The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1867-03-07
STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVECTION.
PLATFORM ADOPTED.
JANUARY StA, 4. ID. 1897.


proven Dy experience, That IN accordance
with these principles we declare that the
Federal Government Is q government OF
limited powers, and that Il possesses no
powers but such as are expressly, or by
necessary implication delegated to 1t in the
Federal Constitution that all other powers
are reserved to the States or the people
that a strict construction of the COnstltu-
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 IL would be monstrous
that the local affairs OF ohio should be regu-
lated by a Federal Congressin 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 absorption OF power would. while
1t lasted, be destructive of the liberties and
interests of the people, and would end
lux III hbnDNNAMAh u ~ nEhNINtAlOn VI lIt
Union that a National debt, besides i'm
poverlshlng 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, aud
plainly violating the equity and spirit of
the Constitution that the collection and
disbursement of enormous evenues by the
Federal Government have the same ten
| Ianpu haatIa aAHrs.Rktn Nha n,vvaw,pna,N
aud 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 ia 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 YexatiOusly
Interfering with the business ard habits of
the people; that the freedom of speech and
of the press Is essential to the existence of
AAgNAh . NAAeN AAS HtASSa ~ ~ NV ~ y
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 eI post CdctO
law should be made; hat 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 a frequent re-
currence to first principles is essential 10
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 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 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 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, aud especially by the
Supreme Court, which entertains jurisdic-
ton Of cases coming from them, which ii
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 8
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 that Congress has no power to de
| prive q State of its reserved rights, ant
reduce it to a Territorial condition; tina
therefore the exclusion, by the so-calleC
Congress, Of all representation from tel
States, the proposed exclusion of thos
States, from all voice In the next Preslden
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 uneon
stitutiOnal, revolutionary n despOti
measures, destructive not merely of til
rights of those States, but also of the right
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 a consolidate
despOtism on their ruins; and to establis
and perpetuate a tyrannical rule of a minor
/, ity over a majority of the American pee
pie. That the people cannot, without
5 loss of their liberties, prosperity and homo
S submit to such n result; and we, therefor,
\ in the hope that the warming will b
needed, and the danger to our situations b
peaceably averted, do sOlemnly warn th
advocates of the plan, that it will nc
be submitted to.
> 3. Resolved, That Congress Is not a
omnipotent law-making power. That tn
n Constitution provides that no bill shall bC
come a law without the approval of tn
President unless it be passed by twO-thirt
c OF each House Of Congress. That one
the objects Of the present sO-called Coz
greSs In excluding States from represents
ton, Is to pass bills by a two-thirds vOi
which, were all the States representa-,
e could not so pass; and thus to virtual
n abolish the constitutional provision afOr1
said. That II this precedent be acquiesce
= Il A.. I'LL l.. UANIsa. 10 RrnVrn, an -.