8. That the Constitution, in giving Congress the power to borrow money, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, never intended that the men who loaned their money for an interest consideration should be preferred to the soldier and sailor who perilled their lives and shed their blood on land and sea in defence of their country; and we condemn the cruel class legislation of the Republican party, which, while professing great gratitude to the soldier, has most unjustly discriminated against him and in favor of the bondholder. 9. All property should bear its just proportion of taxation; and we demand a graduated income tax. 10. We denounce as most dangerous the efforts everywhere manifest to restrict the right of suffrage. 11. We are opposed to an increase of the standing army in time of peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous military power under the guise of militia laws. 12. We demand absolute democratic rules for the government of Congress, placing all representatives of the people upon an equal footing, and taking away from committees a veto power greater than that of the President. 13. We demand a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, instead of a government of the bondholders, by the bondholders, and for the bondholders; and we denounce every attempt to stir up sectional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous crimes against the people. 14. In the furtherance of these ends, we ask the co-operation of all fair-minded people. We have no quarrel with individuals, wage no war upon classes, but only against vicious institutions. We are not content to endure further discipline from our present actual rulers, who, having dominion over money, over transportation, over land and labor, and largely over the press and the machinery of government, wield unwarrantable power over our institutions, and over our life and property. 15. That every citizen of due age, sound mind, and not a felon, be fully enfranchised, and that this resolution be referred to the States, with recommendation for their favorable consideration. The Prohibition convention met at Cleveland on the 17th of June. The platform was substantially a repetition of the platform of 1876, and General Neal Dow, of Maine, was presented for President, and A. M. Thompson, of Ohio, for Vice-President. The few scattered fragments of the American party held a convention on the 27th of June, and nominated John W. Phelps, of Vermont, for President, and Samuel C. Pomeroy, of Kansas, for Vice-President. Their platform declared against secret societies, Freemasonry in particular, and all other anti-Christian movements. The party was not heard of in the contest.