The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-04-12
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED.
JANUART Sh, 4. d. 1907.


D IAEHNA - 81 NV = AAANh III hAANNNAAlAN
with these principles W. declare that the
Federal Government Is a government of
limited powers, and that it possesses no
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary Implication delegated to it In the
Federal Constitution that allother powers
are reserved to the states or the people;
that a strict construction of the Censtitu-
tlou 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 aud 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
legislatc for or administer the local concerns
ofthe States that II 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
cral Government is to usurp the reserved
rights of the States and of the people; and
that. therefore, "A Capitalization of power In
It's hands is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs DrptiOn OF power would. while
1t lasted, be destructive OF the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
either in deSpOtism or a destruction of the
Union that n National debt, besides inn
povcrishing the people, fosters an undue
increase of the power 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; 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 .,t.1VF TO Ntn V,raaA.wsNvr H,,t ,I-. A. A..
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
~, without due process of civil law that
the courts should always be open for the
redress of grievances; that no er post Jdcto
law should be made; that the right of the
people to peaceably assemble and consult
upon public affairs is inviOlablc that the
military should be held i'm due subsection
to the civil power; that while the major
ity, as prescribed by the Constitution. have
the right to govern, the minority AVE in
defeasible rights; and that a frequent re-
currence to first principles is essential to
the welfare of the State and the people.
2. ReS0lUed, That the States lately in re-
helliOn 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 mids ofthe war,
: invited them to electmembers of Congress /;
by President Johnson, in various procla-
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 in 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, 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 jurisdic-
ton of cases coming from them, which it
+ could not do were they not in the Union.
r 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
e State is entitled to have two Senators and a
due proportion of Representatives in the
Y Congress, and to vote in all elections of
7 President and Vice-president that, though
these rights are subject to interruption by
a state of civil war, they can not, in time of
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed,
5 without a plain violation of the COnstitu-
: ton that Congress has no power to de-
= prive Il State of its reserved rights, and
reduce 1t to n Territorial condition: that
j therefore the exclusion, by the so-called
2 Congress, of all representation from ten
t 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
c OF their States to the condition of ~territor-
les, are each and every one of them uncon-
. stitutional, revolutionary and despOtic
measures, destructive not merely of the
- rights of those States, but also of the rights
r of every other State in the Union. That
| those measures are parts Ofa plan to nullify
the Constitution, virtually overthrow the
State Governments, to erect IA consolidated
despOtism on their ruins and to establish
: and perpetuate a tyrannical rule of aminor-
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 n result; and we, therefore,
in the hope hat the warning will be
needed, and the danger to our situations be
peaceably averted, do solemnly warn the
advocates of the plan, that IL will not
be submitted to.
i 3. ResolUed, That Congress is not an
Ie omnipotent law-making power. That the
/, Constitution provides that no bill shall be-
come II law without the approval of the
" President, unless it be passedby two-thirds
of each House of Congress. That one OF
rs the objects of the present so-called Con
greSs in excluding States from representa-
tion, is to pass bills by a t%wo-thirds vote
!" which, were all the States represented,
could not so pass; and thus to virtually
es abolish the constitutional provision afore-
re said. That il this precedent be acquiesced