The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1860-09-12
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.

the United States, in Convention assem-
bled, in the discharge of the duty we
owe to our constituents and our country,
unite in the allowing declarations:
First: That the history of the nation
during the last four years has fully estab-
ished the proprietv and necessity of the
organization and perpetuation Of the Re
publican party, and that the causes which
called it into existence are permanent in
their nature, and now more than ever be-
fore demand its peaceful and constitution
al triumph.
Second: That the maintenance of the
principles promulgated in the Declaration
of Independence, and embodied in the
Federal Constitution, is essential to the
preservation of our republican institutions,
and that the Federal Constitution, the
rights of the States. and the Union of
the States, must and shall be preserved.
Third. That to the Union Of. the States
this nation owes its unprecedented in
erase in population; its surprising devel-
| opment of material resources; its rapid
augmentation of wealth; its happiness at
home and its honor abroad; and we hold
in abhorance all schemes for disunion,
come from whatever source they may
and we congratulate the country that no
Republican member OF Congress has ut
tered or countenanced threat of disun-
ion, so often made by Democratic MEM
bers of Congress without rebuke, and
with applause from their pei zeal associ-
ates; and we deuounce those threats of
disunion, in case of popular overthrow
of their ascendency, as denying the vital
principles of free Government, and as
ali avowal ofcontemplated treason, which
it is the imperative duty of au indignant
people strongly to rebuke and forever
silence.
Fourth That the maintenance inyio-
late of the right of the States, and espec-
ia'ly the right of each State to order and
control its own domestic institutions ac-
cording to its own judgement exclusively,
is essential to that balance of power on
which the perfection and endurance OF
our political faith depends, and we de-
nounce the lawless invasion by armed
forces of any State or Territory, no mat
ter under what pretext, as among the
gravest of crimes.
Fifth: That the present Democratic
Administration has far exceeded our
worst apprehensions in its measureless
subseryiency to the exactions of a section
al interest, as is especially evident in its
desperate exertions to force the infamous
Lecompton Constitution upon the pro-
testing 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 sea, through
the intervention of Congress and the Fed
eral Courts Of the extreme pretensions OF
a purely local interest, and in its general
and mvarying abuse of the power iu-
trusted to it by a confding people.
tSirth: That the people justly view
with alarm the reckless extravaganza
which pervades every department of the
Federal Government; that return to
rigid economy and accountability is indis-
pensable to arrest the system of plumber
of the public treasury by favored parti-
sans; while the recent startling develop
ments of fraud and corruption at the
Federal metropolis, shows that an entire
change of administration in imperatively
| demanded.
| SeventA:: That the new dogma that
| Constitution of its own force carries Sla-
very into any or all the Territories of the
United States, is dangerous political
heresy, at variance with the explicit pro
visions of that instrument itself, with con-
temporaneous exposition, and with legis.
lative and judicial precedent, is revolu
tionary in its tendency and subversive OF
the peace and harmony of the country.
Eighth: That the normal condition Of
the territories of the United States is that
of Freedom; that as our republican faith
ers. when they had abolished Slavery in
all our national territory, ordained that
no person should be deprived of life, lib
erty, or property, without the process of
law, it becomes our duty, by legislation,
whenever such legislation is necessary, to
maintain this provision of the Constitu-
ton against all te1npts to violate it; and
we deny the authority of Congress, of a
Territorial Legislature, or of any individ-
uals. to give legal existence to Slavery in
| any Territory of the United States.
Ninth: That we br9 nd the recent re
opening of the African slave-trade, under
the cover of ovr national flag, aided by
perversions Of Judicial power, as crime
against humanity, a burning shame to
our country and age, and we call upon
Congress to take prompt and efficient
measures for the total and final suppress
ion of that execrable traffic.
Tenth: That in the recent vetoes by
their Federal Governors of the acts of the
Legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska,
prohibiting Slavery in those Territories,
we find practical illustration of the
boosted Democratic principle of non-in-
tervention and Popular Sovereignty, en-
bodied in the Kansas and Nebraska bill.
and denunciation of the deception and
fraud involved therein.
Eleventh: That Kansas should of
right be Immediately admitted as a State