The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-04-30
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED.
U Sh, 4. ID. 1907.


proved by experience; that I'm accordance
with these principles we declare that the
Federal Government Is a government of
powers, and that &c 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 Il strict construction OF the Censtltu-
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
abridgc the natural rights of men that the
preservation of the equality and rights of
the States and the rights Of the people is
necessary 20 the preservation of the Union
that the Federal Government Is untitled to
legislate for or administer the local concerns
of the States that IL would be monstrous
that the local affairs ofOhio should be regu-
lated by n 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 and of the people; and
that, therefore, n Capitalization Of power in
its hands is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs lrptiOn OF power would, while
il lasted, be destructive Of the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
either I'm despotism or a destruction of the
Union that a National debt, besides inn
povcriShing 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 emolumcnts of the few, and
plainly violating the equity and spirit of
the Constitution; that the collection and
disbursement of enormous revenues by the
Federal Government have the same ten
denCy, beside c%Orrupting 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 uuwise 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
vi naval NNINlNNs VI III llN JULIUS NllCIt
martial law legitimately prevails, can law
fully be deprived of life, liberty or proper
ty, without due process of civil laNS; that
the courts should always be open for the
redress of grievances; that no &c post tdctO
law should be made; that the right of the
people to pcaceably 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 nave in
defeasible rights and that Il frequent re-
c%urrence 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 az such by every depart
ment of the Government, and by Presi-
dent Lincoln, who, in the midst of the war,
invited them to electmembers of Congress /;
by President johnson, in various p%rocla-
nations and official acts; by Congress,
which permitted Andrew Johnson to sit in
the Senate as a Senator from Tennessee,
and members from Virginia, Tennessee
and Louisiana to sit i'm the House of Repre-
sentatives after these States had seeded,
and while the wal was being carried on,
and which further recognized them rs
States in the Union by the Congressional
appOrtiOnment act providing for their due
representation in Congress; by various
TAX laws, anu tSDtCldllN ny lllc ulTttJ llN ,
by the resolutions submitting amendment
to the Constitution for their approval, and
by various other acts and resolutions inn
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 enteTtains iurisdic.
tion of cases coming from them, which il
could not do were they not in the Union
That being thus in the Union, they stanC
on an equal footing with their sister State!
States with unequal rights being a thinl
unknown to the Constitution that, by tn,
A express terms of the Constitution, eacl
State is entitled to have two Senators and
due proportion of Representatives in til,
J Congress, and to vote in all elections o
; President and Vice-president that, though
d these rights are subject to interruption b.
p n state of civil war, they can not, in time o
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed
!" without a plain violation of the Constitu
a ton that Congress has no power to dc
d priye n State of its reserved rights, an
reduce it to a Territorial condition; tina
therefore the exclusion, by the so-calle
Congress, of all representation from te
States, the proposed exclusion of thos
ut States, from all voice in the mex Presiden
5, tial election, the threatened overthrow {
y, their State Governments and the reductio
Oh LnelT pldLcS W lllt tOllNlllOll VI ltIElIOi
les. are each and every one of them uncou
ut stitutional, revolutionary and despoti
m measures, destructive not merely of I'll
al rights of those States, but also of the right
81 of every other State in the Union. III,
those measures are parts ola plan to MULTI
the Constitution, virtually overthrow IL
IN State Governments, to erect aconsOlidatc
,n despotism on their ruins; and to establis
f. and perpetuate a%tyrannical rule of aminor
ity over Il majority of the American pc,
pie. That the people cannot, without
loss of their liberties, prosperity and homo
CT submit to such a result; and we, therefor
IS, in the hope that the warning will !
he needed, and the danger to our situations I
peaceably averted, do solemnly warn Il
advocates of the plan, that it will n
be submitted to.
3. Resolved, That Congress is not {
" omnipotent law-making power. That Il
Constitution provides that no bill shall b
u come n law without the approval of ii
!, President, unless it be passed by twO-thir
of each House of Congress. That one
the objects of the present sO-called Co
gress In excluding States from represent
, ton, Is to pass bills by n twO-thirds va
IL which, were all the States represente
could not so pass; and thus to virtual
at abolish the constitutional provision afor
rosI That "a thfg nrapnlapt hn opuniagal