The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-02-20
.ITN0GRAYIE CONVENTION.
TEE PLATF0RA ADOPTED.


]. Resolued, That the Democracy of Ohio
steadfastly adhere to the principles of the
party as e%xpOunded by the fathers, and ap-
proved by experience; that ia accordance
with these principles we declare that the
Federal Government is q government of
limited powers, and that Il possesses no
powers but such rs are expressly. or by
necessary implication delegated TO IL in the
Federal Constitution that all other powers
are reserved to the etates 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 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
leglslate for or administer the local concerns
of the States that it would be monstrous
that the local affairs ofOhio should be regt-
lated by a Federal Congress in which she has
but W Senators, and the New England
States, with but a little greater population,
have twelve that the tendency of the Fed
Ieral 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
shNA dA JUS VI BllOu VI DOMtI. WOulu. me
II lasted, be destructive of the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
either in despotism or a e destruction of the
Union that a National debt. besides i'm
poverishing the people, fosters an undue
increase of the powers of the Federal Cow
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 enormou revenue 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 a plaif 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
crty !" that the tendency of government Is
to enlarge its authority by %usurpation, and
therefore government needs to be watched (;
that another of It's 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 ia 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 ep post JdctO
law should be made; that the right of the
people to peaceably assemble and consult
-. - A.. - T. a--s- - -
military should be held in due isubiectlon
to the civil power; that while the maibr-
ity, as prescribed by the Constitution, have
the right to govern, the minority nave in
defeasible rights and hat Il frequent re-
%currence to first principles is essential TO
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 Senate 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 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 ConstituNo OF 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 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 a 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
q state of civil war, they can not. in time Of
peace, be suspended, much less destroyed.
without n plain violation of the COnstitu-
ton that Congress has no power to de-
prive a State of its reserved rights, and
reduce it to a Territorial condition; that
therefore the exclusion, by the so-called
Congress, of all representation from ten
States, the proposed exclusion of those
States, from all voice in the next Presiden-
cial election, the threatened overthrow oil
their State Governments and the reduction
OF their States to the condition of t%erritor-
les, are each and every one of them %uncon-l
stitutional, revolutionary and despOtic
measures, destructive not merely of the
rights of those States, but also of the rights
of every other State in the Union. That
those measures are parts ola plan to nullity
the Constitution, virtually overthrow the
State Governments, to erect a consolidated
despotism on their ruins; and to establish
and perpetuate a %tyrannical rule OF a minor
ity over a majority of the American peo-
pie. That the people cannot, without a
loss of their liberties, prosperity and honor. !
submit 20 such a result; aud we, therefore. |
in the hope that the warning will be
needed, and the danger to our situations be
peaceably averted, do solemnly warn the
advocates Of the plan, that it will not
be submitted to.
3. eResoiued, That Congress is not an
omnipotent law-making power. That the
Constitution provides that no bill shall be-
come a law without the approval of the
President, unless IL be passed by two-thirds
of each House of Congress. That one of
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