The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-02-25
STA7T DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORu ADOPTED.
J4YUARr sth, 4. D. 1867.
LUZ

|
/. Resolved. That the Democracy Of Ohio
steadfastly adhere to the principles of the
party as %expounded by the fathers, and APP
proved by experience; that In accordance
with these principles we declare that the
Federal Government Is a government of
limited powers, and that it possesses 10
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary implication delegated to II In the
Federal Constitution that allOther powers
are reserved to the ntates or the people;
that a strict construction of the COnstitu-
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 aud rights OF
the States aud 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 Congressi In 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, a GENERALIZATION of power in
its hands is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs Irption d 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 q National debt, besides inn
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; 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 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
r interfering with the business and habits OF
the people; that the freedom of speech and
Of the, &ress is essential to the existence OF
libertJ 4lthat 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 Jdcto
law should be made; that the right of the
people to peaceably assemble and consult
/ upon public affairs is mVlolaDle; 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-
c%urrence to first principles Is essential t.
f 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 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 war was being carried on,
and which further recognized them as
States in the Union by the Congressional
apportionment act providing for their duo
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 im-
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-
tion of cases coming from them, which II
e 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, eacf
' State is entitled to have two Senators and 8
r due proportion of Representatives in the
Congress, and to vote in all elections o.
President and Vice-president that, though
these rights are subject to interruption by
a state Of civil war, they can not, in time o
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed
without a plain violation of the Constitu
ton; tina Congress has no power TO de
. priye a State of Its reserved rights, ant
reduce it to a Territorial condition; tina
= therefore the exclusion, by the so-callet
~ OF Ill representation lIOlu Itl
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 reduction
OF their States to the condition of %territor
les, are each and every one of them uncon
stitutional, revolutionary and despoti
measures, destructive not merely of tn
rights of those States, but also of the right
r of every other State In the Union. Tha
those measures are parts ola plan to MULTI.
- the Constitution, virtually overthrow tn
. State Governments, TO erect aconsolidatel
= despotism on their ruins; and to establish
and perpetuate a tyrannical rule of aminOr
!. ity over q majority Of the American PEG
- pie. That the people cannot, without
loss of their liberties, prosperity and honor
d submit to such r result; and we, therefore
in the hope that the warning will b
y needed, and the danger TO our situations b
p peaceably averted, do solemnly warn tn
: advocates of the plan, that it will nc
be submitted to.
3. Resolved, That Congress is not a
:, omnipotent law-making power. That Oh
Constitution provides that no bill shall be
come a law without the approval of th
ID.,.t1anf unIaaa e. no nnqep0 nv fVO-tbir6