trade among our citizens, and we recommend to Congress and the State Legislatures in their respective jurisdictions, such legislation as will prevent the execution of all schemes to oppress the people by undue charges on their supplies, or by unjust rates for the transportation of their products to market. We approve the legislation by Congress to prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair discriminations between the States.

admission of the Territories of New Mexico. Wyoming, Idaho, and Arizona to the enjoyment of self-government as States, such of them as are now qualified, as soon aspossible, and the others as soon as they may become so.

The political power of the Mormon Church in the Territories, as exercised in the past, is a menace to free institutions, a danger no longer to be suffered. Therefore we pledge the Republican Party to appropriate legislation asserting the sovereignty of the Nation in all Territories where the same is questioned, and in furtherance of that end, to place upon the statute books legislation stringent enough to divorce the political from the ecclesiastical power, and thus stamp out the attendant wickedness of polygamy.

The Republican Party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic Administration in its efforts to demonetize silver. We demand the reduction of letter postage to one cent per ounce.

We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlersnot aliens - which the Republican Party established in 1862, against the persistent opposition of the Democrats in Congress, and which has brought our great Western domain into such magnificent development. The restoration of unearned railroad land grants to the public domain for the use of settlers, which was begun under the Administration of President Arthur, should be continued. We deny that the Democratic Party has ever restored one acre to the people, but declare that by the joint action of Republicans and In a Republic like ours, where the citizen Democrats in Congress, about 50,000,000 of is the sovereign, and the official the servant; acres of unearned lands originally granted where no power is exercised except by the for the construction of railroads have been will of the people, it is important that the restored to the public domain, in pursu- sovereign- the people-should possess inance of the conditions inserted by the Repub- telligence. The free school is the promoter lican Party in the original grants. We charge of that intelligence, which is to preserve us the Democratic Administration with failure as a free Nation; therefore the State or Nato execute the laws securing to settlers titles tion, or both combined, should support free to their homesteads and with using appropri-institutions of learning, sufficient to afford ations made for that purpose to harass innocent settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretense of exposing frauds and vindicating the law.

to every child growing in the land the opportunity of a good common-school education.

The first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people, and the purity of the home. The Republican Party cordially sympathizes with all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality.

The government by Congress of the Territories is based upon necessity, only to the end that they may become States in the Union; therefore, whenever the conditions of population, material resources, public in- We earnestly recommend that prompt actelligence and morality are such as to insure tion be taken by Congress on the enactment a stable local government therein, the people of such legislation as will best secure the reof such Territories should be permitted as a habilitation of our American merchant maright inherent in them to form for themselves rine, and we protest against the passage by Constitutions and State Governments and be Congress of a free-ship bill, as calculated to admitted into the Union. Pending the pre- work injustice to labor by lessening the wages paration for statehood, all officers thereof of those engaged in preparing materials, as should be selected from the bona fide resid- well as those directly employed in our shipents and citizens of the Territory wherein yards. We demand appropriations for the they are to serve. South Dakota should of early rebuilding of our Navy; for the conright be immediately admitted as a State instruction of coast fortifications and modern the Union, under the Constitution framed ordnance, and other approved modern means and adopted by her people, and we heartily of defence for the protection of our defenceindorse the act of the Republican Senate in less harbors and cities; for the payment of twice passing bills for her admission. The just pensions to our soldiers; for necessary refusal of the Democratic House of Repre- works of National importance in the imsentatives, for partisan purposes, to favorably provement of harbors, and the channels of consider these bills, is a willful violation of internal, coastwise, and foreign commerce; the sacred American principle of local self- for the encouragement of the shipping intergovernment, and merits the condemnation of ests of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific States, all just men. The pending bills in the Sen- as well as for the payment of the maturing ate to enable the people of Washington, public debt. This policy will give employNorth Dakota, and Montana Territories to ment to our labor, activity to our various form Constitutions and establish State gov-industries, increase the security of our counernments should be passed without unneces- try, promote trade, open new and direct sary delay. The Republican Party pledges markets for our produce, and cheapen the

NATIONAL PLATFORMS 1888.

far better for our country than the Democratic policy of loaning the Government's money, without interest, to "pet banks.” The conduct of foreign affairs by the present Administration has been distinguished by its inefficiency and its cowardice. Having withdrawn from the Senate all pending trea ties effected by Republican Administrations for the removal of foreign burdens and restrictions upon our commerce, and for its extension into better markets, it has neither effected nor proposed any others in their stead. Professing adherence to the Monroe Doctrine, it has seen, with idle complacency, the extension of foreign influence in Central America, and of foreign trade everywhere among our neighbors.

3

observed in all executive appointments, and
ing reform legislation should be repealed, to
all laws at variance with the object of exist-
the end that the dangers to free institutions
which lurk in the power of official patronage
The gratitude of the Nation to the defend-
may be wisely and effectively avoided."
ers of the Union cannot be measured by laws.
The legislation of Congress should conform
to the pledges made by a loyal people, and be
so enlarged and extended as to provide against
the possibility that any man who honorably
wore the Federal uniform shall become an
inmate of an almshouse or dependent upon
private charity. In the presence of an over-
flowing treasury it would be a public 'scandal
It has refused to to do less for those whose valorous service
preserved the Government. We denounce
the hostile spirit shown by President Cleve-
land in his numerous vetoes of measures for
pension relief, and the action of the Demo-
cratic Representatives in refusing even a con-
In support of the principles herewith enun-
sideration of general pension legislation.
men of all parties, and especially of all work-
ciated we invite the co-operation of patriotic
ingmen, whose prosperity is seriously threat-
ened by the Free Trade policy of the present
Administration.

charter, sanction, or encourage any American organization for constructing the Nicaragua Canal, a work of vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, and of our National influence in Central and South America, and necessary for the development of trade with our Pacific territory, with South America, and with the islands and further coasts of the Pacific Ocean.

We arraign the present Democratic Administration for its weak and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries question, and its pusillanimous surrender of the essential privileges to which our fishing-vessels are entitled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830, and the comity of nations, and which Canadian fishing-vessels receive in the ports of the United States. We condemn the policy of the present Administration and the Democratic majority in Congress toward our fisheries as unfriendly and conspicuously unpatriotic, and as tending to destroy a valuable National industry, and an indispensable source of defence against a foreign enemy.

The name of American applies alike to all citizens of the Republic, and imposes upon all alike the same obligation of obedience to the laws. At the same time that citizenship is and must be the panoply and safeguard of him who wears it, and protect him, whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil rights, it should and must afford him protection at home, and follow and protect him abroad, in whatever land he may be on a lawful errand.

PART II.

Democratic *- 1888.

The Democratic Party of the United States, in National Convention assembled, renews the pledge of its fidelity to Democratic faith, and reaffirms the platform adopted by its Cleveland in his last earnest message to Conrepresentatives in the convention of 1884, and indorses the views expressed by President gress as the correct interpretation of that platform upon the question of tariff reduction; and also indorses the efforts of our Democratic representatives in Congress to secure a reduction of excessive taxation. Among its principles of party faith are the maintenance of the indissoluble Union of free and indestructible States, now about to government regulated by a written Constituenter upon its second century of unexampled progress and renown; devotion to a plan of The men who abandoned the Republican tion strictly specifying every granted power, Party in 1884 and continue to adhere to the and expressly reserving to the States or peoDemocratic Party, have deserted not only the ple the entire ungranted residue of power; cause of honest government, of sound finance, the encouragement of a jealous popular vigilof freedom or purity of the ballot, but espe-ance directed to all who have been chosen for cially have deserted the cause of reform in the Civil Service. We will not fail to keep our pledges because they have broken theirs, or because their candidate has broken his. We therefore repeat our declaration of 1884, to wit: "The reform of the Civil Service auspiciously begun under the Republican Administration should be completed by the further extension of the reform system already established by law, to all the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and purpose of the reform should be

brief terms to enact and execute the laws, and are charged with the duty of preserving peace, insuring equality, and establishing justice.

The Democratic Party welcomes an exacting scrutiny of the administration of the executive power, which, four years ago, was committed to its trust in the election of Grover Cleveland President of the United States, but it challenges the most searching 1888.

* Agreed to, unanimously, at St. Louis, June 7

While carefully guarding the interest of the principles of justice and equity, it has paid out more for pensions and bounties to the soldiers and sailors of the Republic than was ever paid before during an equal period. It has adopted and consistently pursued a firm and prudent foreign policy, preserving peace with all nations, while scrupulously maintaining all the rights and interests of our own Government, and the people at home and abroad. The exclusion from our shores of Chinese laborers has been effectually secured under the provision of a treaty, the operation of which has been postponed by the action of a Republican majority in the Senate.

they buy is increased by the favoritism of an unequal system of tax legislation. All unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation.

inquiry concerning its fidelity and devotion to the pledges which then invited the suffrages of the people during a most critical period of our financial affairs, resulting from It is repugnant to the creed of Democracy over-taxation, the anomalous condition of that by such taxation the cost of the necesour currency, and a public debt unmatured.saries of life should be unjustifiably increased It has, by the adoption of a wise and conser-to all'our people. Judged by Democratic prinvative course, not only avoided disaster, but ciples, the interests of the people are betrayed, greatly promoted the prosperity of our people. when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and It has reversed the improvident and unwise combinations are permitted to exist, which, policy of the Republican Party touching the while unduly enriching the few that combine, public domain, and has reclaimed from cor- rob the body of our citizens by depriving porations and syndicates, alien and domestic, them of the benefits of natural competition. and restored to the people, nearly one hundred Every Democratic rule of governmental action millions of acres of land to be sacredly held as is violated when through unnecessary taxation homesteads for our citizens. a vast sum of money, far beyond the needs of an economical administration, is drawn from the people and the channels of trade, and accumulated as a demoralizing surplus in the national treasury. The money now lying idle in the federal treasury, resulting from superfluous taxation, amounts to more than one hundred and twenty-five millions, and the surplus collected is reaching the sum of more than sixty millions annually. Debauched by this immense temptation, the remedy of the Republican Party is to meet and exhaust, by extravagant appropriations and expenses, whether constitutional or not, the accumulation of extravagant taxation. The Democratic policy is to enforce frugality in public expense, and abolish unnecessary taxation. Our established domestic industries and enterprises should not, and need not, be endangered by the reduction and correction of the burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fair and careful revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the difference between the wages of American and foreign labor, must promote and encourage every branch of such industries and enterprises, by giving them assurances of an extended market and steady and continuous operations in the interests of American labor, which should in no event be neglected. Revision of our tax laws, contemplated by the Democratic Party, should promote the advantage of such labor by cheapening the cost of necessaries of life in the home of every workingman, and at the same time securing to him steady remunerative employment. Upon this question of tariff reform, so closely concerning every phase of our national life, and upon every question involved in the problem of good government, the Democratic Party submits its principles and professions to the intelligent suffrages of the American people.

In every branch and department of the Government under Democratic control, the rights and the welfare of all the people have been guarded and defended; every public interest has been protected, and the equality of all our citizens before the law, without regard to race or color, has been steadfastly maintained. Upon its record, thus exhibited, and upon the pledge of a continuance to the people of the benefits of Democracy, it invokes a renewal of public trust by the reelection of a Chief Magistrate who has been faithful, able, and prudent, and invokes, in addition to that trust, the transfer also to the Democracy of the entire legislative power.

The Republican Party controlling the Senate and resisting in both Houses of Congress a reformation of unjust and unequal tax laws, which have outlasted the necessities of war, and are now undermining the abundance of a long peace, deny to the people equality before the law, and the fairness and the justice which are their right. Then the cry of American labor for a better share in the rewards of industry is stifled with false pretence, enterprise is fettered and bound down to home markets, capital is discouraged with doubt, and unequal, unjust laws can neither be properly amended or repealed.

The Democratic Party will continue with all the power confided to it the struggle to reform these laws in accordance with the pledges of its last platform, indorsed at the ballot-box by the suffrages of the people. all the industrious freemen of our land, the immense majority, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage from excessive

Of

Additional Resolutions.*

"Resolved, That this convention hereby indorses and recommends the early passage of the bill for the reduction of the revenue now pending in the House of Representatives.†

"Resolved, That we express our cordial

* A resolution was adopted declaring for the admission of the Territories of Washington, Dakota,

Montana, and New Mexico into the Union.

sympathy with struggling people of all na- cially declare our sympathy with the effort of tions in their efforts to secure for themselves those noble patriots who, led by Gladstone the inestimable blessings of self-government and Parnell, have conducted their grand and and civil and religious liberty, and we espe- peaceful contest for home-rule in Ireland."

CHAPTER II.

National Platform Analysis, 1840-1888.

Republican.

PART I.

General Party Doctrines.

1843-[The "Liberty Party," in National Convention at Buffalo, declared:

That human brotherhood is a cardinal principle of true Democracy, as well as of pure Christianity, which spurns all inconsistent limitations; and neither the political party which repudiates it, nor the politi cal system which is not based upon it can be truly Democratic or permanent.

That the Liberty Party, placing itself upon this broad principle, will demand the absolute and unqualified divorce of the General Government from slavery, and also the restoration of equality of rights, among men, in every State where the party exists, or may exist.]

1856-That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union, to the States shall be preserved; that, with our Republican fathers, we hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction. [Plank 1.

1860-That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union of the States must and shall be preserved. [Plank 2. 1864

1848 Reaffirmed.
1852

Reaffirmed.
1856-Reaffirmed.

1860-Reaffirmed.

1864

PART II.

The Rebellion.