Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1860-05-25
Republican Platform.

sembled, in the discharge of the duty /
we owe to our constituents and our coun-
try, unite in the following declarations
1. That the history of the nation dur
ing the last four years has fully establish
ed the propriety and necessity of the or
ganization and perpetuation of the Re-
publican party, and the causes which call
ed it into existense are permanent in
their nature, and now more than ever
before demand its peaceful and constitu-
tional triumph.
2. That the maintenance of the prin-
ciples promulgated in the Declaration Of
Independence and embodied in the Fed
eral Constitution, is essential TO the pres
ervation of the Republican institutions,
and that the Federal Constitution, the
rights of the States and the union of the
States, must and shall be preserved and
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 pur-
suit of happiness. That to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among
men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed"
8. That to the union of the States this
nation owes its unprecedented increase
in population, its surprising development
of material resources, its rapid augmen-
tation of wealth, its happiness at home
and It's honor abroad; ard 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 ut
tered or countenanced tie threats of dis
union so often made by Democratic men,
bers without rebuke, and with applause
from their political associates; and we
denounce those threats of dlsunion, in
case of popular overthrow OF their as
cendancy, as denying the vital principle:
of free government and as an avowal o.
contemplated treason which it is the i'm
perative duty of an indignant people
sternly to rebuke and forever silence.
4. That the maintenance inviolate o
the rights of the States, and especially
the right of each State to order and con
troll its own judgment exclusively, is es
sential to that balance of power on which
the perfection and endurance of our pc
litical fabric depends and we denounc'
the lawless invasion by armed force O
the soil of any State or Territory, N
matter under what pretext, as among tn
gravest of crimes.
5. That the present Democratic ad
ministration has far exceeded our wors
apprehension in its measureless subser
viency to the exactions of sectiona
interest,as especially evinced in its despe
rate exertions to force the infamou
Lecompton Constitution upon the pre-
testing people of Kansas; in construin
the personal relation between master an
servant to involve an unqualified propert
in persons; in its attempted enforcemer
everywhere, on land and sea, throug
the intervention of Congress and of tn
Federal Courts, of the extreme prefer
sions of a purely local interest; an
in its general and unvarying abuse {
the power entrusted to it by a confidin
people.
6. That the people justly view wit
alarm the reckless extravaganza whic
pervades every department of the Fec
eral government; that return TO rig
economy and accountability is indispe
sable to arrest the systematic plumber
the public treasury by favored partisan
while the recent startling development
of frauds and corruptions at the FEEDER
metropolis show that an entire chan
of administration is imperatively dema
ded.
z. That the new dogma, that t
Constitution of its own force carr
slavery into any or all the Territories
the United States, is dangerous poll
cal heresy, at variance with the expii
provisions of that instrument itself, W
contemporaneous exposition, and W
legislative and judicial precedent;
revolutionary in its tendency, and 81
versive of the peace and harmoney
the country.
s. That the normal condition of all
territory of the United States is that
freedom; that as our republican fatht
when they had abolished slavery in
our national territory, ordained that
person should be deprived of life, libe
or property without due process Of
it becomes our duty, by legislation, VIII
avar ruoh LEGISLATION IL uacessarv