a folly without a parallel that this country or any political party therein should deliberately accept a money system which enriches others at our cost. History, philosophy, morals, all join with the commonest instinct of self-preservation in demanding that the United States shall have a just and substantially unvarying standard, composed of all available gold and silver, and with it our country will progress to financial enfranchisement. But with single gold standard the country will go on to worse destruction; to continued falling prices; until our people would become the hewers of wood and the drawers of water for the consumers in creditor nations of the earth. To such an unholy end we will not lend ourselves. Dear as has been the Republican name to us adherents, that name is not so dear as the faith itself. And we do not sacrifice one jot or title of the mighty principles by which Republicanism has uplifted the world when we say that at the parting of the ways we cling to the faith, let the name go where it will. We hold that this convention has seceded from the truth; that the triumph of such secession would be the eventful destruction of our freedom and our civilization. To that end the people will not knowingly follow any political party and we choose to take our place in the ranks of the great mass of citizens who realize that the hour has come for justice. Did we deem this issue less important to humanity we would yield, since the associations of all our political lives have been intertwined with the men and the measures of this party of past mighty achievements. But the people cry aloud for relief; they are bending beneath a burden growing heavier with the passing hours; endeavor no longer brings its just reward; fearfulness takes the place of courage and despair usurps the throne of hope and unless the laws of the country and the policies of political parties shall be converted into mediums of redress, the effect of human desperation may some time be witnessed here as in other lands and in other ages.

Accepting the fiat of this convention as the present purpose of the party we 'withdraw from this convention to return our constituents the authority with which they invested us, believing that we have better discharged their trusts by this action which restores to them authority unsullied than by giving cowardly and insincere indorsement to the greatest wrong ever willfully attempted within the Republican party-once redeemer of the people, but now about to become their oppressor, unless providentially restrained by the votes of free men.

Silverite's Address to the People of the United States.

On June 19, after many of the state delegations had left St. Louis, the work of the

of

convention having been completed, the silver | have been developments and achievements ease and comfort to the favored of mankind; in

bolters who had remained, met in secret session and after some discussion adopted and the still greater and more important domain of soissued the following address:

To the People of the United States:

Obeying the call of duty and justified by the common citizenship of this republic we address this communication to the people and the forthcoming convention of the United States. In doing So we claim no authority or right other than which belongs to every man to express personal conviction, but we respectfully solicit the Cooperation of al who believe that the time has come for 2 return to the simpler and more direct method of naming men for national service than has obtained in recent years.

Political party organization is necessary because without it the individual voter is dumb, but the party is only the means, not the end; It is the voice and not the sense. As the world advances in this wonderful epoch of intellectual development and physical improvement there is a constant requirement for better things. The individual feels that requirement and needs it, or he fails in life's endeavor. Parties must also obey the same law. It follows, therefore, that the moment a party shall choose to stand still or retrogress it is no longer efficient to achieve the end to which the people are necessarily destined. There is no sanctity in mere party names and the mark of decay is set on individual strength in a nation when the absolute rule of politica. organization coerces from the truth for the sake of expediency and establishes Insincere submission to partisan rule for the sake of power.

Recognizing the value of the splendid achievements of the political parties in this country, as elsewhere, we are yet constrained to believe that for more than twenty years no one of them has been entirely sufficient for the needs of the people. The great trend to better things, resting in the heart and purpose of all men, has been stayed during the latter part of this generation by the failure of the parties to express in their achievements the highest hope and aspiration of the mass of the people who constitute the parties. And there has been growing in this country-swelling with each recurrence of national election-a great mass of independent thinkers and voters, which falling within itself to control, has gravitated between the two great parties. Since 1872 (excepting, possibly the election of 1876) the pendulum has swung from side to side with each four years. In 1872 the Republican party elected the President; in 1876 the Democracy claimed the election; in 1880 the Republican party elected; in 1884 the Democrats elected; in 1888 the Republicans elected; in 1892 the Democrats elected; in 1896 (until within a few weeks) it has been conceded that the Republicans would elect. What has been the cause of this mighty oscillation of a mass which this year has probably obtained controlling proportions? Every man can answer to himself. If he has been an observer, if he has had interests that were affected, if he has felt a hope to see greater justice done and has seen that hope blasted, if he knows that the general disaffection has arisen from the fact that the party promises made were broken to the people by party performance, he knows that so Boon as the election was over and successful candidates installed, they became the servitors of the party and the advocates of a narrow and nonprogressive policy; within which alone these seemed to be an assurance of selfish safety and partisan approval. During all this period we have lacked a great constructive administration. No new social truth has been put forward in an effective way. While in all the departments of physical life there

cial reform we have stood still or retrogressed.

It is not that the people have not felt the stirrings of determination that this inaction has endured, but because of the rule of party which has largely controlled men in and out of office. It has become a source of reproach to any man that he should dare to renounce allegiance to organization. Men have been expected to submit their views to the dictation of conventions, although it is common knowledge that conventions have been swayed to views and declarations not the most approved by the mass of the people nor progressive for their welfare.

We do not arrogate to ourselves one iota more of intelligence, patriotism or courage than is possessed by any of our fellow citizens. But we feel that the time has come for the performance of a duty to this country, and, for our part, though we shall stand alone, we will make an endeavor in the direction of that duty. Parties may outlive their usefulness; the truth never becomes obsolete. Every generation of free men has the right to affirm the truths of past knowledge and present acquirements, and if the enforcement of these truths shall make necessary a departure from party organization, the people have this right and will exercise it until old parties shall return to the truth or new parties shall be created to effect it into law.

If the voices which have sounded to us from every state in this Union are an indication of the real feeling this year is the appointed time for the people to assert themselves through such mediums as may give best promise of the achievement of justice. But whether we are mistaken or not concerning the general sentiment in the United States, we have not mistaken our own duty in withdrawing from the Republican convention, feeling it is better to be right and with the minority in apparent defeat than to be wrong with the majority in apparent triumph.

We hold that in the great work of social evolution in this country monetary reform stands as the first requisite. No policy, however promising of good results, can take its place. Continuation during the next four years upon the present financial system will bring down upon the American people that cloud of impending evil, to avert which should be the first thought of statesmen and the first prayer of patriots. Our very institutions are at stake. To-day, with the rapidly increasing population, with widely swelling demands, the basis of our money is relatively contracting, and the people are passing into a servitude all the more dangerous because it is not physically apparent. The nation itself, as to other nations, is losing the steady courage which could make it deflant in the face of injustice and internal wrong. From the farmer and the tradesman to the government there is apparent the shrinking from giving offense, lest the vengeance of some offended financial power should descend. The business man submits some portion of his judgment and his will, and the nation submits some portion of its international right lest some mighty foreign creditor shall make destructive demands. Where will all this end if the people shall decline to assert themselves. Where will it end if the older parties in the determination to maintain themselves in power for power's sake alone shall refuse to recognize the right and the hope of humanity? The country cannot much longer exist free and independent against all the rest of the world, nor can its people much longer be free in the noblest sense of the term if the United States, a debtor nation, shall follow a policy dictated by creditor nations. We produce

curse

the

of the

all of the necessaries of life. Other nations con- to the people the name of a man for the presisume our produet. In the race for existence it is dency of the United States whose life in public and a constant struggle between producer and con- in private represents those distinguished virtues which adorned the day and deeds sumer. Our present system of money deliberately submits to the desire and the profit of creditor earlier times of this republic; a return to which nations, leaving us in the mass, and as individuals virtues is requisite for the prosperity and contentA prey to the money gathering and the deadly ment of the people and the perpetuity and comcheapening of the old world. As the debt to cred-manding example of free institutions. That name itors abroad increases on the mass of the na- is Henry M. Teller-a man of the people and for tion the price of human production on the farm the people. He is of no section. His experience and and in the workshop is decreased with appalling service, his devotion to the common justice and rapidity exacting more and more toil from our the common cause of his fellow citizens has been citizens to meet the given demand and holding as wide as the country. We believe that the people over their heads a threat of the day when conof the United States have in their hearts, as he fiscation to meet their obligations will leave has had, their interests in his purpose through all them bare and defenseless. The only remedy is the work of an exalted life. to stop falling prices-the deadliest of national life. Prices never will cease falling under the single gold standard. The restoration of bimetallism by this country will double the basis of our money system. In time it will double the stock of primary money of the world-will stop falling prices and steadily elevate them until they will regain their normal relation to the volume of debts and credits in the world. Bimetallism will help to bring about the great hope of every social reformer, every believer in the advancement of the race who realizes that the instability of prices has been the deadly foe of our toilers and the servant of the foreign interest gatherer. Bimetallism will help to bring the time when a certain expenditure of human toil will produce a certain financial result. Who among the great masses of our people in the United States but feels that his lot would be made better, his aspiration take new wings if he could know in the performance of his labor what would be the price of his product? Is not this purpose worth the attention of the people as individuals and worth the attention of political conventions yet to be held in this year 1896? Is not this so great an end that all who believe in the possibility of attaining it by the means proposed can yield something of their partisanship both in conventions and at the polls? It is in the hope that the masses and the remaining convention will have the courage and the generosity to unite for this purpose that we have dared to offer our views to the people of the United States, and because in the past there has lacked a rallying point for he masses who hold as we do to this belief, we venture an act trusting it will be received in the same spirit of conciliation, concession and hope with which

we put it forth.

We have endeavored in a plain way to set the matter before the eyes of our fellow citizens. We invoke the union of all man and all parties who believe that the time has come for the triumph of justice. It is an hour when the people may speak for themselves as individuals and through conventions yet to be held. It is the right of every citizen to indicate his preference. With this in view we offer to the forthcoming conventions and

It is not merely as the exponent of monetary reform that we present this man to the people. It is true that he has waged a mighty war for the restoration of the money of the constitution, and his name has been identified as that of no other living man with this great cause. But had his services been less demanded and less noticed in this direction, the people would still have recognized in him for other labors a statesman of the purest type. H13 only poverty has been that of purse; in all things else in the generosities of man to man, in kindliness of deeds for his fellows and in the study and the doing of a mighty career, he has been one of the most opulent American citizens of any age. In submitting this. name to the people we remind them that just a generation ago, from the heart of the boundless West and touched by the finger of God, there arose an emancipator who was powerful in the work of human deliverance. By his wisdom and courage, providentially directed, millions were set free and the nation kept in its holy Union. If others shall see this opportunity as we see it, if our fellow citizens shall see this duty as we see it, that sublime history may be repeated and another man, clothed in the majesty of devotion to the race, will be lifted to power, where, by his wisdom and courage, providentially directed, more millions may be made free of chains as galling as those of actual slavery, and the nation may be preserved in the unity of its mission to the world.

The address was signed by Fred T. Dubois,
S. F. Pettigrew, Frank J. Cannon, Charles
H. Hartman, Benjamin E. Rich, Clarence E.
Cleveland,
Allen, A. S. Robertson, A. C.
Willis Sweet, Amasa B. Campbell, Archie M.
Stevenson, Enoch Strether, James M. Down-
irg, Charles H. Brickenstein, Thomas Kerne,
C. J. Hart, Littlejohn Price, Jacob J. Elliott,
O. J. Salisbury, J. B. Overton, Frank C.
Goudy, John F. Vivian, J. W. Rockfeller,
Robert W. Boyne, John F. Williams, L. M.
Earl.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

2::::

Not voting, 1.

64

Rhode Island

8

[blocks in formation]

8

[blocks in formation]

The Platform.

The platform adopted by the vote so taken was as follows:

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 8 time to our own-freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of conscience, the pre3 servation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens before the law and the faithful ob24 servance of constitutional limitations.

During all these years the Democratic party

6 has resisted the tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental power, 2 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 303 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 powers granted by the constitution of the United States.

The vote on the silver platform resulted as follows:

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed]
« PreviousContinue »