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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 produc tion 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 Legis. latures 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 continues 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.

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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 legisla. tion. 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 be. yond 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 assur

tinuous 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.

[ADDITIONAL RESOLUTION.] 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.

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1872-Among the questions which press for atten. tion is that which concerns the relations of capital and labor, and the Republican Party recognizes the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full protection and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator of capital, the largest opportunities and a just share of the mutual profits of these two great servants of civilization. [Plank 11.

1880-[See Part VII. for re-affirmation of Tariff Plank of 1876 as to protection to American labor.]

1884 We favor the establishment of a National Bureau of labor, the enforcement of the eight-hour law, and . . . protection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that active and intelligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring man his full share in the national prosperity. [See also Parts VII. and IX.]

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. We 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 affirm 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.t [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 organiza. tions 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."

And manifested its friendship by cutting down to starvation rates the pay of poor Department laborers, both male and female; by perpetual tariff-tinkering; by systems of peonage in the South; and by all other

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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 Inde. pendence, 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.

PART X.
Education.

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 Re. publicans] 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

*The Republican was the first political party to recognize the Chinese question as one of national importance, by the declaration in its platform of 1876, the subsequently adopted Democratic plank on the subject being simply a demagogical bid for votes.

Cherished" by outraging, violently expelling, or murdering school-teachers, and burning school-houses. In the South, prior to the war, common schools for the education of the people were contemptuously styled

tinuous 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.

[ADDITIONAL RESOLUTION.] 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.

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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.t [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 organiza. tions 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 Republi can 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."

And manifested its friendship by cutting down to starvation rates the pay of poor Department laborers, both male and female; by perpetual tariff-tinkering; by systems of peonage in the South; and by all other

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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.

PART X.
Education.

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,t and is resolved to maintain without prejudice or preference for any class, sect, or

*The Republican was the first political party to recognize the Chinese question as one of national importance, by the declaration in its platform of 1876, the subsequently adopted Democratic plank on the subject being simply a demagogical bid for votes.

Cherished by outraging, violently expelling, or murdering school-teachers, and burning school-houses. In the South, prior to the war, common schools for the education of the people were contemptuously styled

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