THE People’s Party does not attempt the impossible, or seek the unattainable.
Our young men do not dream dreams; our old men do not see visions. We are wedded to practical reforms which have been tried in civilized communities, and which have vindicated themselves by results.
We do not propose to re-create society, subvert law and order, confiscate property, or substitute a new system of government for the old.
We do not want to tear down the house in order to repair it.
We do not hope to build a perfect state with imperfect human hands, but we do intend to make the government as nearly perfect as possible, to the end that it shall represent that conception of justice which deals with all men alike, and allows to every child of Adam a fair chance in the world which God created as a home for the human race.
We believe that the government should be clothed with all the attributes of sovereignty; that the government should govern, and should not delegate to private citizens or corporations any part of its sovereign power.
The creation of a national currency has always been an attribute of sovereignty—of royalty.
In a system where the people rule the people succeed to the power of the king; and that attribute of sovereignty which the king exercised and did not delegate should be exercised by the people and should not be delegated.
Therefore, the Populists, successors to the old Greenbackers, have always clung to it as an article of faith that the Federal Government should exercise its constitutional right to create a currency, and should not delegate that power to national banks or to private citizens or corporations.