message. Its leaders eagerly seized the prospect of returning to power through alliance with the great protected industries of the country, and by the aid of those subsidized interests which will earnestly throw their great resources of men and means to the aid of any party that will guarantee them a continuance of those bounties from the public treasury and fight for the maintenance of their monopolies. There was no other candidate thought of than President Cleveland when the National Democratic Convention met at St. Louis in June, 1888, and he was renominated unanimously and amid great enthusiasm upon a platform endorsing his message and approving the Mills' bill for tariff reduction as its practical interpretation. Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, whose name for many years has been a synonym of old-fashioned Democratic faith, and a name to conjure with among the masses of the party, was chosen for Vice-President on the first ballot. The Republican Convention met at Chicago, June 19, and on the eighth ballot nominated Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana, for President, with whom it joined Levi P. Morton, of New York, for Vice-President. Its platform declared in favor of an ultra protective policy and a liberal system of appropriations. Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, and John A. Brooks, of Missouri, were nominated for President and Vice-President by a Prohibition Convention which met at Indianapolis May 30. And thus the Democratic party, having found not only leaders but a great cause, has been transformed from a party of opposition into a party of positive policies and aggressive courage. As such it appeals to the people, whose battle it is fighting, and in an especial manner to the youth and the intelligence of the land. In its success are involved not only the issues of just and equal taxation, but the more momentous question whether the race in life shall still be kept open and unhindered to the poor and humble, or the chasm between the rich and the poor grow steadily wider and more difficult to cross, as the power of the government is thrown in favor of the former and against the latter. |