The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-05-04
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
THE PLATFORM ADOPTED.


proved by experience; that In accordance
with these principles we declare that the
Federal Government is u government of
limited powers, and that Il possesses no
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary Implication delegated to IL i'm the
Federal Constitution that allother powers
are reserved to the states or the people;
that a strict construction OF the CSnstltu-
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. sbould he
strictly construed, because all such grants
abridge the natural rights of men that the
preservation of the equality and rights Of
the States and tho rights of the people is
necessary to the preservation of the Union /;
that the Federal Government Is unified TO
legislate for or administer the local concerns
ofthe States that II would be monstrous
that the local affairs OfOhio should be reou-
lated by a Federal Congressin which she has
but two Senators, and the New England
States, with but n little greater population,
haYetwelve that the tendency Of the Fed
eral Government Is 10 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
it lasted, be destructive of the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
either in despOtism OF a destruction of the
Union that a National debt, besides i'm
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
deney, 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 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 y that the tendency of government is
to enlarge its authority by ~usuTpation, 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 due process of civil law that
the courts should always be open for the
redressof grievances that no ca post Jdcto
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-
c%urrence 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 4;
by President johnson, in various procla-
nations and official acts; by Congress,
which permitted Andrew johnson TO sit in
the Senate ms IA 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 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-
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 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-
y prive n State of its reserved rights, and
reduce IL to a Territorial condition thai
: therefore the exclusion, by the so-called
= Congress, of all representation from tel
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
, OF their States to the condition of t~erritor-
/ les, are each and every one of them uncon-
= stitutiOnal, revolutionary and despotiC
= measures, destructive not merely Of the
K rights of those States, but also of the right.
of every other State in the Union. Tha'
I those measures are parts ola plan TO nullify
the Constitution, virtually overthrow tn,
State Governments, to erect aconsolidateC
o despOtism on their ruins; and to establish
s and perpetuate a tyrannical rule ofa minor.
v ity over n majority of the American PEG.
I pie. That the people cannot, without {
loss of their liberties, prosperity and honor
submit to such n result and we, therefore
e in the hope that the warning will b.
needed, and the danger to our situations b,
= peaceably averted, do solemnly warn tn,
advocates of the plan, that it will no
be submitted to. ~
5. RESOLVED, That Congress is not al
omnipOtent law-making power. That tn,
n Constitution provides that no bill shall be
come a law without the approval of tn
Is President, unless it be passedby two-third
e Of each House of Congress. That one o
It the objects Of the present so-called Con
n greSs In excluding States from representa-
IS ton, is to pass bills by a two-thirds Vot
which, were all the States represented
could not so pass and thus 10 virtually
i abolish the constitutional provision afore
l. said. That il this precedent be acquiesceC