away 221 per cent. of the exports of the coun- | suppression of the Republican vote in all the try (almost all of it cotton), yet owing to the ex-Confederate States, a majority in the U. S. inertness of that section with respect to com- Senate, they rejected the President's nominamercial enterprise, it appears that of the total tion of loyal men to supervise the taking of imports into the United States amounting to the census in the South, and demanded the $657,950,887, those ships brought to her ports appointment of Confederate or rebel sympaimports to the amount of only $15,934,391, or thizers to perform the work. The President 2 per cent. of the imports into the country. was compelled to submit. Having thus obOnly 1.6 per cent. of the revenues of the tained their own supervisors for the work in National Government from customs, are col- hand the result is shown in the lected at ports of the "solid South," and of Frauds in all the census returns from the the internal revenues of the United States collected in the solid South," 95 per cent. is realized from whiskey and tobacco. "sold Southern" States, increasing out of all proportions their respecA very large proportion of the capital stock, are palpable. They are borne upon the very tive and aggregate populations. The frauds mortgage, bonds and other forms of indebted-face of the returns thus far public, and all apness of the Southern railroads is held in Northern States. The commercial ascendency of the North is clearly indicated by the fact that the principal currents of the internal commerce of the United States are over railroads extending from the Atlantic seaboard to and beyond the Mississippi River. PART II. The "Solid Southern” Census of 1880-The Conspiracy of the Rebel Brigadiers to Increase the Political Power of the South, to Subjugate the North and West by Bulldozed Census Returns from the South. plications up to Sept. 9 to the Census Bureau for a verified statement of the census returns The figures given by a "solid Southern" But the New Orleans Democrat, a rebel organ, as early as the 15th of August, 1880, published what it described as the "census returns, official, and estimated, from all the States and all but four of the TerritoriesAlaska, New Mexico, Washington, and Wyoming."-as follows : Alabama. Arkansas.. California.. Kansas. Massachusetts. Nebraska.. The great struggle of the Democratic lead- Connecticut. ers of the South has been and is one for po- Delaware.. litical power for the control of all the de- Florida.... Georgia.. partments of the National Government as a Illinois... means of taxing the majority and wealth of Indiana... the nation for the indemnity of the rebel Iowa.. States and their people for losses incurred through their rebellion against the Constitution and the Union. Supported by the Democracy North, the success of the rebel With the Ku Brigadiers has been great. Klux and White Leagues they have suppressed all opposition in the South-have recaptured all the ex-rebel States, and in the exultant language of a noted Confederate organ (the Okolona, Miss., Southern States) have "captured the National Capitol "-have captured both Houses of Congress. But the probable results of the new census of 1880 filled them with terror. Reasoning from the facts and results, the comparative increase an 1 decrease North and South in all the elements of population and wealth in previous censuses, and from the known condition of the Southern States under Confederate rule, it was confidently expected that the results of the new census would reduce even their present representation in the House, and proportionally their power in the Electoral Colleges. A result so disastrous to them the rebel Brigadiers determined to defeat. They accordingly made This census the focus of a new conspiracy to maintain, and even to increase, their present power in the House and Electoral College. Having through violence and fraud, by the STATES. New Hampshire.. 1880. 1,150,000 1870. 996,992 ..... North Carolina.. South Carolina.. Total.. Oregon... Vermont. Arizona.. District of Columbia.. Total.. The sixteen Southern States show a total population of 18,595,007, an increase of 4,717,408, and a gain of nearly 34 per cent. The aggregate population of the twenty-two Northern and Western States is 30.707,137, an increase of 6,422,407, or 26 per cent." A grand and very natural result. The "solid Southern " States, stagnant from the pestilence and their turbulent condition, expelling thousands from within their limits, because neither life nor property is safe; repelling all immigration; discouraging the investment of capital; repressing and degrading industry; yet, increase in population 34 per cent!-while the population of the Northern and Western States, the great depots of immense European immigration of the last ten years, the great centres of capital and marts of commerce and multiplied industries, increase only 26 per cent.! The false census figures intended to serve a double purpose. The solid South gains in aggregate representation over all. the other States. Hence, the Democrat closes its issue of Aug. 15 with the exultant declaration: "Far from losing Congressmen by the next apportionment, as has been the hope and calculation of the R publican press and politicians, the South will increase er representation in the lower House. This section now has 196 Representatives. If the apportionment is raised to 170,000, as is probable, the next House will contain just 290 members from the States, or 3 less than there are in the present House. Of these 10 will come from the South. The net gain for this section, therefore, will be 6 members. The New England, Middle and. older Western States will lose largely, while the new West will gain members, together with the South. The only Southern States that will lose in representation are Alabama and Tennessee." That is, the whole increase, and the only increase, as between the two sections, will be with the Confederate States. Crowing over the bulldozed increase of declares: Republican Congress, the South, thanks to the fifteenth Hancock President of the United States in November." But the Democrat, in a previous issue-that of July 20, 1880-unwillingly exposes a cause besides that of gambling for political power, for this disproportionate increase. The South, its amiable and law abiding populations, had beenslandered" before the world. It had The ultimate object of the conspiracy to been accused, and it might have added convicted a thousand times, of appalling social and political crimes which unsettled all the elements or conditions of growth-which indeed rendered any marked growth either in population or wealth, absolutely impossible. It asks: "How could a State increase in population, where the laboring class were lynched and burued and run off, as the bloody shirters' were wont to declare; how could the South be improving in wealth and industry when all manner of crimes went unpunished ?” Truly, how could it? Hence, to demonstrate such charges false, and even unfounded, as simply the malignant lying" of the loyal conquerers of the confederacy, it was necessary to fabricate such lying census results us the above. subjugate the North. Here we have the grand object of all the numerous conspiracies at the South since reSouthern States-to seize upon their political construction-to recapture the control of the organizations by the violent suppression of the Republican vote, and thus, through a "solid South," aided by the Northern Democracy, to subjugate the North and Westto tax its wealth and industries as a means of indemnifying the Confederate populations for losses in the rebellion, and to degrade their intelligent majorities into "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the service of the rebel Brigadiers. Here also is the purpose of this fraudulent census. CHAPTER XX. National Political Platforms, 1880. PART I. Republican–1880. The Republican party, in National Convention assembled, at the end of twenty years since the Federal Government was first committed to its charge, submits to the people of the United States this brief report of its administration: It suppressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the National authority [applause]; it reconstructed the Union of the States with freedom instead of slavery as its corner stone [applause); it transformed 4,000,000 human beings from the like. ness of "things" to the rank of citizens applause}; it relieved Congress from the infa mous work of hunting fugitive slaves, and 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 : 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. making 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. 6. Since the authority to regulate immigra tion and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Con1. We affirm that the work of the Republi-gress of the United States and the treatycan 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. 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 2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and not a mere contract. [Ap-partisan laws. [Cheers.] plause.] Out of confederated States it made 8. We charge upon the Democratic party 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.] 3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several States, but it is the duty of the National Government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional ability. The intelligence of the nation is but 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 and control of the place, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the 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 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. House of Representatives; have endeavored ocratic party, as illustrated by the teachings to occupy by force and fraud the places of and example of a long line of Democratic trust given to others by the people of Maine, statesmen and patriots, and embodied in the rescued by the courage and action of Maine's platform of the last National Convention of patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in the party. principle and tyrannical in practice, attached 2. Opposition to centralizationism, and partisan legislation to appropriation bills to that dangerous spirit of encroachment upon whose passage the very movement of which tends to consolidate the powers of all Government depended; have crushed the the departments in one, and thus to create, rights of the individual; have advocated the whatever be the form of government, a real principles and sought the favor of the Rebel- despotism. No sumptuary laws; separation of lion against the nation, and have endeavored Church and State, for the good of each; comto obliterate the sacred memories and to over-mon schools fostered and protected. come the inestimably valuable results of nationality, personal freedom and individual equality. The equal, and steady, and complete enforcement of the laws, and the protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and immunity guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first duties of the nation. [Applause.] The dangers of a "solid South' can only be averted by a faithful performance of every promise which the nation has made to the citizen. [Applause.] The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South. [Applause.] Whatever promises the nation make the nation must perform. A nation cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. The "solid South must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot and all honest opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter must be protected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. [Applause.] And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican party to use all legitimate means to restore all the States of this Union to the most perfect harmony which may be possible, and we submit to the practical, sensible people of these United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country at this time to surrender the administration of the National Government to a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy under which we are so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there is now order, confidence, and hope. [Applause.] The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed by its last National Convention of respect for the constitutional rules governing appointments to_office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical and complete. To this end it demands the co-operation of the legislative with the executive departments of the Government, and that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service. PART II. Democratic-1880. The Democrats of the United States, in Convention assembled, declare— 1. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Dem 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 deputy marshals, to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and the unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, insult the people and imperil their institutions. 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 time in American history, the will of the 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. 9. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden, not again to be a candidate for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his countrymen, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United States 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 Ameri- | of non-fulfillment of contract should be imcan commerce on seas and on the land. No mediately reclaimed by the government; and discrimination in favor of transportation lines, henceforth the public domain reserved exclucorporations or monopolies. sively as homes for actual settlers. 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 $10,000 000 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. 6. It is the duty of Congress to regulate inter-State commerce. All lines of communication and transportation should be brought under such legislative control as shall secure moderate, fair and uniform rutes for passenger and freight traffic. 7. We denounce as destructive to prosperity, and dangerous to liberty, the action of the old parties in fostering and sustaining gigantic land, railroad and money corporations and monopolies, invested with, and exercising powers belonging to the government, and yet not responsible to it for the manner of their exercise. 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 periled their lives and shed blood on land and sea in defense of their country; and we condemn the cruel class legislation of the Republican party which, while professing great gratitude to the soldier, has in favor of the bondholder. most unjustly discriminated against him and efforts everywhere manifest to restrict the right 10. We denounce as most dangerous the 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 graduated 9. All property should bear its just proportion 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 the issued and its volume controlled by the Gov-standing army in time of peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous miliernment, 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 rules for the government of Congress, placing all representatives of the people upon an equal footing, and taking away from committees & 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 n 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 government, wield unwarrantable power ov our institutions, and over our life and pr 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, sour sarily tends to brutalize and degrade American mind, and not a felon, be fully en franchise labor; therefore, immediate steps should be and that this resolution be referred to t taken to abrogate the Burlingame Treaty. States, with recommendation for their fav 5. Railroad land grants forfeited by reasonable consideration. |