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General James G. Field, of Virginia, the formation of combines and rings, the and of the Confederate service, was nomi- impoverishment of the producing class. nated on the first ballot for Vice President. We pledge ourselves that, if given power, we will labor to correct these evils by wise People's Party Platform. and reasonable legislation, in accordance Preamble: Corruption dominates the with the terms of our platform. ballot box, the Legislatures, the Congress The platform proper, declares : and touches even the ermine of the bench. First. That the union of the labor forces The people are demoralized, most of the of the United States this day consummated States have been compelled to isolate the shall be permanent and perpetual. May voters at the polling places to prevent uni- its spirit into all hearts for the salvation versal intimidation or bribery. The news- of the Republic aid the uplifting of manpapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, kind.

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public opinion silenced, business pros- Second.-Wealth belongs to him who trated, our homes covered with mortgages, creates it, and every dollar taken from inlabor impoverished and the land concen-dustry without an equivalent is robbery. trating in the hands of the capitalists. "If any will not work, neither shall he The urban workmen are denied the right eat." The interests of rural and civic of organization for self-protection; impor- labor are the same: their enemies are ted pauperized labor beats down their identical.

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wages; a hireling standing army, unrec- Third. We believe that the time has ognized by our laws, is established to shoot come when the railroad corporations will them down, and they are rapidly degenera- either own the people or the people must ting into Europern conditions. The fruits own the railroads, and should the governof the toil of millions are boldly stolen to ment enter upon the work of owning and build up colossal fortunes for a few, unpre- managing all railroads, we should favor an cedented in the history of mankind, and amendment to the Constitution by which the possessors of these in turn despise the all persons engaged in the government serrepublic and endanger liberty. From the vice shall be placed under a Civil Service same prolific womb of govermental injustice regulation of the most rigid character, so we breed the two great classes-tramps as to prevent the increase of the power of and millionares. the national administration by the use of

The national power to create money is such additional government employés. appropriated to enrich bond-holders; a Finance.-We demand a national curvast public debt payable in legal tender rency, safe, sound and flexible, issued by currency has been funded into gold-bearing the general government only, a full legal bonds, thereby adding millions to the bur- tender for all debts, public and private, dens of the people. and that without the use of banking cor

Silver, which has been accepted as coin porations, a just, equitable and efficient since the dawn of history, has been de- means of distribution direct to the people, monetized to add to the purchasing power at a tax rate not to exceed two per cent. of gold by decreasing the value of all per annum to be provided as set forth in forms of property as well as human labor, the sub-Treasury plan of the Farmers' and the supply of currency is purposely Alliance or a better system: also by payabridged to fatten usurers and bankrupt ments in discharge of its obligations for enterprise and slave industry. public improvements.

(a).-We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1.

We declare that this republic can only endure as a free government while built upon the love of the whole people for each other and for the nation; that it cannot be (b).-We demand that the amount of pinned together by bayonets; that the circulating medium be speedily increased civil war is over, and that every passion to not less than $50 per capita.

and resentment which grew out of it must (c). We demand a graduated income die with it, and that we must be, in fact, tax.

as we are in name, one united brotherhood (d).-We believe that the money of the of free men. country should be kept as much as possiOur country finds itself confronted by ble in the hands of the people, and hence conditions for which there is no precedent we demand that all State and national in the history of the world. Our annual revenues shall be limited to the necessary agricultural productions amount to billions expenses of the government, economically of dollars in value, which must within a and honestly administered. few weeks or months be exchanged for (e). We demand that postal savings billions of dollars of commodities consumed banks be established by the government for in their production. The existing currency the safe deposit of the earnings of the peosupply is wholly inadequate to make this ple and to facilitate exchange. exchange. The results are falling prices, Transportation.-Transportation being a

means of exchange and a public necessity, natural sources of wealth, is the heritage the government should own and operate of the people and should not be monopothe railroads in the interests of the people. lized for speculative purposes, and alien (a). The telegraph, telephone, like the ownership of land should be prohibited. post-office system, being a necessity for the All land now held by railroads and other transmission of news, should be owned and corporations in excess of their actual needs, operated by the government in the inter- and all lands now owned by aliens, should est of the people. be reclaimed by the government and held

Land. The land, including all the for actual settlers only.

AMERICAN POLITICS.

BOOK III.

GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT ISSUES.

29

AMERICAN POLITICS.

BOOK III.

GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT ISSUES.

Speech of James Wilson,

ful prognostic, that they will continue sufJanuary, 1775, in the Convention for the Province of ficient for those purposes hereafter. It is

Pennsylvania,

IN VINDICATION OF THE COLONIES.

"A most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience still prevails in Massachusetts, and has broken forth in fresh violences of a criminal nature. The most

proper and effectual methods have been taken to prevent these mischiefs; and the parliament may depend weaken or impair the supreme authority of parlia ment over all the dominions of the crown."--Speech of the King of Great Britain to Parliament, Nov, 1774.

upon a firm resolution to withstand every attempt to

not yet exhausted: it will still operate irresistibly whenever a necessary occasion shall call forth its strength.

Permit me, sir, by appealing, in a few instances, to the spirit and conduct of the colonists, to evince that what I have said of them is just. Did they disclose any uneasiness at the proceedings and claims of the British parliament, before those claims and proceedings afforded a reasonable cause for it? Did they even disclose any uneasiness, when a reasonable cause for it was first given? Our rights were invaded by their regulations of our internal policy. We submitted to them: we were unwilling to oppose them. The spirit of liberty was slow to act. When those invasions were renewed; when the efficacy and malignancy of them were attempted to be redoubled by the stamp act; when chains were formed for us; and preparations were made for riveting them on our limbs, what measures did we pursue? The spirit of liberty found it necessary now to act; but she acted with the calmness and decent dignity suited to her character. Were we rash or seditious? Did we discover want of loyalty to our sovereign? Did we betray want of affection to our brethren in Britain? Let our dutiful and reverential petitions to the throne; let our respectful, though firm, remonstrances to the parliament; let our warm and affectionate addresses to our brethren and (we will still call them) our friends in Great Britain,--let all those, transmitted from every part of the continent, testify the truth. By their testimony let our conduct be tried.

MR. CHAIRMAN:- Whence, sir, proceeds all the invidious and ill-grounded clamor against the colonists of America? Why are they stigmatized in Britain as licentious and ungovernable? Why is their virtuous opposition to the illegal attempts of their governors, represented under the falsest colors, and placed in the most ungracious point of view? This opposition, when exhibited in its true light, and when viewed, with unjaundiced eyes, from a proper situation, and at a proper distance, stands confessed the lovely offspring of freedom. It breathes the spirit of its parent. Of this ethereal spirit, the whole conduct, and particularly the late conduct, of the colonists has shown them eminently possessed. It has animated and regulated every part of their proceedings. It has been recognized to be genuine, by all those symptoms and effects by which it has been distinguished in other ages and other countries. It has been calm and regular: it has not acted without occasion: it has not acted disproportionably to the occasion. As the attempts, open or secret, to undermine or to destroy it, have been repeated or enforced, in a just degree, its As our proceedings, during the existvigilance and its vigor have been exerted ence and operation of the stamp act, prove to defeat or to disappoint them. As its fully and incontestably the painful sensaexertions have been sufficient for those tions that tortured our breasts from the purposes hitherto, let us hence draw a joy-prospect of disunion with Brita; the

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