New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-07-08
TIE nEM0CRATIC PLATFORM.

The Republican party, TO the extent OF ltS
power, has been guilty of the crime of not put
ting that portion of the Southern people who
PRAYED and fought for the Union in our late
struggle under the feet of those who cursed
it and fought to overthrow it. That is the gist
of the offcnse for which it is arraigncd, de-
famed belabored and befOuled, in the platform
yesterday adopted by the Democratic National
Convention and herewith presented to our read
ers. "Though you paint an inch thick, to this
complexion you come at last" The slave
holders revolted and tried to break up the Union;
the Republicans broke their power by destroy
ing Slavery, and thus reestablished the Union.
All the talk of arbitrary arrests, suspension of
habeas corpus overthrow of trial by jury, &c,
&C., amounts to just this. We might have
saved Slavery and sacrificed the Union; we
sacrificed Slavery and saved the Union; hence
we are hated and pelted with "Faffing accusa-
tions' by the Rebels and Rebel sympathizers
who ratified and cheered counselor Murphy's
platform yesterday in Tammany Hall.
Hypocrisy is the tribute Vice pays to Virtue
A few years ago, these gentlemen were de-
nOuncng our Emancipation and NegrO-Arming
as our giant usurpatiOns. few years before
that Coercion" was our great crime; we had
destroyed the Constitution by refusing to let
the Slave Power overthrow it, When we
struck back at Slavery, that was our unpardOn-
able sin; now, they have not word to say
against Abolition; they dare not even demon
strate openly against Negro Suffrage and
snuarely assert their baseless dogma that
"Tbis is a White Mans Government" they
are constrained by prudence to rail against the
bugbear of NEGRO Supremacy" And their
flight from the field wherein they first con-
fronted us is not yet arrested.
This Platform Ostentatiously beats the air.
1t denounces Military rule, when the depart
ment commanders are quietly turning over their
authority TO the Governors and Legislatures
chosen by the people, and announcing their
power at an end. 1t calls for the withdrawal
of the Freedmen's Bureau, when Congress has
provided, or is providing, for the closing of
that Bureau in each State so soon as its ma
chinery of loyal self government shall have
been put fairly in motion. The Platform seems
anxious to atone, by the vehemence wherewith
it denOunces whatever has passed or is passing
away, for its cowardly equivOcatiOns and sub
terfuges with regard to tangible and living
issues.
"Shall the Southern Blacks, enfranchised by
Congress, be diSfranchisedR Is the COlored
"minority of our people to be recognized as
entitled to a voice in the Government which
"they, like the rest of us, must support and
"Obey7 Are the Reconstruction acts, and the
estate Governments based upon them, to be
created as utilities, in case the Democrats
"elect their President next FallP Are the
nff ha 70 no in Gul,v
"ing those Governments, and establishing ex-
elusive White rule in their steadp These
are the paramount questions of the hour.
Has the Democratic Convention answered
them in the affirmative or the negative2 Read
and Judge! The plain intent is to have them
understood in opposite senses according to the
bias of the reader. We have no doubt that if
the Democrats triumph, the new State Gov
ernments will be subverted and the Blacks dis
franchised; but many will hold the opposite
view, and the Convention meant to satisfy each
side and be in position to cheat either
On the subject of Finance and Currency, the
Convention is more explicit. True, its demand
of Zone Currency for the Government and the
People" &C., was meant to be, and will be,
understood in two exactly opposite senses : half
the Democracy agreeing with us, that such a
Currency is to be rightfully, benefcently secur-
ed only by a Resumption of Specie Payment,
while the other half will read it as sanctioning
the PendletOn scheme of paying the National
creditors in Greenbacks and embarking on
shoreless ocean of Currency initiation and de-
basement So far, the platform is only
a partisan dodge, and not a particularly
smart one. But look at this:
Equal taxation Of every species OF property accord
ing its real value including Government bonds and
other public securities" Immense cheeringl
Now the act of Congress (Feb. IS, 1897 which
authorized the issue of Sl5O.QQO,OQO Of Treasury