President Harrison was renominated by the Republicans and Whitelaw Reid was placed Upon the ticket with him. In the election the Democratic ticket polled a plurality of 132 in the Electoral College and a popular plurality of about 380,000. The People's Party nomi nated James B. Weaver of Iowa for President and James G. Field of Virginia for Vice-Presi dent and polled a little more than 1,000,000 votes.
During President Cleveland's second term two questions occupied public attention — the money question and the tariff question. Con gress was called together in extraordinary session in August 1893 and the President recommended the unconditional repeal of the Sherman Law. B' reference to the Democratic platform of 1892 it will be seen that the money plank contained a statement of the party's faith in the double standard as well as its desire for the repeal of the Sherman Act, and an effort to repeal the makeshift without restoring the double standard caused a division in the ranks of the party; but the President succeeded in securing the legislation which he desired. Doing this, however, he had the support of a larger percentage of the Republican senators and members than he had of the Democrats.
Congressman Wilson, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, reported a measure which bears his name and the bill as it passed the House was satisfactory to the friends of tariff reform; but it was emasculated by the Senate, where a coterie of Democratic senators refused to support it until the rates of several schedules were raised. The President refused to sign the bill, but allowed it to become a law without his signature. The bill contained an income tax, but this clause was declared un constitutional by the Supreme Court, the vote standing five to four. The decision was ren dered at the second hearing. At the first hear ing the vote stood four to four, and as the ninth judge who was not present until the sec ond hearing favored the tax it required the change of opinion on the part of one of the judges to render the income tax inoperative.
After the passage of the tariff law the cur rency question again occupied the attention of Congress and became the paramount issue in the campaign of 1896. The money issue was
fought out in the party and the delegates to the Chicago convention were instructed to carry out the financial policy endorsed by the mem bers of the State convention selecting them, who in turn had been instructed by county con ventions. As a result of this inter-party contest the advocates of bimetallism won a decisive victory, having more than two-thirds of the national delegates.
The following platform was adopted: We, the Democrats of the United States in National Convention assembled, do reaffirm our allegiance to those great essential principles of justice and liberty, upon which our institutions are founded, and which the Democratic party of advocated time our the preservation of rights. the equality of allcitizens before the law, and the faithful observance of constitutional limitations.
Daring all these years the Democratic party has resisted the tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental power, and steadfastly maintained the integrity of the dual scheme of government established by the founders of this Republic of republics. Under its guiding. and teachings the great principle of local self government has found its best expression in the maintenance of the rights of the States and in its assertion of the necessity of confining the general government to the exercise of the powers granted by the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution of the United States guarantees to every citizen the rights of civil and religious liberty. The Democratic party has always been the exponent of political liberty and religious freedom, and it renews its obligations and reaffirms its devotions to these fundamental principles of the Constitution.
Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the Federal Constitution named silver and gold together as the money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by Congress under the Consti tution made the silver dollar the monetary unit and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver-dollar unit.