The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-05-01
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED.
JAYUARY Sth, 4. d. 1897.


proved by experience that In accordance
with these principles we declare that the
Federal Government Is a government Of
limited powers, and that &c possesses no
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary implication delegated to II in the
Federal Constitution that allothcr powers
are reserved to the states or the people;
that a strict construction OF the Ceustitu-
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 otmCu that the
preservation of the equality and 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
llegislate for or administcr the local concerns
of the states that it would bc moustrouS
that the local affairs ofOhio should berCgu-
lated by a Federal CongrcSSiu which She has
but two senators, and the New EuCland
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 ut the people; and
that. therefore, a Capitalization OF power iu
its hands Is an ever pending danger. That
such an abs lrption OF power would, while
II lasted, be destructive Of the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
either in %dcspotism or n destruction of the
Union that II 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 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,
81 NAAW NIAaAAN.A- T.. --.-as-
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 10
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 u]surpation, and
therefore government needs to be watched;
that another of its tendencies is to govern
too much-unnecessarily and veNatiously
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 due process of civil law that
the courts should always be open for the
redress of grievances; that no eG post factO
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 nave in
defeasible rights; and that Il frequent re-
currence to first principles is essential to
the welfare of the State and the people.
,. RESOLVED, 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 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 sam recognition all of which
were passed since the attempted secession
r 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
5 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
q States with unequal rights being a thing
= unknown to the Constitution that, by tn,
express terms of the Constitution, eaCl
. State is entitled to have two Senators and
due proportion of Representatives in tn
g Congress, and to vote in all elections o
President and Vice-president that, thOugl
y these rights are subject to interruption b,
Y state of civil war, they can not, in time o
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed
n without a plain violation of the Constitu
ton; that Congress has no power to de
- prive a State of its reserved rights, an
reduce it to a Territorial condition tina
10 therefore the exclusion, by the so-calle
lie Congress, of all representation from tie
States, the proposed exclusion of thos
: States, from all voice in the next Presiden
tial election, the threatened overthrow {
their State Governments and the reductio
OF their States to the condition of ~territoi
lies, are each and every one of them uncon
al stitutional, revolutionary and despoti
measures, destructive not merely of tn
rights of those States, but also Of the righI
ie of every other State in the Union. Thi
e, those measures are parts ola plan to MULTI
the Constitution, virtually overthrow til
- State Governments, to erect, aconsolidate
III despotism on their ruins; and to establis
and perpetuate a tyrannical rule ofaminOl
ity over a majority of the American pee
pie. That the people cannot, without
M loss of their liberties, prosperity and homo
~ submit to such II result; and we, therefor
in the hope that the warning will |
20, needed, and the danger to our situations |
peaceably averted, do solemnly warn Il
- advocates of the plan, that it wiz n
" be submitted to.
8. ResolDed, That Congress is not {
!, omnipotent law-making power. That Il
AZ Constitution provides hat no bill shall b
TIL come law without the approval of ii
: a President, unless it be passed by two-thir
of each House of Congress. That one
the objects of the present so-called Co
'h greSs In excluding States from represent
Dill ton, is to pass bills by a two-thirds yo
he which, were all the States represente
could not so pass; and thus to virtual
- abolish the constitutional provision afor
III said. That il this precedent be %acquiescl
apaI q. AN----gll 10 .aNIs,A, . - .a.v,v u, l.,