Republican. only according to the letter, but the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted. [Plank 3. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be equalized and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. [Plank 4. The national debt, contracted as it has been for the preservation of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair period for redemption; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of interest thereon whenever it can be honestly done. [Plank 5. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is to so improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at lower rates of interest than we now pay and must continue to pay so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or suspected, [Plank 6. 1872-** * A uniform national currency has been provided, repudiation frowned down, the national credit sustained under the most extraordinary burdens, and new bonds negotiated at lower rates. ** [Plank 1. We denounce repudiation of the public debt, in any form or disguise, as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduction of the principal of the debt, and of the rates of interest upon the balance. [Plank 13. 1876-In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant, the National Government assumed to remove any doubts of its purpose to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and "solemnly pledged its faith to make provision at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin." Commercial prosperity, public morals, and national credit demand that this promise be fulfilled by a continuous and steady progress to specie payment. [Plank 4. 1880-It [the Republican party] has raised the value of our paper currencey from 38 per cent. to the par of gold [applause]; it has restored, upon a solid basis, payment in coin of all national obligations, and has given us a currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country [applause]; it has lifted the credit of the nation from the point of where per cent. bonds sold at 86, to that where 4 per cent. bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. [Preamble. 6 Internal *NOTE.-See chapters on "Democratic Administrative Financial Blundering," ""Solid Southern Revenue," "Greenbacks, Public Credit, and Resumption," and "Tariff," to ascertain the difference between these Democratic "principles " and the Democratic "practice." 1872-*A speedy return to specie payment is demanded alike by the highest considerations of commercial morality and honest government. [Plank 8. 1876-We denounce the financial imbecility and immorality of that party, which, during eleven years of peace, has made no advance toward resumption, no preparation for resumption, but instead has obstructed resumption, by wasting our resources and exhausting all our surplus income; and, while annually professing to intend a speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh hindrances thereto. As such hindrance we denounce the resumption clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal. 1880-* Honest money, * * consisting of gold and silver, and paper convertible into coin on demand, * * * Republican. 1872- ** *Our excellent national currency will be perfected by a speedy resumption of specie payment. [Plank 13. 1876-In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant, the National Government assumed to remove any doubts of its purpose to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and solemnly pledged its faith to make provision at the "earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin." Commercial prosperity, public morals and national credit demand that this promise be fulfilled by a continuous and steady progress to specie payment. * It [the Republican party] has restored, upon a solid basis, payment in coin of all National obligations, and has given us a currency ab solutely good and equal in every part of our extended country. Greenbacks, Public Credit, and Redemption.” *NOTE.-See chapter on " * NOTE.-And manifests its friendship by cutting down to starvation rates the pay of all the laborers in the Departments, by tariff-tinkering, by inaugurating systems of peonage in the South, and by other means. (See chapters on "Labor," Peonage," " Tariff," and "Homesteads.") 18641868** * A tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and such equal taxation under the Internal Revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manufactures, and as will, without impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the country. [Plank 6. 1872- * ** * Recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free trade, we remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their Congressional districts, and to the decision of the Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation. [Plank 6 1876- * * * * We demand that all customhouse taxation shall be only for revenue. [Plank 11. 1880- * 1860-That, while providing revenue for the support of the general Government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of the whole country; and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. [Plank 12. 1876-The revenue necessary for current expen- * * A tariff for revenues only. * NOTE-- Cherished" amid conflagration and outrage-by outraging, violently expelling, or murdering school teachers and burning school houses. In the South, prior to the war, common schools for the education of the people were contemptuously styled "free" schools, and their pupils regarded as an inferior caste, on an equality with free "niggers"! PART XIV. Duty to Union Soldiers and Sailors. Democratic. 1872-* We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and no act of ours shall ever detract from their justly earned fame for the full reward of their patriotism. [Plank 9. 1876-* * The soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and the widows and orphans of those who have fallen in battle, have a just claim upon the care, protection, and gratitude of their fellow-citizens [Last resolution. 1880 Republican. 1864-That the thanks of the American people are due to the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy, who have periled their lives in defense of the country and in vindication of the honor of its flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent recog nition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision for those of their survivors who have received disabling and honorable wounds in the service of the country; and that the memories of those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance. 1872-We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose valor saved the Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt of the nation, and the widows and orphans of those who died for their country are entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people. We favor such additional legislation as will extend the bounty of the Government to all our soldiers and sailors who were honorably discharged, and who in the line of duty became disabled, without regard to the length of service or the cause of such discharge. [Plank 8. 1876-The pledges which the nation has given to her soldiers and sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold those who imperiled their lives for the country's preservation, in the kindest remembrance. [Plank 14. 1880-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. *NOTE.-See chapters on "Democratic Hatred of Union Soldiers," and "Bounties and Pensions." 1864 Democratic. 1868-Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born citizens at home and abroad, the assertion of American nationality which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and furnish an example and encouragement to people struggling for national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance, and the claims of foreign powers to punish them for alleged crime committed beyond their jurisdiction. [Plank 8. 1872 1876 1880 Democratic. 1868-The doctrine of Great Britain and other European Powers, that because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at every hazard by the United States, as a relic of feudal times, not authorized by the laws of nations, and at war with our national honor and independence. Naturalized citizens are entitled to protection in all their rights of citizenship as though they were native-born; and no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, must be liable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done or words spoken in this country; and, if so arrested and imprisoned, it is the duty of the Government to interfere in his behalf. [Plank 9. 1872-The doctrine of Great Britain and other European Powers concerning allegiance-"once a subject always a subject "having at last, through the efforts of the Republican party, been abandoned, and the American idea of the individual's right to transfer allegiance having been accepted by European nations, it is the duty of our Government to guard with jealous care the rights of adopted citizens against the assumption of unauthorized claims by their former Governments, and we urge continued careful encouragement and protection of voluntary immigration. [Plank 9. 1876-It is the imperative duty of the Government so to modify existing treaties with European governments, that the same protection shall be afforded to the adopted American citizen that is given to the native born, and that all necessary laws should be passed to protect emigrants in the absence of power in the States for that purpose. * [Plank 10. 1880-* * * * Everywhere the protection accorded to a citizen of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption. [Plank 5. PART XVI. The Chinese. 1876-Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republican Congress, and the errors of our treaties and our diplomacy, which have stripped our fellowcitizens of foreign birth and kindred race re-crossing the Atlantic, of the shield of American citizenship, and have exposed our brethren of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a race not sprung from the same great parent stock, and in fact now by law denied citizenship through naturalization as being neither accustomed to the traditions of a progressive civilization nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy which thus discards the libertyloving German and tolerates a revival of the coolie trade in Mongolian women imported for immoral purposes, and Mongolian men held to perform servile labor contracts, and demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race. 1880-Amendment of the Burlingame Treaty. No more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully guarded. [Plank 11. * NOTE.-The Republican was the first political party to recognize the Chinese question as one of national importance, by the declaration in its platform of 1876-the subsequently adopted Democratic plank on the subject being simply a demagogical bid for votes. Democratic. sonal ambition and an object of selfish greed. It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions and breeds a demoralization dangerous to the perpetuity of Republican Government. We therefore regard a thorough reform of the civil service as one of the most pressing necessities of the hour; that the honesty capacity and fidelity constitute the only valid claim to public employment; that the offices of the Government cease to be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, and public station become again a post of honor. To this end it is imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for reelection. 1876-Reform is necessary in the civil service. Experience that proves efficient, economical conduct of Governmental business is not possible if the civil service be subject to change at every election, be a prize fought for at the ballot-box, be a brief reward of party zeal, instead of posts of honor assigned for proved competency, and held for fidelity in the public employ; that the dispensing of patronage should neither be a tax upon the time of all our public men, nor the instrument of their ambition. 1880service. * Thorough reform in the civil Republican. are considered rewards for mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing, and we therefore favor a reform of the system by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage and make honesty, efficiency and fidelity the essential qualifications for public positions, without practically creating a life tenure of office. (Plank 5. 1876-Under the Constitution the President and heads of Departments are to make nominations for office; the Senate is to advise and consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be respected; that Senators and Representatives who may be judges and accusers should not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule in appointments should have reference to the honesty, fidelity and capacity of the appointees; giving to the party in power those places where harmony and vigor of administration require its policy to be represented, but permitting all others to be filled by persons selected with sole reference to the efficiency of the public service, and the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful service to the country. [Plank 5. 1880-The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed by its last National Conventionof 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 cooperation 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. "To the victors belong the spoils," is the maxim which_controlled the Democracy in all its past history in making appointments which now govern the rebel Brigadiers, in control of the Senate and House, and will govern them in control of the National Government. (See chapter on " Democratic Hatred of Union Soldiers.") CHAPTER XXII. Letters of Acceptance of Republican Presidential and Vice-Presidential Nominees. PART I. Honorable James G. Garfield's Letter of Acceptance. States, they reject the pernicious doctrine of State supremacy which so long crippled the functions of the National Government, and at one time brought the Union very near to destruction. They insist that the United States is a nation with ample power of self-preservation: that its Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are the supreme law of the land; that the right of the nation to determine the method by which its own Legislature shall be created cannot be surrendered without abdicating one of the fundamental powers of Government; that the national laws relating to the election of Representatives' every elector shall be permitted freely and without intimidation to cast his lawful ballot at such election and have it honestly counted, and that the potency of his vote shall not be destroyed by the fraudulent vote of any other person. "MENTOR, OHIO, July 12, 1880 "DEAR SIR: On the evening of the 8th of June last I had the honor to receive from you, in the presence of the committee of which you were chairman, the official announcement that the Republican National Convention at Chicago had that day nominated me as their candidate for President of the United States. I ac-in Congress shall neither be violated nor evaded; that cept the nomination with gratitude for the confidence it implies, and with a deep sense of the responsibilities it imposes. I cordially endorse the principles set forth in the platform adopted by the Convention, on nearly all the subjects of which it treats, my opinions on record among the published proceedings of Congress. I venture, however, to make special mention of some of the principal topics which are likely to become subjects of discussion. are "Without reviewing the controversies which have been settled during the last twenty years, and with no purpose or wish to revive the passions of the late war, it should be said that while Republicans fully recognize and will strenuously defend all the rights retained by the people, and all the rights reserved to the "The best thoughts and energies of our people should be directed to those great questions of National wellbeing in which all have a common interest. Such efforts will soonest restore perfect peace to those who were lately in arms against each other; for justice and good-will will outlast passion. But it is certain that the wounds of the war cannot be completely healed, and the spirit of brotherhood cannot fully pervade the whole country, until every citizen, rich or poor, white or black, is secure in the free and equal enjoyment of |