Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1860-05-23
REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.

Resoh'ed, That We. the delegated repre-
resentatives of the Republican electors of
the United States, in convention assembled,
in the discharge of the duty We owe to our
constituents and our country unite in the
following declarations:
lst. That the history of the nation du-
ring the last four years has fully established
the propricty and necessity fthc organiza-
ton and perpctuation of the Republican
party, and that the causes which called it
into existence are permanent in their nature,
and now more than ever before demand its
peaceful and constitutional triumph.
ID. That the maintenance of the princi-
pies promulgated in the Declaration of In
dependence and embodied in the Federal
! Constitution, That all men are born equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator
! with certain iunlienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness; that to insure these rights. gov
crnments are instituted among men deriving
their lust powers from the consent of the
governed" 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:
Sd. That to the Union Of the States this
nation owes It's unprecedented increase in
population, its surprising development Of
material resources, its rapid augmentation
| of wealth, its happiness at home and its
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 ever uttered or countcnanced
the threats Of disunion SO often made By
! Democratic members without rebuke and
with applause from their political associates,
and we denounce those threats of disuniOn
N case of a popular overthrow of their as
tendency, as denying the vital principles of
q free government, and as an avowal ofcon-
templated treason which it is the imperative
duty of an indignant people stcrnly to re-
buke and forever silence.
4th. 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 balance of powers Oh which the perfec-
ton and endurance of our political fabric
depend, and We denounce the lawless inva-
sion by armed force of the soil of any State
or Territory, no matter under what pretext,
as among the greatest of crimes.
9th. That the present Democratic Ad-
ministration has far exceeded our worst ap-
prehcnsions in measureless subservieney to
the extension of a sectional interest as cs-
pmecially evidenced in its desperate exertions
to force the infamous Lecompton Constitution
upon the protesting people of Kansas, in
constructing the personal relation between
master and servant to involve an unquali-
fed property in persons, in its att mpted
enforcement everywhere on land and sea
through the Intervention Of Congress and
efthe FEDERAL Courts of the extreme preten-
siOns Of a purely local nature, and in its
general and unvarying abuse of the power
entrusted to it by a confdiDg people.
9th. That the people justly view with
alarm the reckless extravaganza which per
vades every department of the Federal Gov
crnment, that a retarn to rigid economy
and accountability is indispensable to arrest
the systematic plumber of the public treas
ury by Federal partizans, while the recent
startling developments of frauds and cor
ruptions at the Federal metropolis show
that an entire change of Administration Is
impcrativcly demanded.
9TH. That the new dogma that the Con-
stituti on ofits oRn force, carries slavery in
to any or all the territories of the United
States is a dangerous political heresy at
variance with the explicit provisions Of that
instrument itself, with cOntemporaneous ex-
position, and with legislative and judicial
precedent; is revolutionary in its tendency,
and subycrsiEe ofthe peace and harmony Of
!, de country
Sth. That the normal condition Of all
, the territories of the United States is that
r of freedom. that as our Republican fathers,
; when they had abolished slavery in all our
national territory. ordained that no pcrsen
should be deprived of Efe, liberty or prop
| erty without due process of law, it becomes
our duty by legislation, whenever such leg
t islation is necessary to maintain this proTis-
ion of the Constitution against all attempts
to violate it. and We deny the authority Of
Congress, ofa Territorial Legislature, or Of
/ any individual to give legal existence Of
|. slavery in any Territory Of the United
; .States.
l. 9Th. That we brand the recent reopen.