Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1860-08-03
Presidential Electors,
Republican Platform of 1860.

atives of the Republican Electors of the United
States, in Convention assembled, in the dis.
charge of the duty we owe to our constituents
and our country, unite in the following declara-
tions
First, That the history of the nation during
the last four years has fully established the
proprlety and necessity of the organization and
perpetuatlon of the Republican party, and that
the causes which called it into existence are
permanent in their nature. and now more thar
ever before demand its peaceful and constitu.
tional triumph.
Second That the maintenance of the princi.
pies promulgated in the Declaration of indie.
pendence, and embodied in the Federal Con-
stiution, is essential to the preservation of our
republican institutions that the Federal Con-
stitution, the rights of the States, and the Union
of the States must and shall be preserved
and that we reassert . these truths to be self
evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable 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"
Third, That to the Union of the States this
nation owes its unprecedented increase in pop
ulation its surprising development of material
resources its rapid augmentation of wealth ;
its happiness at home and it's honor abroad ;
and we hold in adherence all schemes for dis
union, come from whatever source they may /;
and we congratulate the country that no Re-
publican Member of Congress has uttered or
countenanced threat of disunion, so often
made by Democratic Members of Congress
without rebuke and with applause from
their political associates and we denounce
those threats of disunion in case of popular
overthrow of their asccndency, as denying the
vital principles of free Government, and as
an avoHal of contemplated treason, which it is
the imperative duty of an indignant people
strongly to rebuke and forever silence.
Fourth, That the maintenance inviolate of
the rights of the States, and especially the
right of each State to order and control its
own domestic institutions, according to its own
judgment exclusively, is essential to that bal
ance of power on which the perfection and en-
durance of our political faith depends,
and we denounce the lawless invasion BIZ arm
ed force of any State or Territory, no matter
under what pretext, as among the gravest of
crimes.
Fifth, That the present Democratic Admin
istration has far exceeded our worst apprehen-
sions in its measureless subseryiency to the ex-
actions of a sectional interest, as is especially
evident in its desperate exertions to force the
infamous Lecompton constitution on the protest
ing people of Kansas, i'll constituting the personal
relation between master and servant to involve
an unqualified property in persons-in its at
tempted enforcement everywhere, on land and
sea, through the Intervention of Congress
and the Federal Courts, of the extreme preten-
sions of a purely local interest, and in its gem
eral and unyarying abuse of the power intrust-
ed to it by confding people.
Saith, That the people justly view with alarm
the reckless extravaganza which pervades every
Of tba EaHa Al,
return to rigid economy and accountability is
indispensable to arrest the system of plumber of
the public treasury by favored partisans while
the recent startling developments of fraud and
corruption at the Federal metropolis show that
an entire change of administration is impera-
lively demanded ...
Seventh, That the new dogma that the Con-
stitution, of its own force, carries Slavery into
any or al of the Territories of the United
States is o dangerous political heresy, at vari-
ance with the explicit provisions of that instru-
ment itself, with contemporaneous exposition,
and with legislative and judicial precedent is
revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive
of the peace and harmony of the country
Eighth, That the normal condition of all the
territory of the United States is that of Free
dom; that as our republican fathers, when
they had abolished slavery in all our national
territory, ordained that person should be
the process of law, it becomes our duty, by leg
islation, whenever such legislation is necessary,
to maintain this provision of the Constitution
against all attempts to violate it; and we deny
the authority of Congress, of a Territorial leg
islature, or of any Individuals to give legal ex-
istence to Slavery in any territory of the Uni
ted States. -'l.r e.tl-! ...., E.s,.Es s-.
Ninth, That we brand the recent re-openine
of the African slave-trade. under the cover Of
our national flag, aided by perervsions of Judi
cial power, as a crime against humanity q
burning shame to our country and age, and
we call upon Congress to take prompt and eff
eient measures for the total and final suppress
sion of that execrable traffic.
Tenth, That in the recent vetoes by their Fed
eraI Governors of the acts of the Legislatures
of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting Slavery
in those territories, we find . practical illustra
ton of the boasted Democratic principle O
non-intervention and Popular Sovereignty EN-
bodied in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and {
denunciation of the deception and fraud invol
we'd therein. 5 Nh a istt In.
Eleusnth, That Kansas should of right be i'm
mediately admitted as State under the Con
stitution recently formed and adopted by he
people, and accepted by the House Of Repre-
sentatives -.- "s.-t .-t.A-l e.. i.-'
IsceJ1h, That while providing revenues fol
the Support of the general Government by du
ties upon imports. sound policy requires sucl
an adjustment of those imposts as to encourage
the development of the Industrial interest Q
the whole country; and we commend tina
policy of national exchanges which secures t.
the working men liberal wages, to agriculture
remunerating prices, to mechanics and manu-
&cturers an adequate reward for their skill
labor and enterprise, and to the nation com
nercial prosperity, and independence IFS
Thirteenth, That we protest against any salt
or alienation to others of the public lands helC
by actual settlers, and against any view of tht
free homestead policy which regards the settler:
as paupers or supplieants fol public bounty
and we demand the passage by Congress of the
complete and satisfactory Homestead measure
which has already passed the House
Fourteenth, That the Republican party is op
posed to any change in our Naturalization laws
or any State legislation by which the rights o
citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrant:
ed; and in favor of giving full and efficient pro
lection to the rights of all classes of citizens
whether native or ,naturalized, both at home
or abroad r. r.a
Fifteenth, The appropriations by Congress fol-
River and Harbor Improvements of national
character. required for the accommodation and
security of an existing Commerce, are author
lied by the Constitution and justified by the
obligation of the Government to protect the lives
and property of its citizens.
Sixteenth That railroad to the Pacific Ocean
is imperatively demanded by the interests of
the whole country that the Federal Govern
ment ought to render immediate and efficient
aid in its construction, and that as preliminary
thereto daily overland mail sheald be estab-