The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-12-29
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.

This Convention of Delegates, assembled in
pursuance of q call addressed to the people of
the United States, without regard to past pOliti-
cal differences or divisions, who are opposed
to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise to
the policy of the present Administration to
the extension of Slavery into free Territory; in
| favor of the admission of Kansas as a free
State; of restoring the action of the Federal
Government to the principles of Washington
and jefferson and for the parpose of present
ing candidates for the offices Of President and
| Vice President, do
/. Resolue, That the maintenance of the prin-
ciples promulgated in the Declaration of In
dependence, and embodied in the Federal Con-
stitution, are essential to the preservation of
our Republican institutions ; and that the Fed
eral Constitution, the rights of the States, and
the union of the States, shall be preserved.
2. ResolUed, That, with our Republican
fathers, we hold it to be a selfevident truth,
that all men are endowed with the unalienable
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi-
ness and that the primary object and Interior
design of our Federal Government were to Sc
cure those rights to all persons within its ex-
elusive Jurisdiction; that as our Republican
fathers, when they had abolished Slavery in all
our National Territory, ordained that no person
should be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law, it becomes our duty
to maintain this provision of the Constitution
against all attempts to violate it, to prevent the
establishment of Slavery in the Territories of
the United States by positive legislation pro-
hibiting its existence therein. And we deny
the authority of Congress, of Territorial Legis-
lature, of any individual or association of indi-
viduals, to give legal existence to Slavery in
any Territory of the United States, while the
present Constitution shall be maintained.
hot fha ofif
upon Congress sovereign power over the Terri
tories of the United States for their govern
ment, and that in the exercise of this power it
is both the right and the duty of Congress to
prohibit Ia its Territories those twin relics OF
barbarism, Polygamy and Slavery.
4. ResolUed, That while the Constitution OF
the United States was ordained and established
by the people in order to form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tran
quillity, provide for the common defence, and
secure the blessings of liberty" and contains
ample provisions for the protection of the life,
liberty, and property, of every citizen, the dear
est constitutional rights of the people of Kan
sas have been fraudslently and violently taken
from them;
Their Territory has been invaded by an
armed force;
Spurious and pretended Legislative, Judicial,
and Executive officers have been set over them,
by whose usurped authority, sustained by the
military power of the Government, tyrannical
and unconstitutional laws have been enacted
and enforced;
The rights of the people to keep and bear
arms have been infringed;
Test oaths of an extraordinary and entan.
Cling nature have been imposed, as a condition
of exercising the r ht of suffrage and holding
office;
III 1T &c - ooo-.oI ,,o-..., - - z...oJ -
and public trial by an impartial jury has been
denied;
The right of the people to be secure in their
persons houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, has been
violated;
They have been deprived of life, liberty, and
property, without due process of law;
That the freedom of speech and of the press
has been abridged;
The right to choose their Representatives has
been made of no effect
Murders, robberies, and arsons, have been in
stigated and encouraged, and the offenders
have been allowed to go unpublished;
That all these things have been done with
the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of
the present Administration, and that for this
high crime against the Constitution, the Union,
and Humanity, we arraign that Administration,
the President, his advisers, agents, supporters,
apologists, and accessories either before or after
the facts, before the country and before the
world and that it is our fixed purpose to bring
the actual perpetrators of these atrocious out
RACES, and their accomplices, to a sure and con-
dign punishment hereafter.
s. Resolred, That Kansas should be imme
diately admitted as State of the Union, with
her present Free Constitution, as at once the
most effectual way of securing to her citizens
the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to
which they are entitled, and of ending the civil
strife now raging In her Territory.
6. Resolued, That the highwayman's plea,
that might makes right, embodied in the Os
tend Circular, was in every respect unworthy
of American diplomacy, and would bring shame
and dishonor upon any Government or people
that gave it their sanction.
T. Resolued, That railroad to the Pacific
Ocean, by the most central and practical route,
is imperatively demanded by the interests of
the whole country, and that the Federal Gov
eminent ought to render immediate and eff
cient aid in its construction, and, as an auxilia
ry thereto, the immediate construction of an
emigrant route on the line of the railroad.
8. ResotUed, That appropriations by Con-
gress for the improvement of rivers and harbors,
of national character, required for the accom-
mediation and security of our existing com
merce, are autharized by the Constitution, and
justified by the obligation of Government to
protect the lives and property of its citizens.
3. ResoIoed, That we invite the utilization
and cooperation of the men of all parties, how
ever differing from us in other respects, in
support of the principles herein declared and,
believing that the spirit of our institutions well
as the Constitution of our country guarantees
liberty of conscience and equality of rights
among citizens, we oppose all legislation i'm
pairing their security.