charged it to see that slavery does not exist, the aggregate of the intelligence in the several [applause]; it has raised the value of our paper States, and the destiny of the nation must be currency from 38 per cent. to the par of gold guided, not by the genius of any one State, [applause]; it has restored, upon a solid basis, but by the average genius of all. [Applause.] payment in coin of all national obligations, 4. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress and has given us a currency absolutely good to make any law respecting the establishment and equal in every part of our extended coun- of religion, but it is idle to hope that the natry, [applause]; it has litted the credit of the tion can be protected against the influence of Nation from the point of where 6 per cent. secret sectarianism, while each State is exbonds sold at 86, to that where 4 per cent. bonds posed to its domination. We, therefore, recomare eagerly sought at a premium. [Applause.] mend that the Constitution be so amended Under its administration railways have in- as to lay the same prohibition upon the legiscreased from 31,000 miles in 1860 to more than lature of each State, and to forbid the ap82,000 miles in 1879. [Applause.] Our for-propriation of public funds to the support of eign trade increased from $700,000,000 to sectarian schools. [Cheers.] $1,150,000,000 in the same time, and our exports, which were $20,000,000 less than our imports in 1860, were $265,000,000 more than our imports in 1879. [Applause, and cries of Good!" "Good!"] Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of government besides the accruing interest on the public debt, and has disbursed annually more than $30,000,000 for soldiers' and sailors' pensions. It has paid $880,000,000 of the public debt, and, by refunding the balance at lower rates, has reduced the annual interest charge from nearly $150,000,000 to less than $89,000,000. All the industries of the country have revived, labor is in demand, wages have increased, and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. Upon this record the Republican party asks for the continued confidence and support of the people, and this convention submits for their approval the following statement of the principles and purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts :

7

1. We affirm that the work of the Republican party for the last twenty years has been such as to commend it to the favor of the nation; that the fruits of the costly victories which we have achieved through immense difficulties should be preserved; that the peace regained should be cherished; that the Union should be perpetuated, and that the liberty secured to this generation should be transmitted undiminished to other generations; that the order established and the credit acquired should never be impaired; that the pensions promised should be paid; that the debt so much reduced should be extinguished by the full payment of every dollar thereof; that the reviving industries should be further promoted, and that the commerce already increasing should be encouraged.

5. We reaffirm the belief avowed in 1876 that the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor American labor (cheers); that no further grants of the public domain should be made to any railway or other corporation; that slavery having perished in the States, its twin barbarity, polygamy must die in the Territories; that everywhere the protection accorded to a citizen of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption. That we deem it the duty of Congress to develop and inprove our seacoast and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to private persons or corporations must cease, [cheers]; that the obligations of the Republic to the men who preserved its integrity in the day of battle are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen years since their final victory. To do them honor is and shall forever be the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American people.

6. Since the authority to regulate immigra tion and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Congress of the United States and the treatymaking 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.

7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the earlier career of Rutherford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which guided the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to him for a Presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as Chief Executive; and that history will accord to his Administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his vetoes interposed between the people and attempted [Cheers.]

2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and not a mere State it A partisan plause.] Out of confederated a sovereign nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others are denied to the States, but the boundary between the powers delegated and those reserved' is to be determined by the National, and not by the State they have obstructed all to promote the

We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and patronage; that to obtain possession of the National Government & pl of the place,

purity and to conserve the freedom of the suffrage, and have devised fraudulent ballots, and invented fraudulent certification of returns; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Congress, to secure at all hazards the vote of a majority of States in the

se of Representatives; have endeavored ccupy by force and fraud the places of t given to others by the people of Maine, ned by the courage and action of Maine's iotic sons; have, by methods vicious in ciple and tyrannical in practice, attached isan legislation to appropriation bills whose passage the very movement of rnment depended; have crushed the s of the individual; have advocated the iples and sought the favor of the Rebelagainst the nation, and have endeavored literate the sacred memories and to overthe inestimably valuable results of nationpersonal freedom and individual equality. e equal, and steady, and complete enment of the laws, and the protection of all itizens in the enjoyment of all privileges mmunity guaranteed by the Constitution, he first duties of the nation. Applause.] e dangers of a "solid South" can only erted by a faithful performance of every ise which the nation has made to the n. [Applause.] The execution of the and the punishment of all those who te them, are the only safe methods by h an enduring peace can be secured and ine prosperity established throughout the

ocratic party, as illustrated by the teachings and example of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots, and embodied in the platform of the last National Convention of the party.

2. Opposition to centralizationism, and to that dangerous spirit of encroachment which tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever be the form of government, a real despotism. No sumptuary laws; separation of Church and State, for the good of each; common schools fostered and protected.

3. Home rule; honest money-the strict maintenance of the public faith-consisting of gold and silver, and paper convertible into coin on demand; the strict maintenance of the public faith, State and National, and a tariff for revenue only.

4. The subordination of the military to the civil power, and a general and thorough reform of the civil service.

5. The right to a free ballot is the right preservative of all rights, and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States. 6. The existing Administration is the representative of conspiracy only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops and obstruct the electors, and the use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, insult the people and imperil their institutions.

h. [Applause.] Whatever promises the and deputy marshals, to intimrecedented

A

n make the nation must perform,
n cannot with safety relegate this duty
e States. The "solid South" must be
led by the peaceful agencies of the ballot
All honest opinions must there find free
ession. To this end the honest voter
be protected against terrorism, violence,
aud. [Applause.]

7. The great fraud of 1876-77, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls was declared to be President, and, for the first d we affirm it to be the duty and the pur-time in American history, the will of the of the Republican party to use all legitimeans to restore all the States of this n to the most perfect harmony which be possible, and we submit to the practisensible people of these United States to whether it would not be dangerous to the est interests of our country at this time to ender the administration of the National rnment to a party which seeks to overthe existing policy under which we are osperous, and thus bring distrust and asion where there is now order, confie, and hope. [Applause.]

people was set aside under a threat of military violence, struck a deadly blow at our system of representative government; the Democratic party, to preserve the country from a civil war, submitted for a time in firm and patriotic faith that the people would punish this crime in 1880; this issue precedes and dwarfs every other; it imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than ever addressed the conscience of a nation of free men!

8. We execrate the course of this Administration in making places in the civil service a reward for political crime. and demand a reform by statute which will make it forever impossible for the defeated candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the people.

e Republican party, adhering to the ciples affirmed by its last National Conion of respect for the constitutional rules rning appointments to office, adopts the ration of President Hayes that the re- 9. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden, not of the civil service should be thorough, again to be a candidate for the exalted place to al and complete. To this end it demands which he was elected by a majority of his Co-operation of the legislative with the countrymen, and from which he was excluded ative departments of the Government, by the leaders of the Republican party, is rethat Congress shall so legislate that fit-ceived by the Democrats of the United States ascertained by proper practical tests, admit to the public service.

he Democrats of the United States, in Conion assembled, declare-:

We pledge ourselves anew to the constional doctrines and traditions of the Dem

with sensibility, and they declare their confidence in his wisdom, patriotism and integrity, unshaken by the assaults of a common enemy, and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, who regard him as one who, by elevating the standards of public morality, merits the lasting gratitude of his country and his party.

10. Free ships and a living chance for American commerce on seas and on the land. No discrimination in favor of transportation lines, corporations or monopolies.

11. Amendment of the Burlingame Treaty. No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully guarded.

12. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, and public land for actual settlers.

13. 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.

14. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a Democratic Congress which has reduced the public expenditure $40,000.000 a year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home and the National honor abroad, and, above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the Government as shall insure us genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public service.

PART III.
Greenback-1880.

of non-fulfillment of contract should be in mediately reclaimed by the government; an henceforth the public domain reserved excl sively as homes for actual settlers.

6. It is the duty of Congress to regula inter-State commerce. All lines of commu cation and transportation should be broug under such legislative control as shall secu moderate, fair and uniform rates for passeng and freight traffic.

7. We denounce as destructive to prosperit and dangerous to liberty, the action of the o parties in fostering and sustaining gigan land, railroad and money corporations a monopolies, invested with, and exercisi powers belonging to the government, and y not responsible to it for the manner of the exercise.

8. That the Constitution, in giving Congre the power to borrow money, to declare war, raise and support armies, to provide a maintain a navy, never intended that the m who loaned their money for an interest co sideration should be preferred to the soldi and sailor who periled their lives and sh blood on land and sea in defense of the country; and we condemn the cruel class leg lation of the Republican party which, whi professing great gratitude to the soldier, h in favor of the bondholder. most unjustly discriminated against him ar

efforts everywhere manifest to restrict the rig 10. We denounce as most dangerous th of suffrage.

1. That the right to make and issue money is a sovereign power to be maintained by the people for the common benefit. The delegation of taxation, but we demand a graduate 9. All property should bear its just propo tion of this right to corporations is a surrender income tax. of the central attribute of sovereignty, void of constitutional sanction, conferring upon a subordinate irresponsible power absolute dominion over industry and commerce. All money, whether metallic or paper, should be 11. We are opposed to an increase of th issued and its volume controlled by the Gov-standing army in time of peace, and the i sidious scheme to establish an enormous mil ernment, and not by or through banking corporations, and when so issued should be a full tary power under the guise of militia laws. legal tender for all debts, public and private. 2. That the bonds of the United States should not be refunded, but paid as rapidly as is practicable, according to contract. To enable the government to meet these obligations, legal-tender currency should be substituted for the notes of the National banks, the National banking system abolished, and the unlimited coinage of silver, as well as gold, established by law.

3. That labor should be so protected by National and State authority as to equalize its burdens and insure a just distribution of its results; the eight-hour law of Congress should be enforced; the sanitary conditon of industrial establishments placed under rigid control; the competition of contract convict labor abolished; a bureau of labor statistics established; factories, mines, and workshops inspected; the employment of children under fourteen years of age forbidden, and wages paid in cash.

12. We demand absolute Democratic rul for the government of Congress, placing a representatives of the people upon an equ footing, and taking away from committees veto power greater than that of the Presiden

13. We demand a government of the peopl by the people, and for the people, instead of government of the bondholders, by th bondholders, and for the bondholders; and w denounce every attempt to stir up section strife, as an effort to conceal monstrous crime against the people.

14. In the furtherance of these ends we as the co-operation of all fair-minded people We have no quarrel with individuals, wagen war upon classes, but only against vicious in stitutions. We are not content to endur further discipline from our present actus rulers, who, having dominion over money over transportation, over land and labor, an largely over the press and the machinery o government, wield unwarrantable power ove our institutions, and over our life and pro

4. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap labor being simply slavery, the impor-perty. tation and presence of Chinese serfs neces- 15. That every citizen of due age, sound sarily tends to brutalize and degrade American mind, and not a felon, be fully enfranchised labor; therefore, immediate steps should be and that this resolution be referred to the taken to abrogate the Burlingame Treaty. States, with recommendation for their favor 5. Railroad land grants forfeited by reasonable consideration.

1856-That the liberal principles embodied by
efferson in the Declaration of Independence, and
anctioned in the Constitution, which makes ours
he land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed* of
very nation, have ever been cardinal principles in
he Democratic faith; and every attempt to abridge
he present privilege of becoming citizens and the
wners of soil among us ought to be resisted with the
ame spirit which swept the alien and sedition laws
rom our statute books.
[Plank 8.

1860-Reaffirmed.

18641868

1872-We recognize the equality of all men beore the law, and hold that it is the duty of Govrament in its dealings with the people to mete out qual and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, ace, color, or persuasion, religious or political.*

1876

[Plank 1.

1880-Opposition to centralizationism, and to
that dangerous spirit of encroachment which tends to
onsolidate the powers of all the departments in one,
nd thus to create, whatever be the form of Govern-
nent, a real despotism.
[Plank 2.

Republican.

1856-That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States shall be preserved; that, with our Republican fathers, we hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction. [Plank 1.

1860-That the maintenance of the principles promuigated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution, "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union of the States must and shall be preserved.

1864

1868

[Plank 2.

1872-Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil, political and public rights should be established and effectually maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and Federal Legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should admit any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed, color or previous condition of servitude. [Plank 3.

1876-The United States of America is a Nation not a league. By the combined workings of the National and State Governments, under their respective constitutions, the rights of every citizen are secured at home and abroad, and the common welfare promoted.

1880-The constitution of the United States is a supreme law and not a mere contract. Out of confederate States it made a sovereign nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others are denied to the States, but the boundary between the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the National, and not by the State tribunal. [Cheers.] [Plank 2.

*NOTE. For the practical application of these pretended Democratic "principles," see chapters on Recent Southern Outrages and Peonage at the South," "The Homestead Question, etc."

1864-That this convention does explicitly declare, the sense of the American people, that after four Fars of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of ar, during which, under the pretense of a military ecessity or war-power higher than the Constitution, The Constitution itself has been disregarded in every art, and public liberty and private right alike troden down, and the material prosperity of the country sentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and he public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to the ulmate convention of the States, or other peaceable

Republican.

1864-That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States; and that, laying aside all differences of political opinions, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated by a common sentiment, and aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the Government, in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it.

PART III. Reconstruction.

PART IV.

Home Rule.