The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-02-08
STATV DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED
JANUARY stn, A. d. 1867.
RESOLUTIONS.


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 II in the
Federal Constitution that all other powers
are reserved to the states or the people
that strict construction of the COnstitu-
tion 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 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
legislate for or administer the local concerns
of the States that it would be monstrous
that the local affairs of Ohio should be regu-
lated by Federal Congress 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 Capitalization of power in
its hands is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs Irption OF power would, while
1t lasted, be destructive of the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
either in despotism or destruction of the
Union; that a National debt, besides inn
poverishing the people, fosters an undue
| Increase of the powers of the Federal Gov
ernment; 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
| N Tn ul IN
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-
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
lerty;" that the tendency of government is
to enlarge its authority by usurpaton, 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
ty, without dun process of civil law; that
Ithe courts should always be open for the
redress of grievances; that no er post tdctO
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, as prescribed by the Constitution, have
the right to govern, the minority have in
defeasible rights; and that a frequent re-
currence 70 first principles is essential to
the welfa% 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 members of Congress
by President johnson, in various prOcla-
nations and official aCts by Congress.
which permitted Andrew johnson to sit in
the Senate as 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
Iapportionment 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 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 entertans jurisdic-
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 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 Vice-president; that though
, these rights are subject TO interruption by
state of civil war, they can not, in time OF
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed
without plain violation of the Constitu-
ton; that Congress has no power to de-
priye q State of its reserved rights, ant
reduce it to Territorial condition; thai
; therefore the exclusion, by the so-calle
Congress, of all representation from tel
States, the proposed exclusion of thos'
States, from all voice in the next Presiden.
cial 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 th'
u rights of those States, but also of the right
i. OF every other State in the Union. Tha
le those measures are parts ofa plan to nullify
t. the Constitution, virtually overthrow tn,
= State Governments TO erect aconsolidateI
despstism on their ruins; and 20 establish
i' and dperpetuate a tyrannical rule of minor
ity over majority of the American peo
: pie. That the people cannot, without
- loss of their liberties, prosperity and honor
i. submit to such a result; and we, therefore
in the hope that the warning will b
needed, and the danger TO our situations b
y peaceably averted, do solemnly warn tn
advocates of the plan, that 1t will no
i, be submitted TO.
:. 3. Resolved, That Congress is not a.
Il omnipotent law-making power. That Tn
" Constitution provides that no bill shall be
in come a law without the approval of tn
President, unless 1t be passed by two-third
: of each House of Congress. That one Q
the objects of the present so-called Con
gress In excluding States from representa-
: ton, Is to pass bills by a two-thirds vot
" which, were all the States represented
? could not so pass; aud thus 70 virtual
> abolish the constitutional provision afOre
said. That IL this precedent be acquiesce
q in, there will be nsthing TO prevent bar
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