The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1860-09-19
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM

resentatiyes of the Republican Electors OF
the United States, in Convention assem-
bled, in the discharge of the duty we
owe to our constituents and our country,
unite in the following declarations:
First: That the history of the nation
during the last four years has fully estab-
lished the propriety 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 tho
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,
como from whatever source they may !;
and we congratulate the country that no
Republican member Of Congress has ut
tered or countonanced threat of disun-
ion, so often made by Democratic MEM
bers of Congress without rebuke, and
with applause from their poll ical asSoci-
ates; and we deuounce those threats of
disunion, in case Of a popular overthrow
of their ascendency, as denying the vital
principles of free Government, and as
all avowal ofcontemplated treason, which
it is the imperative duty of an indignant
people strongly to rebuko and forever
silence.
Fourth; That the maintenance invio-
late of the right of the States, and espec-
ia'ly the right of each State to order and
control its own domestic institutions &C
cording to its own judgement exclusively,
is essential to thpt 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 tho exactions of a section
al interest, as is especially evident in its
desperate exertions to fo:ce the infamous
Lecompton Constitution upon the pro-
testing people of Kansas-in constituting
the personal relation between master and
servant to involve all unqualified property
in persons-in its attempted enforcement
: everywhere, on land and sea, through
the intervention of Congress and the Fed
eral Courts CT the extreme pretensions Of
purely local interest, and in its general
and unvarying abuse of the power in
trusted to it by confding people.
!Sirth: That the people Justly view
with alarm the reckless extravaganza
which pervadcs every department of the
Federal Government; that return to
rigid economy and accountability is indis-
pensab!e to arrest the system of plumber
of the pubic treasury by favored parti-
sans; while the recent startling develop
nonts of fraud and corruption at tho
Federal metropolis, shows that an entire
change of administration in imperatively
demanded.
SeveaM:. That the new dogma that
| Constitution of its own force carries Sa-
very into any or all the Territories of the
United States, is a dangerous political
hsresy, at variance with the explicit pro-
visions of that instrument itself, with con-
temporaneous exposition, and with legiS.
lative and judicial precedent, is reyolu
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 he 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 attempts 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 br 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, burning shame to
our country and age, and we call upon
Congress to take prompt and efficient
measures fer 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 a practical illustration of the
boastod 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 State
under the Constitution recently formed
and adopted by her people, and accepted
by the House of Representatives.
| Iaoe!fM: That while providing reve-
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