"We denounce arbitrary interference by Federal authorities in local affairs as a violation of the Constituion of the United States and a crime against free institutions, and we especially object to government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression by which Federal Judges, in contempt of the laws of the States and rights of citizens, become at once legislators, Judges, and executioners; and we approve the bill passed at the last session of the United States Senate and now pending in the House, 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 indorse the rule of Commissioner Murphy 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 and Arizona 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 of the 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.

"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. We favor appointments based upon merits, 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 100 years, and sanctioned by the examples of the greatest and wisest of those who founded and have maintained our government, that no man shall 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 tidewater. 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 necessity 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 for the relief of the people, and the restoration of the country's prosperity."

The presentation of this report of the majority was followed by the report of the minority, which was as follows:

"Sixteen 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 those are wholly unnecessary. Some are ill-considered and ambiguously phrased, while others are extreme and revolutionary of the wellrecognized principles of the parties. The minority content themselves with this general expression of dissent, without going into a specific statement of the objectionable features of the report of the majority, but upon the financial question, which engages the chief share of public attention, the views of the majority differs so fundamentally from what the minority regards as vital to democratic doctrine as to demand a distinct statement of what they hold as the only just and true expression of democratic faith upon this prominent 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 independently of the action of other great nations would not only impair 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 country 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 debt, 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 a 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 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 time and under all circumstances.

"The minority also feels 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 amend ment to the minority report:

"We commend the honesty, economy, courage and fidelity of the present democratic administration."

Mr. Hill, of New York, offered the following amendment also:

"But it should be carefully provided by law at the same time that any change in the monetary standard of New York should not apply to existing contracts.

"Our advocacy of the independent free coinage of silver being based on the belief that such coinage will be to effect and maintain the parity between gold and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 be declared as a pledge of our sincerity that if such free coinage should fail to effect such parity within one year from its enactment by law, such coinage shall thereupon be suspended."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ISSUE DEFINED.

The presentation of the majority report was followed by the appearance of Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, on the platform, who declared the issues to be sectional, and who asserted that the existing administration should be repudiated. He offered a resolution to that effect. He was followed by Senator Jones, of Arkansas; who denied the assertions made, and who stated that the issue was not sectional in any sense. Then followed a great debate upon the platform. It was well understood that the most prominent advocates of the opposing forces would be Senator David B. Hill, of New York, and Hon. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska. The appearance of SenHill resulted in an ovation of applause from the audience. He spoke as follows:

"I do not know that it is necessary that I should reply to the distinguished senator from South Carolina. And I trust that in any reply I may make I shall not fail to acord to him my profound respects.

"I would say at the outset, I am a democrat, but I am not a revolutionist. I will say, further, that no matter what the provocation, you cannot drive me out of the democratic party. Without intending to specially reply to the remarks of the distinguished senator from South Carolina, I will only say that it was a waste of time upon his part to assume that we were so ignorant as not to know that it was his state that attempted to break up the democratic party in 1860. But that party has survived the attempt of every section of the country to divide it, to distract it: it lives

today, and I hope it will long survive. My mission here today is to unite, not to divide; to build up, not to destroy; to plan for victory and not to plot for defeat. I know that I speak to a convention which, as now constituted, probably does not agree with the views of the state that I especially represent upon this occasion. But I know that, notwithstanding the attack which has been made upon that state, you will hear me for my cause.

"New York makes no apology to South Carolina for her resolution. We get our democracy from our fathers. We do not need to learn it from those whom my friend represents. Need I defend New York? No! it is not necessary. She defends herself. Need I defend the attack made upon her and her citizens of wealth, men of intelligence and character? No, it is not necessary. Need I remind this democratic national convention that it is in the great state of New York and in its great city where the wealth that he inveighs against is situated? But it is in the great city that never but once in its history gave a republican majority. When other cities failed to respond, New York was the Gibraltar of democracy.

"The question which this convention is to decide is which is the best position to take at this time upon the financial question. In a word, the question presented is between international bimetallism and local bimetallism. If there be gold monometallists they are not represented either in the majority report or in the minority report. I therefore start out with this proposition: That the democratic party stands today in favor of gold and silver as the money of the country, but we differ as to the means to bring about that result. Those I represent and for whom I speak-the sixteen members of the minority committee-insist that we should not attempt the experiment of free and unlimited coinage of silver without the co-operation of other great nations. It is not a question of patriotism. It is not a question of courage. It is not a question of loyalty. It is not a question of valor. The majority platform speaks of the subject as though it was simply a question as to whether we were a brave enough people to enter upon this experiment. It is a question of business. It is a question of finance. It is a question of economics. It is not a question notwithstanding, which men ever so brave can solve.

"Mr. President, I think that the safest, the best course for this convention to have pursued was to take the first step forward in the great cause of monetary reform by declaring in favor of international bimetallism. I am not here to assail the honesty or sincerity of a single man who disagrees with me. There are those around me who know that in every utterance made upon this subject I have treated the friends of free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 with respect. I am here to pursue that course today. I do not think that we can safely ignore the monetary systems of other great nations. It is a.question about which honest men may differ. I believe we cannot ignore the attitude of other nations upon this subject any more than we can their attitude upon the other questions of the day. I know, it is said, by enthusiastic