The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-04-16
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
PLATFORM ADOPTED.
Sth, 4. ID. 1891.


teucIal Government Is n government OF
limited powers, and that it possesses no
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary Implication delegated TO II i'm the
Federal Constitution that allother powers
are reserved to the states or the pcople
that a strict construction OF the Csnstitu-
ton Is indispensable to the preservation of
the reserved rights of the States and the
people that all grants of power to Govern
mcnt, whether state or Federal, should be
strictly construed, because all such grants
abridge the natural rights ofmen; 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
.lcgislatc for or administer the local concerns
of the states that 10 would be monstrous
that the local affairs ofOhio should be regu-
lated by Il Federal COngrcssin 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
cral Government Is to usurp the reserved
rights Of the States and of the people: aud
that, therefore, a Capitalization Of power in
It's hands Is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs irptiOn OF power would. while
II lasted, be destructive of the liberties and
interests of the people, aud would end
either in despOtism or a destruction of the
Union that IA National debt, besides inn
poverishing the people, fosters an undue
Increase of the powers of the Federal Gov
ernmcnt that high protective tariffs have
a like effect, sacrificing the interests of the
many for the e~molumentS 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 %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 Il 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 veXatieusly
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 l~egitimately 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 fdcto
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, rs prescribed by the Constitution, have
the right to govern, the minority have in
dcfcasible rights; and that IL frequent re-
c%urrence to first principles Is essential to
the welfare of the State and the people.
,. ReSOiced, That the States lately in re-
bcllion 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 el~ectmcmbers of Congress ;
by President johnson, in various procla-
nations and official acts; by Congress,
which permitted Andrew johnson to sit in
the Senate rs IA enato from Tennessee.
and members from Virginia, Tennessee
and Louisiana to sit in the House of Repre-
seutativcs 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
~ AiA' A'EolAhkANlAo 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 iurisdic.
ton of cases coming from them, which il
could not 10 were they not in the Union
That being thus in the Union, they stanG
on an equal footing with their sister State.
States with unequal rights being a thing
unknown to the Constitution; that, by thu
express terms of the Constitution, eacl
State is entitled to have two Senators and
due proportion of Representatives in tn,
Congress, and to vote in all elections o
President and Yice-president that, though
these rights are subject to interruption b,
Il state of civil war, they can not, in time o
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed
without II plain violation of the Constitu
ton; that Congress has no power to de
prive a State of its reserved rights, ant
reduce it to a Territorial condition; tina
t therefore the exclusion, by the so-callet
Z Congress, of all representation from tel
States, the proposed exclusion of thos
States, from all voice in the next Presiden
5 tial election, the threatened overthrow o
their State Governments and the reduction
, OF their States to the condition of %territor
les, are each and every one of them uncOn
stitutional, revolutionary and despoti
r measures. destructive not merely of tn
| rights of those States, but also of the right
r of every other State in the Union. Tina
those measures are parts ola plan to MULTI,
the Constitution, virtually overthrow tn
, State Governments, to erect II consolidate,
e despotism on their ruins; and to establish
and perpetuate a tyrannical rule of a minor
ity over Il majority Of the American PEG
pie. That the people cannot, without
=, loss of their liberties, prosperity and honor
submit to such n result and we, therefore
, In the hope that the warning will b
needed, and the danger to our situations b
. peaceably averted, do sOlemnly warn tn
A advocates of the plan, that it will no
, be submitted to.
8. Resolved, That Congress is not a
. o%mnipotent law-making power. That tn
Constitution provides that no bill shall be
come Il law without the approval of tn
President, unless II be passed by two-third
+ of each House of Congress. That one o
a the objects of the present so-called Con
. gress In excluding States from representa-
: ton. Is to pass bills by a two-thirds vot
5 which, were all the States represented
70 could not so pass and thus to virtual,
e abolish the constitutional provision afore
said. That If this precedent be acquiesce,
i'm, there will be nothing to prevent a bar