HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK reserving the public land for small holdings by actual settlers, 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. The last Democratic administration reversed the improvident and unwise policy of the Republican party touching the public domain and reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and restored to the people, nearly 100,000,000 acres of valuable land, to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens; and we pledge ourselves to continue this policy until every acre of land so unlawfully held shall be reclaimed and restored to the people. "Section 7.-We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sherman act of 1890 as a cowardly makeshift, fraught with possibilities of danger in the future which should make all of its supporters, as well as its author, anxious for its speedy repeal. We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver without discriminating against either metal or charge for mintage; but the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value, or be adjusted through international agreement or by such safeguards of legislation as shall insure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of debts; and we demand that all paper currency shall be kept at par with and redeemable in such coin. We insist upon this policy as especially necessary for the protection of the farmers and laboring classes, the first and most defenseless victims of unstable money and a fluctuating currency. "Section 8.-We recommend that the prohibitory 10 per cent. tax on State bank issues be repealed. "Section 9.-Public office is a public trust. We reaffirm the declaration of the Democratic national convention of 1876 for the reform of the civil service, and we call for the honest enforcement of all laws regulating the same. The nomination of a President, as in the recent Republican convention, by delegations composed largely of his appointees holding office at his pleasure, is a scandalous satire upon free popular institutions and a startling illustration of the methods by which a President may gratify his ambition. We denounce a policy under which Federal office-holders usurp control of party conventions in the States, and we pledge the Democratic party to the reform of these and all other abuses which threaten individual liberty and local self-government. "Section 10.-The Democratic party is the only party that has ever given the country a foreign policy consistent and vigorous, compelling respect abroad and inspiring confidence at home. While avoiding entangling alliances, it has aimed to cultivate friendly relations with other nations, and especially with our neighbors on the American continent whose destiny is closely linked with our own, and we view with alarm the tendency to a policy of irritation and bluster which is liable at any time to confront us with the alternative of humiliation or war. We favor the maintenance of a navy strong enough for all purposes of national defense, and to properly maintain the honor and dignity of the country abroad. "Section 11.-This country has always been the refuge of the oppressed from every land-exiles for conscience's sake;-and in the spirit of the founders of our government we condemn the oppression practiced by the Russian government upon its Lutheran and Jewish subjects, and we call upon our national government, in the interest of justice and humanity, by all just and proper means to use its prompt and best efforts to bring about a cessation of these cruel persecutions in the dominions of the Czar and to secure to the oppressed equal rights. We tender our profound and earnest sympathy to those lovers of freedom who are struggling for home rule and the great cause of local self-government in Ireland. "Section 12.-We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to prevent the United States from being used as the dumping-ground for the known criminals and professional paupers of Europe; and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immigration or the importation of foreign labor under contract to degrade American labor and lessen its wages; but we condemn and denounce any and all attempts to restrict the immigration of the industrious and worthy of foreign lands. "Section 13.-This convention hereby renews the expression of HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK appreciation of the patriotism of the soldiers and sailors of the Union in the war for its preservation, and we favor just and liberal pensions for all disabled Union soldiers, their widows and dependents; but we demand that the work of the Pension office shall be done industriously, impartially, and honestly. We denounce the present administration of that office as incompetent, corrupt, disgraceful, and dishonest. "Section 14.-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 the aid of the government, such aid should be extended with a definite plan of continuous work until permanent improvement is secured. "Section 15.-For purposes of national defense and the promotion of commerce between the States, we recognize the early construction of the Nicaragua canal, and its protection against foreign control, as of great importance to the United States. "Section 16.-Recognizing the World's Columbian Exposition as a national undertaking of vast importance, in which the general government has invited the coöperation of all the powers of the world, and appreciating the acceptance by many of such powers of the invitation so extended and the broad and liberal efforts being made by them to contribute to the grandeur of the undertaking, we are of the opinion that Congress should make such necessary financial provision as shall be requisite to the maintenance of the national honor and public faith. "Section 17.-Popular education being the only safe basis of popular suffrage, we recommend to the several States most liberal appropriations for the public schools. Free common schools are the nursery of good government, and they have always received the fostering care of the Democratic party, which favors every means of increasing intelligence. Freedom of education being an essential of civil and religious liberty, as well as a necessity for the development of intelligence, must not be interfered with under any pretext whatever. We are opposed to State interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children, as an infringement of the fundamental Democratic doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government. "Section 18.-We approve the action of the present House of Representatives in passing bills for admitting into the Union as States the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, 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 the control of their own affairs by the people of the vicinage. "Section 19.-We favor legislation by Congress and State Legislatures to protect the lives and limbs of railway employes and those of other hazardous transportation companies, and denounce the inactivity of the Republican party, and particularly the Republican Senate, for causing the defeat of measures beneficial and protective to this class of wage-workers. "Section 20.-We are in favor of the enactment by the States of laws for abolishing the notorious sweating system, for abolishing contract convict labor, and for prohibiting the employment in factories of children under fifteen years of age. "Section 21.-We are opposed to all sumptuary laws as an interference with the individual rights of the citizen. "Section 22.-Upon this statement of principles and policies the Democratic party asks the intelligent judgment of the American people. It asks a change of administration and a change of party, in order that there may be a change of system and a change of methods, thus assuring the maintenance unimpaired of institutions under which the republic has grown great and powerful." As originally reported to the convention by the committee on resolutions, the platform contained only a HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK moderate declaration on the tariff question, modelled upon the expression in the Democratic platform of 1884 and making no reference to the constitutional subject in connection with the levying of duties. By a vote of 564 to 342 the convention rejected this original plank and substituted for it the first paragraph of Section 3 above. People's Party This organization was generally known as the Populist party. Convention held in Omaha, July 2-5; temporary chairman, C. H. Ellington, of Georgia; permanent chairman, H. L. Loucks, of South Dakota. Nominations: For President, James B. Weaver, of Iowa; for Vice-President, James G. Field, of Virginia. Platform: "Assembled upon the one hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the People's party of America, in their first national convention, invoking upon their action the blessing of Almighty God, puts forth, in the name and on behalf of the people of this country, the following preamble and declaration of principles: "The conditions which surround us best justify our coöperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling-places to prevent universal intimidation or bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, our homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right of organization for self-protection; imported pauper |