DEMOCRATIC PARTY 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 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 prevent for the future the demonetization of any kind of legal-tender money by pri vate 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 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 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 shall 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 100 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 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 prod ucts 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 employees, 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 power of the InterState Commerce Commission and such restriction 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 govern. ment by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which the Federal judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, judges, 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. 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 Funding 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, Arizona, 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 government 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 believes in home rule and that all public lands of the United States should be appropriated to the establishment of free homes for American citizens. We recommend that the Territory of Alaska be granted a delegate 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 provided 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, established 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. The Federal government should care for and improve the Mississippi 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 importance to demand aid of the government, such aid should be extended upon a definite plan of continuous work until permanent improvement is secured. Confiding in the justice of our cause and the neces sity of its success at the polls, we submit the foregoing declaration of principles 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, DEMOCRATIC PARTY for the relief of the people and the restoration of the country's prosperity. The minority, led by Senator Hill of New York, submitted the following, which was rejected by the convention. To the Democratic National Convention: 16 delegates, constituting the minority of the Committee on Resolutions, find many declarations in the report of the majority to which they cannot give their assent. Some of these are wholly unnecessary. Some are ill considered and ambiguously phrased, while others are extreme and revolutionary of the well-recognized principles of the party. The minority content themselves with this general expression of their dissent, without going into a specific statement of the objectionable features of the report of the majority; but upon the financial question, which engages at this time the chief share of public attention, the views of the majority differ so fundamentally from what the minority regard as vital Democratic doctrine as to demand a distinct statement of what they hold to as the only just and true expression of Democratic faith upon the paramount issue, as follows, which is offered as a substitute for the financial plank in the majority report: "We declare our belief that the experiment on the part of the United States alone of free silver coinage and a change of the existing standard of value inde; pendently of the action of other great nations, would not only imperil our finances, but would retard or entirely prevent the establishment of international bimetallism, to which the efforts of the government should be steadily directed. It would place this coun try at once upon a silver basis, impair contracts, disturb business, diminish the purchasing power of the wages of labor, and inflict irreparable evils upon our nation's commerce and industry. Until international co-operation 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 national credit, the redemption of our public pledges, and the keeping inviolate of our country's honor. We insist that all our paper and 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 provisions as will prevent undue contraction. We demand that the national credit shall be resolutely maintained at all times and under all circumstances.' The minority also feel that the report of the majority is defective in failing to make any recognition of the honesty, economy, courage and fidelity of the present Democratic administration. And they therefore offer the following declaration as an amendment to the majority report: We commend the honesty, economy, courage and fidelity of the present Democratic National Administration." The main resolutions submitted by the minority were rejected by more than a two thirds vote, and the platform as reported by the committee was adopted by the same vote. The resolution endorsing the administration was defeated by a little less than two thirds. The convention named as its candidates William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska, and Arthur Sewall of Maine. The "National" Democrats met at Indianapolis in September following, issued a platform endorsing the gold standard and named John M. Palmer and Simon B. Buckner as their national ticket. William McKinley of Ohio, and Garrett A. Hobart of New Jersey were the nominees of the Republican convention. The platform contained a plank favoring a protective tariff, and a plank opposing free coinage until foreign co-operation could be secured, but pledging the party to promote international bimetallism. The People's party, generally known as the Populist party, met at St. Louis and adopted a platform containing the same silver plank as the Democratic platform and endorsed and nominated the Democratic candidate for President. Instead of endorsing Mr. Sewall for the VicePresidency, the convention named Thomas E. Watson of Georgia for that office. The Silver Republicans met at the same time, endorsed the Democratic ticket and adopted a silver plank identical with the Democratic plank. The campaign aroused deep feeling on both sides, and was warmly contested in the Central States. It became apparent early in the campaign that the Democratic ticket would carry the Western and Southern States, and that the Republican ticket would sweep the Eastern States. A very large vote was polled, the total that year being nearly 2,000,000 in excess of the total vote of four years before. The Republican party secured a popular plurality of 601,854. The electoral vote stood, McKinley and Hobart 271; Bryan and Sewall. 176. Between 1896 and 1900 there was an' improvement in industrial conditions, an increase in the volume of money, and a series of wars throughout the world. In 1898 the United States interfered in behalf of the Cubans and became involved in a war with Spain, which war resulted in Cuban independence, but during the war a naval victory in the Philippines put this nation in temporary control of those islands and resulted in our possession of them as an inthe Cubans. The cession of the Philippine Isdemnity for the expenses incurred in behalf of lands to the United States raised a question which has not yet been settled. The sentiment is at present divided, the Democrats favoring the immediate promise that independence will be given as soon as a stable government is established, this independence to be accompanied by protection from outside interference. Some of the Republicans desire that the Philippine Islands be held under a colonial system, and others desire that the islands be given a territorial form of government with a view to ultimate statehood. The Democratic convention which met at Kansas City, 4 July 1900, endorsed the Declaration of Independence, and adopted the following platform: "We, the representatives of the Democratic party of the United States, assembled in national convention on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, do reaffirm our faith in that immortal proclamation of the inalienable rights of man and our allegiance to the Constitution framed in harmony therewith by the fathers of the Republic. We hold with the United States Supreme Court that the Declaration of Independence is the spirit of our government, of which the Constitution is the form and letter. We declare again that all governments instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the governed; that any government not based upon the consent of the governed is tyranny, and that to im pose upon any people a government of force is to substitute the methods of imperialism for those of a repub lic. We hold that the Constitution follows the flag, and denounce the doctrine that an Executive or Congress, deriving their existence and their powers from the Constitution, can exercise lawful authority beyond it or in violation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American inevitably to despotism at home. people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and Believing in these fundamental principles, we denounce the Porto Rican law, enacted by a Republican Congress against the protest and opposition of the Democratic minority, as a bold and open violation of the nation's organic law and a flagrant breach of the national good faith. It imposes upon the people of taxation DEMOCRATIC PARTY our It dishonors the Porto Rico a government without their consent and without representation. American people by repudiating a solemn pledge made in their behalf by the commanding general of It doomed army, which the Porto Ricans welcomed to a peaceful and unresisted occupation of their land. to poverty and distress a people whose helplessness appeals with peculiar force to our justice and magnanimity. In this, the first act of its imperialistic programme, the Republican party seeks to commit the United States to a colonial policy inconsistent with republican institutions and condemned by the Supreme Court in numerous decisions. un We condemn and denounce the Philippine policy It has involved the of the present administration. public in unnecessary war, sacrificed the lives of many sons and placed the United States, of our noblest previously known and applauded throughout the world as the champion of freedom, in the false and American position of crushing with military force the efforts of our former allies to achieve liberty and selfThe Filipinos cannot be citizens without government. endangering our civilization; they cannot be subjects without imperiling our form of government, and as we are not willing to surrender our civilization or to convert the republic into an empire, we favor an immediate declaration of the nation's purpose to give stable form of government; the Filipinos, first, second, independence; and, third, protection from outside interference, such as has been given for nearly the republics of Central and South a century to America. a We are not opposed to territorial expansion when it takes in desirable territory which can be erected into States in the Union and whose people are willing and We favor expansion But we are fit to become American citizens. by every peaceful and legitimate means. unalterably opposed to seizing or purchasing distant islands to be governed outside the Constitution and whose people can never become citizens. ence now We are in favor of extending the Republic's influamong the nations, but believe that influence should be extended, not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable other questions The importance of example. pending before the American people is no wise diminished, and the Democratic party takes no backward step from its position on them, but the burning issue of imperialism growing out of the Spanish war involves the very existence of the republic and the destruction We regard it as the paraof our free institutions. mount issue of the campaign. The declaration in the Republican platform adopted at the Philadelphia convention, held in June 1900, steadfastly adheres to the that the Republican party policy announced in the Monroe Doctrine," is manifestly is contradicted by the the This profession deceptive. avowed policy of that party, in opposition to spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, to acquire and hold of territory and large We sovereignty over large areas the eastern hemisphere. numbers of people in insist on the strict maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine in all its integrity, both in letter and in spirit, as to our essential as necessary to prevent the extension of European aucontinent and time At the same thority on this supremacy in American affairs. we declare that no American people shall ever be held by force in unwilling subjection to European authority, It means conquest abroad It means We oppose militarism. and intimidation and oppression at home. the strong arm which has ever been fatal to free instiIt is what millions of our citizens have fled tutions. It will impose upon our peace-loving from in Europe. to their people a large standing army and unnecessary burden a constant menace of taxation, and will be liberties. A small standing army and a well disci plined State militia are amply sufficient in time of This republic has no place for a vast military service and conscription. In time of danger the volunteer soldier is his counThe National Guard of the United try's best defender. ever an States should ever be cherished in the patriotic hearts Such organizations are of a free people. For the first time in element of strength and safety. our history and coevil with the Philippine conquest has there been a wholesale departure from honored and approved system of volunteer organization, We denounce it as un-American, un-Democratic and un-Republican and as a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people. peace. our time Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They lessen the employment many, The dishonest paltering with the trust evil by the We pledge the Democratic party to an unceasing trusts. Tariff laws should be amended by putting the the free list, to prevent products of trusts monopoly under the plea of protection. upon or even The failure of the present Republican administration, with an absolute control over all the branches of the national government, to enact any legislation curtail the absorbing prevent designed to power of trusts and illegal combinations, or to enforce the anti-trust laws already on the statute books, proves the insincerity of the high-sounding phrases of the Republican platform. Corporations should be protected in all their rights, and their legitimate interests should be respected, but any attempt by corporations to interfere with public affairs of the people or to control the sovereignty which creates them should be forbidden under such penalties as will make such attempts impossible. a trust We condemn the Dingley tariff law as breeding measure, skilfully devised to give the few favors which they do not deserve and to place upon the many burdens which they should not bear. We favor such an enlargement of the scope of the interstate commerce law as will enable the commission to protect individuals and communities from discriminations and the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates. It will be seen that the question of imperialism was made the paramount issue, the trust question coming next in the amount of attention given to it. The convention, however, reaffirmed the principles embodied in the Chicago platform, before on the money question and on several and reiterated the position taken four years other questions. Mr. Bryan was renominated and Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois was placed upon the ticket as the candidate for Vice-President. This ticket was endorsed later by the People's Party convention, and by the Silver Republican convenin line with the Democratic platform upon the tion, both of which parties adopted platforms leading issues. The Democratic ticket was also endorsed by the Anti-imperialists. While the Democrats tried to focus public attention upon the menace of imperialism, the Republicans said: "Let well enough alone," and credited the improved conditions of the people in part to the gold standard and in part to the high-tariff law enacted in 1898. They protested against any change in the financial laws or the tariff law, and denied that they intended any ment. DEMOCRATIC PARTY departure from the principles of free govern- the Populists Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, and Samuel W. Williams, of Indiana; and the The Republican ticket, headed by President Prohibitionists Eugene W. Chafin, of Illinois, McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt of New York, and Aaron S. Watkins, of Ohio. This election was again successful, the popular plurality being witnessed the entry of a new party into the po849,455. The electoral vote stood, McKinley and litical arena-the Independence party, of which Roosevelt 292, Bryan and Stevenson 155. The William R. Hearst, of New York, was the chief campaign of 1900 did not excite as much in- factor, and of which Thomas L. Hisgen, of terest as the preceding campaign. In 1904 Massachusetts, and John T. Graves, of New Alton B. Parker of New York was nominated York (formerly of Georgia), were the candifor President, with Henry G. Davis of West dates. The results of this election were as folVirginia for Vice-President. In this election lows: Taft, Rep., 7,637,676; Bryan, Dem., 6,the party practically reversed its previous posi- 393,182; Debs. Soc.. 448.453; Chafin, Prohib., tion on the money question. The Republican 241,252; Hisgen, Indep., 83,183; Watson, Pop., party, with a ticket headed by President Roose- 33,871; Gillhaus, Soc. Lab., 15,421. velt, was again successful, the electoral vote standing 336 to 140. This election was remarkable in that nearly 1,350,000 more votes were cast than in the elecWhile Roosevelt's popular vote and popular tion of 1904. Taft received a popular vote exmajority were the largest ever recorded for any ceeding that of Roosevelt by over 14,000; Bryan President up to that time, it is remarkable, and received over 1,300,000 votes more than his predindicative of the increasing independence of the ecessor, Parker; and the Socialist vote invoters, that five States which gave Roosevelt creased more than 45,000. On the other hand large majorities elected Democratic governors: the Prohibition vote was more than 17,000 less Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado, than that of 1004; the Populist vote was over and Montana. The same zeal for thorough- 83.000 behind the vote of 1904; and the Socialgoing reform and an appreciation of the personal character of candidates has greatly affected State and municipal elections, resulting in the overthrow of bosses and machines and a permanent elevation of popular political standards for parties and for administration. The principal declarations in the platform of the Democratic party, adopted at St. Louis, Mo., 8 July 1904, were: In favor of laws giving labor and capital impartially their just rights; trial by jury in cases of indirect contempts in Federal Courts; liberal appropriations for the improvement of waterways; economy of administration, without impairing efficiency of any branch of the government; and the enforcement of honesty in public service; Condemning the action of the Republican party in Congress in refusing to prohibit an executive department from entering into contracts with convicted trusts or unlawful combinations in restraint of interstate trade, and in favor of Jeffersonian simplicity of living" on the part of public officials; against "executive usurpation of legislative and judicial functions" by the President; preservation of "an open door for the world's commerce in the Orient without any unnecessary entanglement in Oriental and European 2fairs, and without arbitrary, unlimited, irresponsible and absolute government anywhere within our jurisdiction,' against an indefinite, irresponsible, discretionary and vague absolutism and a policy of colonial exploitation"; and against making one set of laws for those at home and a different set of laws for those "in the colonies;" Against tariff legislation that "robs the many to enrich the few," and in favor of a tariff limited to the needs of the Government, economically administered, and so levied as not to discriminate against any industry, class or section; a gradual reduction of the tariff; against private monopoly, and in favor of individual equality of opportunity and free competition; against rebates and discrimination by transportation companies; and in favor of an enlargement of the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, reclamation of arid lands in the West, no land monopoly, the speedy construction of the Panama Canal, and the election of U. S. Senators by direct vote of the people; Condemnation of polygamy within the jurisdiction of the United States, and also of the ship subsidy bill passed by the United States Senate; and in favor of upbuilding a merchant marine, liberal trade arrangements with Canada, the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, a reduction of the army, generous pensions, and civil service reform. In 1908 the Republican party nominated Secretary of War William Howard Taft, of Ohio, for President and Congressman James S. Sherman, of New York, for Vice-President. The Democratic party for the third time selected William J. Bryan as its Presidential candidate and John W. Kern, of Indiana, for Vice-President. The Socialists nominated Eugene V. Debs, of Indiana, and Ben Hanford, of New York; ist-Labor candidate less than 50 per cent. of the vote of his predecessor. In this election the independence of the voters was again manifested as it had been in 1904, several States which gave Taft majorities electing Democratic governors, notably Indiana, Minnesota, and Ohio. Also several States that had previously been Republican in gubernatorial elections changed to the Democratic column, notably Colorado, Nebraska, and Ohio, while the usually Democratic Missouri elected a Republican gov ernor. Oklahoma, with seven electoral votes, had been admitted as a State since the election of 1904, thus increasing the electoral vote to 483 and raising the majority necessary to a choice from 239 to 242. The electoral college gave Taft 321 votes and Bryan 162. The principal declarations in the platform of the Democratic party, adopted at Denver, Col., 10 July 1908 were as follows: Against the misuse of patronage on the part of the President; in favor of a law preventing any corporation contributing to a campaign fund, and any individual conproviding for the publication before election of all such tributing an amount above a reasonable minimum, and contributions above a reasonable minimum; against the extension of the powers of the general government by judicial construction; in favor of additions to federal remedies for the regulation of Interstate commerce and for the prevention of private monopoly, as well as State remedies of the same kind; reduction of import duties; that articles entering into In favor of tariff reform by immediate revision and competition with trust-controlled products should be placed upon the free list, and material reductions made in the tariff upon the necessaries of life, especially upon articles competing with such American manufactures as are sold reductions should be made in such other schedules as may abroad more cheaply than at home, and that graduated be necessary to restore the tariff to a revenue basis; the immediate repeal of the tariff on pulp, print paper, lumber, timber and logs, and that these articles be placed upon the free list; Against private monopoly, as in 1904-By first, the enactment of a law preventing a duplication of directors among competing corporations; second, a license system which will, without abridging the right of each State to create corporations or its right to regulate as it will foreign corporations doing business within its limits, make it necessary for a manufacturing or trading corporation engaged in Interstate commerce to take out a federal license before it shall be permitted to control as much as 25 per cent. of the product in which it deals, a license to protect the public from watered stock and to prohibit the control by such corporations of more than 50 per cent. of the total amount of any product consumed in the United States; and, third, a law compelling such licensed corporations to sell to all purchasers in all parts of the country on the same tion; DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES IN THE UNITED STATES-DEMOCRITUS terms after making due allowance for cost of transportaControl over Interstate commerce by Congress and by each State within its borders, the platform containing de. Health Bureau; tailed recommendations in this connection as well as on the subjects; of banking and currency; an income tax; labor and injunctions; the American merchant marine; the navy; the protection of American citizens at home and abroad civil service; pensions; the organization of a National through agricultural experiment stations and secondary agricultural and mechanical colleges; the popular election of Senators; the admission of Arizona and New Mexico to statehood; free grazing upon public lands; the improve. ment of waterways; maintenance of post-roads; curtailment of arbitrary power on the part of the Speaker of the House; economy in administration and a reduction in the number of office holders; conservation of natural resources; the independence of the Philippine Islands; developing closer ties of Pan American friendship and commerce; regulation of rates and services of telegraph and telephone companics engaged in the transmission of interstate messages. the extension of industrial education same with their own, and would have liked an clubs were organized in imitation of the Jacobin clubs of France: indeed, that of Charlessuch. As formally recognized as In the foregoing review an attempt has been ton openly claimed to be a branch of them, made to present a history of the Democratic and was party from its organization to the present time, usual in such cases, they mimicked ludicrously and the party's position on public issues has been the outer semblance of their prototypes, withshown by quotations from the platforms adopted out regard to American fitness: wore cockades. by its national conventions. While platforms and liberty caps, called each other "citizen" and at first looked down upon by are not so specific as laws, and not so elaborate "citizeness," held banquets of fraternity, etc. as speeches, they are probably a better index to They were the general thought and purpose of parties than the "Republicans" or opponents of the Federalists either laws and speeches for the reason that on American questions, who accepted their votes. was called laws are often compromises, and speeches may but scorned their antics and irrelevancy; but into a common organism, which represent the individual opinions of the speakers common political opposition soon forced them rather than of the party, while platforms written by delegates chosen for that purpose. Democratic-Republican, still the official name of It will be seen that the party has met with the party. Washington's denunciation of the successes and reverses, but it is also noticeable societies in 1794, as having fostered the Whisthat it has adhered to its principles regardless key Insurrection (q.v.), which in fact they apof the immediate effect of those principles upon proved, the atrocities of the Reign of Terror, it. For instance, it was defeated in 1840, and and the final downfall of Robespierre and the yet the platform of 1840 was constantly reaf- Jacobin Club of Paris,- perhaps equally the firmed and reiterated for 20 years afterward. fact that the craze had become a bore,- caused The platform of 1892 reaffirmed and even made the general disappearance of the clubs or sociestronger the platform of 1888, upon which the ties in 1794-5. party had suffered defeat. are It may be said, however, in conclusion, that there is to-day and will continue to be an imperative need for a party thoroughly committed to the lefense of the inalienable rights of the individual and to local self-government, and jealous of the encroachments of Federal power. Even when such a party is not in power, it exercises a potent influence in molding public opinion and in restraining excesses, because it is very quick to champion the cause of an individual whose rights have been trespassed upon, or the cause of a community whose rights have been ignored. In proportion as the organization is true to the principles promulgated by Jefferson and defended by Jackson, it may hope to appeal to the confidence of those who seek neither favoritism nor privileges, but are content to enjoy the blessings of a government in which each individual is protected in the enjoyment of life and liberty and in the pursuit of happiness. 'Thirty Years' WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. Democratic Societies in the United States, 1793. The masses in this country sympathized with the French Revolution, as essentially the Democ'ritus, Greek philosopher of the new Eleatic school: b. Abdera between 470 and 460 B.C.; d. 370 B.C. Some Magi and Chaldeans, whom Xerxes left on his return from his Grecian expedition, are said to have excited in Democritus the first inclination for philosophy. After the death of his father he traveled to Egypt, where he studied geometry, and probably visited other countries, to extend his knowledge of nature. Among the Greek philosHe afterward returned to his native city, where ophers he enjoyed the instruction of Leucippus. he was placed at the head of public affairs. Indignant at the follies of the Abderites, he resigned his office, and retired to solitude, to devote himself exclusively to philosophical studies. In his system he developed still further the Leucippus. Thus he explained the origin of the mechanical or atomical theory of his master world by the eternal motion of an infinite number of invisible and indivisible bodies, atoms, which differ from one another in form, position, and arrangement, and are alternately separated and combined by their motions in infinite space. In this way the universe was formed, fortuitously, without the interposition of a First Cause. Although denying the presence of design in nature, he admitted that of law. He called the common notion of chance a cover of human ignorance, the refuge of those who are too idle to think. The eternal existence of atoms (of matter in general) he inferred from |