IO. Public money, and public credit for public purposes solely, and public lands for actual settlers. II. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorants and the commune. 12. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expenditures ten millions of dollars a year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home and the national honor abroad; and above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the government as shall insure a genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public service." PLATFORM OF 1884-grovER CLEVELAND NOMINATED AND ELECTED. The Democratic party of the Union, through its representatives in National Convention assembled, recognizes that as the nation grows older new issues are born of time and progress and old issues perish. But the fundamental principles of the Democracy, approved by the united voices of the people, remain, and will ever remain as the best and only security for the continuance of free government. The preservation of personal rights; the equality of all citizens before the law; the reserved rights of the States; and the supremacy of the Federal government within the limits of the constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties, and can never be surrendered without destroying that balance of rights and powers which enable a continent to be developed in peace, and social order to be maintained by means of local self-government. But it is indispensable for the practical application and enforcement of these fundamental principles, that the government should not always be controlled by one political party. Frequent change of administration is as necessary as constant recurrence to the popular will. Otherwise abuses grow, and the government, instead of being carried on for the general welfare, becomes an instrumentality for imposing heavy burdens on the many who are governed for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants thus become arbitrary rulers. This is now the condition of the country. Hence a change is demanded. The Republican party, so far as principle is concerned, is a reminiscence; in practice it is an organization for enriching those who control its machinery. The frauds and jobbery which have been brought to light in every department of the government are sufficient to have called for reform within the Republican party; yet those in authority, made reckless by the long possession of power, have succumbed to its corrupting influence, and have placed in nomination a ticket against which the independent portion of the party are in open revolt. Therefore, a change is demanded. Such a change was alike necessary in 1876, but the will of the people was then defeated by a fraud which can never be forgotten nor condoned. Again in 1880, the change demanded by the people was defeated by the lavish use of money contributed by unscrupulous contractors and shameless jobbers who had bargained for unlawful profits or for high office. The Republican party, during its legal, its stolen and its bought tenures of power, has steadily decayed in moral character and political capacity. Its platform promises are now a list of past failures. It demands the restoration of our navy. It has squandered hundreds of millions to create a navy that does not exist. It calls upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been depressed. It has imposed and has continued those burdens. It professes the policy of reserving the public lands for small holdings by actual settlers. It has given away the people's heritage, till now a few railroads and nonresident aliens, individual and corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our farms between the two seas. It professes a preference for free institutions. It organized and tried to legalize a control of State elections by Federal troops. It professes a desire to elevate labor. It has subjected American workingmen to the competition of convict and imported contract labor. It professes gratitude to all who were disabled or died in the war, leaving widows and orphans. It left to a Democratic House of Representatives the first effort to equalize both bounties and pensions. It proffers a pledge to correct the irregularities of our tariff. It created and has continued them. Its own Tariff Commission confessed the need of more than twenty per cent reduction. Its Congress gave a reduction of less than four per cent. It professes the protection of American manufactures. It has subjected them to an increasing flood of manufactured goods and a hopeless competition with manufacturing nations, not one of which taxes raw materials. It professes to protect all American industries. It has impoverished many to subsidize a few. |