St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1860-06-21
REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
AporrrD1 A 4 CHICAGO, MAY 174a, 1860.

l.
AporrrD At Chicago, MAY l71a, 1860. J.
@Rrso1vzp, That We, the delegated represen-
tatives Of the Republican electors Of the Uni
ted States, in Convention assembled in the
discharge of the duty We owe TO our constitu-
ents and our country, unite in the following
declarations:
LIT. That the history Of the nation during
the last four years, has fully established the
propriety and necessity Of the organization
and perpetuatien Of the Republican party
and that the causes which called it into exis-
tence are permanent in their nature, and now,
more than ever before, demand ito peaceful
and constitutional triumph. .@,.=s
2. That the maintenance Of the principles
promulgated in the Declaration ofIndependenoe
and embodied in the Federal Constitution, the
right to life, liberty and the pursuit Of hsppi-
ness, is essential to the preservation of eur
Republican institutions; and that the Federal
Constitution, the Rights Of the States, and the
Union Of the States must and shall be preserved.
| 8. That to the Union Of the States this nation
ewes its unprecedented increase in population,
its surprising development Of material resour-
ces, its rapid augmentation Of wealth, its hap
piness at home and it's honor abroad and we
hold in adherence all schemes for Disunion,
come from whatever source they may: And We
congratulate the country that no Republican
member of Congress has uttered or countenan-
ced the threats Of Disunion 50 often made by
Democratic members, without rebuke and with
applause from their political associates and
we denounce those threats Of disunion, in case
of popular overthrow Of their ascendency
as denying the vital principles Of q free gsv-
eminent, and as avowal Of contemplated trea-
son, which it is the imperative duty of-an
indignant People sternly to rebuke and forever
silence.
4. 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 powers on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depends and
we denounce the lawless invasion by armed
force Of the soil of any State or Territory, no
matter under what pretext, as among the gra-
vest of crimes. .4 q.
5. That the present Democratic Administra-
ton has far exceeded our worst approximations,
in its measureless subserviency to the exactions
of q sectional interest, az especially evinced
in its desperate exertions to force the infamous
Lecompton Constitution upon the protesting
people Of Kansas in constituting the personal
relation between master and servant to involve
an unqualified property in persons; in its
attempted enforcement, everywhere. on land
and on sea, through the Intervention Of Con-
gress and Of the Federal Courts, of the extreme
pretensions of . purely local interest in its
general and unvarying abuse Of the power
Entrusted to it by confding people
the reckless extravaganza which pervades ev-
cry department Of the Federal Government;
| that a return to rigid economy and accounts
bility is indispensable to arrest the systematic
plumber of the public treasury by favored
partisans; while the recent startling develop
! ments Of frauds and corruptiens at the Federal
| Metropolis, show that an entire change of
administration is imperatively demanded.
7. That the new dogma that the Constitution,
Of its own force, carries slavery into any or
all Of the Territories Of the United States, is
q dangerous political heresy, at variance with
the explicit provisions Of that instrument IT,
self, with contemporaneous exposition, and
with leg islative and judicial precedent; il
revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive
Of the peace and harmony of the county.
| 8. That the normal condition of all the ter
ritory of the United States is that of freedom
That as our Republican fathers, when they
had abolished slavery in all our national ter.
ritory, ordained that ''no person should be
deprived Of life, liberty or property, without
due process of law" it becomes our duty, by
legislation, whenever such legislation IS neces
sary, to maintain this provision against all at.
tempts to violate it and we deny the authori.
~ of Congress, of territorial legislature, OF
Of any individuals, to give legal existence "a
Slavery in any Territory Of the United States
g. That we brand the recent re-opening Of
the African slave trade, under the cover Of
our National Flag, aided by perversions Of ju.
dicial power, as q crime against Humanity and
q burning shame to eur Country and Age; and
We call upon Congress to take prompt and eff:
dcient measures for the total and final sup
preston Of that execrable traffic.
10. That in the recent vetoes, by their Fed
eral Governors, Of the acts Of the Legislature
of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery
in those Territories. we find practical Illus
Non-Intervention and Popular Sovereignty
embodied in the Kansas Nebraska bill, and {
demonstration Of the deception and fraud in
tvolved therein. - .>5:& .>#..>o:5 81: ,~.'@a' il
IL. That Kansas should Of right be immedi
lately admitted as State under the Constitu
tioa recently formed and adopted by her peopl,
and accepted by the House Of Representatives
+ IL. That while providing revenue for tn,
support Of the general government by duties
upon imports, sound policy requires such II
adjustment Of these imposts as to encourag,
the development Of the industrial interests O
the whole country; and We commend tina
policy Of national exchanges, which secures
to the working men liberal wages, to agricul
ture remunerating prices, to mechanics an,
manufacturers an adequate reward fer thei
skill, labor and enterprise, and to the nation
commercial prosperity and independence. r
J ID. That we protest against any sale o
i alienation to others Of the Public Lands bel,
by SEXUAL settlers, and against any view Of tn
Free Homestead policy which regards the set
tiers as paupers or suppliants for publ