The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-05-07
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED.
JANUARY 8h, 4. ID. 1907.
RESOLUTIONS.

by experience; hat In accordance
with these principles w declare that the
Federal Government Is a government of
limited powers, n that IL possesses no
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary implication delegated to IL in the |
Federal Constitution that allother powers
are reserved TO the states or the people:
that a strict construction Of the Censtitu-
ton is indispensable TO the preservation of
the reserved rights Of the States and the
people; that all grants of power to Govern
ment. whether State or Federal, should be
strictly construed, because all such grants
abridge the natural rights of men that the
preservation of the equality and rights of
the States and the rights Of the people is
necessary to the preservation of the Union;
that the Federal Government Is untitled TO
legislate for or administer the local concerns
OF the States that It would be monstrous
that the local affairs ofOhio should be regu-
lated by a Federal Congressin which she has
but two Senators, and the New England
States, with but a little greater population,
have twelve that the tendency of the Fed
eral Government is to usurp the reserved
rights of the States aud of the people and
that. therefore, a GENERALIZATION of power in
Its hands Is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs Irption OF power would. while
il lasted, be destructive of the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
either in despottsm or a destruction of the
I 1AAbA 9 UNIV ~ ~ dllbAidA hNbNs btHlAAtH Alu-
poverishing the people, fosters an undue
increase of the powers of the Federal Gov
eminent that high protective tariffs have
a like effect, sacrificing the interests of the
many for the emoluments of the few. and
plainly violating the equity and spirit of
the Constitution; hat the collection and
disbursement of enormous revenues by the
Federal Government have the same ten
dency, beside corrupting the Government,
and that therefore, economy Is essential
not only to the prosperity, but also to the
liberties of the people; that unequal tax
alton is a plain violation of justice, of
which no Government can safely be guilty.
That to each State belongs the right to
determine the qualification of its electors,
and all attempts to impair this right, either
by Congressional legislation or Constitu-
tional~ amendment, are unwise and despot-
ic that the tendency of power is to steal
from the many to the few, and that, there
fore, "eternal vigilance is the price of lib
erty ~ that the tendency of government is
to enlarge its authority by usurpation, and
therefore government needs to be watched;
that another of its tendencies Is to govern
too much-unnecessarily and veXatiously
interfering with the business and habits of
the people; that the freedom of speech and
of the press Is essential to the existence of
liberty that no person not in the military
or naval service, or in the bounds where
martial law legitimately prevails, can law
| fully be deprived of life, liberty or proper
ty, without due process of civil law that
the courts should always be open for the
redress of grievances; that no e1 post Jdcto
law should be made; that the right of the
people to peaceably assemble and consult
upon public affairs is inviolable that the
military should be held in due subsection
to the civil power; that while the major
ity, as prescribed by the Constitution, have
the right to govern, the minority have in
defeasible rights and that a frequent re-
currence to first principles Is essential to
the welfare of the State and the people.
2. RESOLVED, That the States lately in re-
bellion are States in the Union, and nave
been recognized as such by every depart
) ment of the Government, and by Presi-
dent Lincoln, who, in the midst of the war,
t invited them to electmembers of Congress /;
9 by President johnson, in various procla-
nations and official acts; by Congress,
t which permitted Andrew Johnson to sit in
= the Senate as a Senator from Tennessee,
= and members from Virginia, Tennessee
and Louisiana to sit in the House of Repre-
! sentatives after these States had seeded,
= and while the war was being carried on,
3 and which further recognized them as
< States in the Union by the Congressional
t apportionment act providing for their due
representation in Congress; by various
! tax laws, and especially by the direct tax /;
( by the resolutions submitting amendments
| to the Constitution for their approval, and
I by various other acts and resolutions inn
f parting the same recognition all of which
were passed since the attempted secession
of those States, by the Judiciary of the
t United States, which holds Federal Courts
i. in all those States, and especially by the
t Supreme Court, which entertains jurisdic-
ton of cases coming from them, which II
2 could not do were they not in the Union.
r That being thus in the Union, they stand
IS on an equal footing with their sister States
States with unequal rights being a thing
unknown to the Constitution that, by the
express terms of the Constitution, each
State is entitled to have two Senators and q
= due proportion of Representatives in the
Congress- and to vote in all elections o.
+ President and Vice-president that, though
Il these rights are subject to interruption by
4, n state of civil war, they can not, III time o
. peace, be suspended, much less destroyed
< without a plain violation of the Constitu
n ton that Congress has no power to de
N Ipriye a State of its reserved rights, AM
reduce it to a Territorial condition; tina
therefore the exclusion, by the s~o-calleC
l. Congress, of all representation from tel
States, the proposed exclusion of thos
States, from all voice in the next Presiden
tial election, the threatened overthrow o
- their State Governments and the reductioI
( OF their States to the condition of %territor
r, les, are each and every one of them uncon
50 stitutional, revolutionary and despoti
measures, destructive not merely of tn
" rights of those States, but also of the right
Of every other State in the Union. Tha
ee those measure are parts ola plan to MULTI
the Constitution, virtually overthrow tn
:. State Governments, to erect a consolidate
iu despotism on their ruins; and to establis
x and perpetuate a tyrannical rule of minor
of ity over a majority of the American pee
pie. That the people cannot without
i loss of their liberties, prosperity and homo
submit to such u result; and we, therefor,
he in the hope that the warning will b
lg needed, and the danger to our situations }
n peaeeably averted, do solemnly warn III
advocates of the plan, that 1t will M
be submitted to,
8. ResolUed, That Congress is not a
no %omnipotent law-making power. That til
Constitution provides that no bill shall be
eS' come a law without the approval of I'll
of President, unless it be passed by two-thirC
of each House Of Congress. That one
the objects of the present so-called Coz
greSs In excluding States from representG
Dol ton, is TO pass bills by a two-thirds vot
RY which, were all the States representa-