網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

decisions of that court for nearly one hundred years, that court having under that decision sustained constitutional objections to its enactment which have been overruled by the ablest Judges who had 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 proportion of the expenses 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 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 products of our home manufactures.

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 powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission and such restrictions 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 prices till they no longer repay the cost of production, We demand a return to that simplicity and economy which befit a Democratic Government and a reduction in the number of useless offices, the salaries of which drain the substance of the people.

We denounce the 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 Government 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 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 railroads 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 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 the enlistment.

We favor the admission of the Territories of New Mex ico 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 State

hood, 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 pub-i lic 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 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 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 following paragraph was added to the preamble: "The Constitution of the United States guarantees to every citizen the rights of civil and religious liberty. The Democratic party has always been the exponent of politi cal liberty and religious freedom, and it renews its obligations and reaffirms its devotion to these fundamental principles of the Constitution.”

And this plank was inserted:

"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."

LIFE OF JOSHUA LEVERING.

PROHIBITION CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT, WITH PLATFORM AND CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS.

JOSHUA LEVERING, the nominee of the Prohibition Party for the Presidency of the United States in 1896, was born in Baltimore, Md., on September 12, 1845. His present residence in the city was the spot of his birth. He has always resided in Baltimore, and his fortunes have al ways been closely linked with the city's growth and wel

fare.

His father was Eugene Levering, one of Baltimore's oldest and most extensive merchants, who was for years engaged in the business of exporting flour, provisions and other American products to the different ports of Brazil, and importing coffee from the same.

Joshua Levering was acquiring his education in the pri vate schools of his native city when the Civil War broke out. Its exigencies compelled him to close his school career and turn his attention to gainful pursuits. He entered upon a clerical life, which he continued till 1866, when he and his two brothers entered business with their father, under the firm name of E. Levering & Co. The father died in 1870, since which time the business has been carried on jointly by the three brothers, in a much enlarged form, the firm having several branch houses in Brazil.

Mr. Levering married Martha W. Keyser, daughter of

« 上一頁繼續 »