The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-06-06
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED.
JANUARY sth, 4. d. 1897.


/ PIOfeu ny eNPtflehcei that In accordance
4 WIN these principles We declare that the
Federal Government Is II government of
limited powers, and that II possesses no
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary Implication delegated 10 il la the
Federal Constitution that all other powers
are reserved TO the states or the peoDle
that strict construction of the Csnstltu-
ton Is indispensable to the preservation OF
the reserved rights of the States and the
people that all grants Of fpower 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 aud the rights Of the people is
necessary 70 the preservation of the Union /:
that the Federal Government Is untitled to
/ legislate for or administer the local concerns
of the States that 1t would be monstrnus
that the local affairs ofOhio should be regu-
lated by Federal Congress In which she has
but Two Senators, and the New England
states, with but little greater population,
have twelve; that the tendency of the Fed
erai Government Is to usurp the reserved
rights OF the States and of the people and
that, therefore, Capitalization of power in
Its hands Is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs Irption Ol power would, while
II lasted, be destructive of the liberties and
| Interests of the people, and would end
either In despOtism or a destruction Of the
| Union; that National debt, besides i'm
pOVerishing the people, fosters an undue
increase OF the powers of the Federal Gov
ernment; that high protective tariffs have
like effect, sacrificing the interests of the
many for the emoluments of the few, and
plainly violating the equity and spirit of
the Constitutions; that the collection and
disbursement of enormous revenues by the
Federal Government have the same ten
dency, beside corrupting the Government,
al al haR Fg,,..." =
not only to the prosperity, but also to the
liberties OF the people; that unequal tax
alton Is 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-
tlonal 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 omuch-unnecessaril and yexatiously
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 er post CactO
law should be made; that the right of the
people to peaceabiy assemble and consult
upon public affairs Is inYiolable; that the
military should be held in due subiection
| to the civil power; that while the major
lty, as prescribed by the Constitution, have
the right TO govern, the minority have in
defeasible rights; and that Il frequent re-
currence to first principles is essential to
the welfare of the State and the people
2. ResolUed, That the States lately in re-
bellion are States in the Union, and have
been recognized as such by every depart
ment of the Government, and by Presi-
dent Lincoln, who, in the midst of the war,
Invited them to elect tmembers ofCongress
by President johnson, in various procla-
nations and official acts; by Congress,
which permitted Andrew johnson to sit in
the Senate rs Senator from Tennessee.
and members from Virginia, Tennessee
and Louisiana to sit in the House of Repre-
seutatives after these States had seeded
and while the war was being carried on,
and which further recognized them as
States in the Union by the Congressional
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
by various other acts and resolutions i'm
parting the same recognition all of which
were passed since the attempted secession
of those States, by the Judiciary of the
United States, which holds Federal Courts
in all those States, and especially by the
| Supreme Court, which entertains jursdic-
| tiOn of cases coming from them, which it
could not do were they not in the Union.
That being thus in the Union, they stand
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 a
due proportion of Representatives in the
Congress, and to vote in all elections OF
President and president that. though
these rights are subject to interruption by
u state of civil war, they can not, in time of
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed,
without plain violation of the Constitu-
tiop that Congress has no power to de-
prive q State of its reserved rights, and
reduce it to a Territorial condition; that
therefore the exclusion, by the so-caled
Congress, of all representation from ten
States, the proposed exclusion of those
States, from all voice in the next Presiden-
tial election, the threatened overthrow of
their State Governments and the reduction
OF their States to the condition of territor-
les, are each and every one of them uneon-
stitutional, revolutionary and dcspotic
measures, destructive not merely of the
rights of those States, but also of the rights
Of every other State in the Union. That
those measures are parts ofa plan to nullity
the Constitution, virtually overthrow the
State Governments, to erect a acOnsOlidated
despotism on their ruins; and to establish
and perpetuate Il tyrannical rule of a minor
ity over II majority of the American peo-
pie. That the people cannot, without a
loss of their liberties, prosperity and honor,
submit to such result; and we, therefore,
In the hope that the warning will be
needed, and the danger to our situations be
peaceably averted, do sOlemnly warn the
advocates of the plan, that II will not
be submitted to.
5. ResOlUed, That Congress is not an
omnipotent law-making power. That tho
Constitution provides that no bill shall be-
come law without the approval of the
President, unless 1t be passed by two thirds
of each House of Congress. That one of
the objects of the present so-called Con-
gress In excluding States from representa-
ton, Is to pass bills by n twO-thirds vote
which, were all the States represented,
could not so pass and thus to virtually
abolish the constitutional provision afore-
said. That II this precedent be acquiesced
In, there will be nothing to prevent bare