1888. - We are uncompromisingly in favor of the American system of Protection; we protest against its destruction as proposed by the President and his party. They serve the interests of Europe; we will support the interests of America. We accept the issue, and confidently appeal to the people for their judgment. The protective system must be maintained. Its abandonment has always been followed by general disaster to all interests, except those of the usurer and the sheriff. We denounce the Mills bill as destructive to the general business, the labor, and the farming interests of the country, and we heartily indorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Republican Representatives in Congress in opposing its passage. We condemn the proposition of the Democratic Party to place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties thereon shall be adjusted and maintained so as to furnish full and adequate protection to that industry throughout the United States.

The Republican Party would effect all needed reduction of the national revenue by repealing the taxes upon tobacco, which are an annoyance and burden to agriculture, and the tax upon spirits used in the arts and for mechanical purposes; and by such revision of the tariff laws as will tend to check imports of such articles as are produced by our people, the production of which gives employment to our labor, and release from import duties those articles of foreign production (except luxuries), the like of which cannot be produced at home. If there shall still remain a larger revenue than is requisite for the wants of the Government, we favor the entire repeal of internal taxes rather than the surrender of any part of our Protective System at the joint behest of the whiskey trusts and the agents of foreign manufacturers.

We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital organized in trusts or otherwise to control arbitrarily the condition of 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 legisla tion by Congress to prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair discriminations between the States.

We protest against the passage by Congress of a free-ship bill, as calculated to work injustice to labor by lessening the wages of those engaged in preparing materials, as well as those directly employed in our ship-yards. [See Part VIII.

The system of direct taxation known as "internal revenue "is a war tax, and so long as the law con. tinues the money derived therefrom should be sacredly devoted to the relief of the people from the remaining burdens of the war and be made a fund to defray the expenses of the care and comfort of worthy soldiers disabled in the line of duty in the wars of the Republic, and for the payment of such pensions as Congress may from time to time grant to such soldiers, a like fund for the sailors having been already provided, and any surplus should be paid into the treasury.

Instead of the Republican Party's discredited scheme and false pretence of friendship for American labor, expressed by imposing taxes, we demand in behalf of the Democracy, freedom for American labor by reducing taxes, to the end that these United States may compete with unhindered powers for the primacy among nations in all the arts of peace and fruits of liberty.

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 representatives in the convention of 1884, and indorses the views expressed by President Cleveland in his last earnest message to Congress 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.

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. Of all the industrious freemen of our land, the immense majority, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage from excessive tax laws, but the price of nearly everything they buy is increased by the favoritism of an unequal system of tax legislation. All unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation.

It is repugnant to the creed of Democracy that by such taxation the cost of the necessaries of life should be unjustifiably increased to all our people. Judged by Democratic principles, the interests of the people are betrayed, when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and combinations are permitted to exist, which, while unduly enriching the few that combine, rob the body of our citizens by depriving them of the benefits of natural competition. Every Democratic rule of governmental action is violated when through unnecessary taxation 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 con.

tinuous operations in the interests of American labor, which should in no event be neglected. Revision of our tax laws, contemplated by the Demo cratic 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 prin ciples and professions to the intelligent suffrages of the American people.

[ADDITIONAL RESOLUTION.] That this Conver tion hereby indorses and recommends the early passage of the bill for the reduction of the revenue, now pending in the House of Representatives.

We

1888- We earnestly recommend that prompt action be taken by Congress on the enactment of such legislation as will best secure the rehabilitation of our American merchant marine, and we protest against the passage by Congress of a free-ship bill, as calculated to work injustice to labor by lessening the wages of those engaged in preparing materials, as well as those directly employed in our ship-yards. demand appropriations for the early rebuilding of our Navy; for the construction of coast fortifications and modern ordnance, and other approved modern means of defence for the protection of our defenceless harbors and cities; for the payment of just pensions to our soldiers; for necessary works of national importance in the improvement of harbors and the channels of internal, of coastwise and foreign commerce; for the encouragement of the shipping interests of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific States, as well as for the payment of the maturing public debt. This policy will give employment to our labor, activity to our various industries, increase the security of our country, promote trade, open new and direct markets for our produce, and cheapen the cost of transporta. tion. We aflirm this to be far better for our country than the Democratic policy of loaning the Government's money, without interest, to "pet banks." [See also Part IX. "The Chinese."]

The Mills Free-trade bill.

Democratic.

1868-Resolved, That this convention sympathize cordially with the workingmen of the United States in their efforts to protect the rights and interests of the laboring classes of the country. 1872

1880 -The Democratic Party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorant and the commune.† [Plank 13.

1884 We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest and most enlightened. It should therefore be fostered and cherished. We favor the repeal of all laws restricting the free action of labor, and the enactment of laws by which labor organizations may be incorporated, and of all such legislation as will tend to enlighten the people as to the true relations of capital and labor.

[See also Parts VII. and IX.]

1888- Re-affirmed.

Debauched by this immense temptation [the surplus in the Treasury] 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. [See also Part VII., "Tariff, Internal Revenue, and Trusts," and Part IX., "The Chinese."

1876-It is the immediate duty of Congress to fully investigate the effect of the immigration and importation of Mongolians upon the moral and material interests of the country. [Plank 11.*

1880-Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Congress of the United States and the treaty-making power, the Republican Party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of Chinese as a matter of grave concernment under the exercise of both these powers, would limit and restrict that immigration by the enactment of such just, humane, and reasonable laws and treaties as will produce that result. [Plank 6.

1884- The Republican Party, having its birth in a hatred of slave labor, and in a desire that all men may be free and equal, is unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in competition with any form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. In this spirit we denounce the importation of contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as an offence against the spirit of American institutions, and we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law restricting Chinese immigration, and to provide such further legislation as is necessary to carry out its purposes.

1888- -We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of foreign contract labor and of Chinese labor, alien to our civilization and Constitution, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the existing laws against it, and favor such immediate legislation as will exclude such labor from our shores.

Democratic.

1876-Reform is necessary to correct the omis sions of a Republican Congress, and the errors of our treaties and our diplomacy, which have stripped our fellow citizens of foreign birth and kindred race recrossing the Atlantic, of the shield of American citizenship, and have exposed our brethren of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a race not sprung from the same great parent stock, and in fact now by law denied citizenship through naturalization as being neither accustomed to the traditions of a progressive civilization nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy which thus discards the liberty-loving German and tolerates a revival of the coolie trade in Mongolian women imported for immoral purposes, and Mongolian men held to perform servile labor contracts, and demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race.

1880- Amendment of the Burlingame Treaty. No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully guarded. [Plank 11.

1884 In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic platform of 1856, that "the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned by the Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith," we nevertheless do not sanction the importation of foreign labor, or the admission of servile races, unfitted by habits, training, religion, or kindred, for absorption into the great body of our people, or for the citizenship which our laws confer. American civilization demands that against the immigration or importation of Mongolians to these shores, our gates be closed.

1888-Reaffirmed.

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.

Republican.

1876-The public-school system of the several States is the bulwark of the American Republic, and with a view to its security and permanence we recommend an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forbidding the application of any public funds or property for the benefit of any schools or institutions under sectarian control. [Plank 4.

Democratic.

1876-The false issue with which they [the Republicans would enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the public schools, of which the establishment and support belong exclusively to the several States, and which the Democratic Party has cherished from their foundation, and is resolved to maintain without prejudice or preference for any class, sect, or

1880-The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several States, but it is the duty of the National Government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional ability. The intelligence of the Nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence in the several States, and the destiny of the Nation must be guided, not by the genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all. [Plank 3.

1884 We favor . . a wise and judicious system of general education by adequate appropriation from the national revenues wherever the same is needed.

1888 In a republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign and the official the servant; where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign-the peopleshould possess intelligence. The free school is the promoter of that intelligence, which is to preserve us as a free Nation; therefore the State or Nation, or both combined, should support free institutions of learning sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education.

We demand the reduction of letter postage to one cent per ounce.

1864 1868

Democratic.

1844 That the proceeds of the Public Lan ought to be sacredly applied to the national obje specified in the Constitution, and that we are oppos to the laws lately adopted, and to any law for the o tribution of such proceeds among the States, as al inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the Con

tution.

1848-Re-affirmed; excepting the words: the laws lately adopted, and

1852-Re-affirmed.

1856-Re-affirmed.* 1860-Re-affirmed.

1864

[Plank 1.

1868-That the public lands should be distribute as widely as possible among the people, and shoul be disposed of either under the pre-emption of hom stead lands, or sold in reasonable quantities, and t none but actual occupants, at the minimum pric established by the Government. When grants of th public lands may be allowed, necessary for the en couragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the land themselves, should be so applied.

1872- We are opposed to all further grants o lands to railroads or other corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to actual settlers.

[Plank 10.

1876 Reform is necessary to put a stop to the profligate waste of public lands, and their diversion from actual settlers by the party in power, which has squandered 200,000,000 of acres upon railroads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate has disposed of less than a sixth directly to tillers of the soil.

1880-Re-affirmed.

1884 The public lands are a heritage of the peole of the United States, and should be reserved as ar as possible for small holdings by actual settlers. We are opposed to the acquisition of large tracts of hese lands by corporations or individuals, especially vhere such holdings are in the hands of non-resident liens, and we will endeavor to obtain such legislation is will tend to correct this evil. We demand of Conpress the speedy forfeiture of all land-grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance with acts of ncorporation, in all cases where there has been no attempt in good faith to perform the conditions of such grants.

1888 We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlers, not 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. charge the Democratic Administration with failure to execute the laws securing to settlers title to their homesteads and with using appropriations made for that purpose to harass innocent settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretense of exposing frauds and vindicating the law.†

.. We

Public lands to actual settlers.

[Plank 12. 1884 We believe that the public lands ought, as far as possible, to be kept as homesteads for actual settlers; that all unearned lands heretofore improvi dently granted to railroad corporations by the action of the Republican Party should be restored to the public domain; and that no more grants of land shall be made to corporations or be allowed to fall into the ownership of alien absentees.

1888 Re-affirmed.

It [the Democratic Party] has reversed the im provident and unwise policy of the Republican Party touching the public domain, and has reclaimed from corporations and syndicates, alien and domestic, and restored to the people nearly 100,000,000 acres of land to be sacredly held as homesteads for our citizens.*

Democratic.

1856-That the Democratic Party recognizes the great importance in a political and commercial point of view, of a safe and speedy communication through our own territory between the Atlantic and the Pacific Coasts of the Union, and it is the duty of the Federal Government to exercise all its constitutional power to the attainment of that object, thereby binding the Union of these States in indissoluble bonds, and opening to the rich commerce of Asia an overland transit from the Pacific to the Mississippi River, and the great lakes of the North.

[Resolution attached to Platform.‡

1860- That one of the necessities of the age, in a military, commercial, and postal point of view, is speedy communication between the Atlantic and Pa. cific States; and the Democratic Party pledge such constitutional Government aid as will insure the construction of a railroad to the Pacific Coast at the earliest practicable period.

[Resolve III. of Douglas (Dem.) Platform. 1860- Whereas, one of the greatest necessities of the age, in a political, commercial, postal, and mili tary point of view, is a speedy communication be tween the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts; therefore, be it Resolved, That the National Democratic Party do hereby pledge themselves to use every means in their power to secure the passage of some bill, to the extent of the constitutional authority of Congress, for the construction of a Pacific Railroad from the M18. sissippi River to the Pacific Ocean, at the earliest practicable moment.

[Last plank of Breckenridge (Dem.) platform. 1864

1868-... When grants of the public lands may be allowed, necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be so applied.