Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1868-07-22
THE TRIBUNE.
MINERAL POINT:
WEDNESDAY, JULY %, 1868.
National Republican Platform
ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, MAY 20, 1865.

The National Union Republican party of
the United States, assembled in National
! Convention, in the city of Chicago, on the
10th day of MAY, 1865, make the following
declaration of principles:
! l. We congratulate the country on the as
sured success of the reconstruction policy of
! Congress as evidenced by the adoption, in a
majority of the States lately in rebellion, of
/ constitutions securing equal civil and polit-
! icaI rights to all, and regard it as the duty
| of the Government to sustain these Consti-
/ tutions, and thus prevent the people of such
| States from being remitted to a state of an
/ archy and misruie.
2 The guarantee by Congress of equal
suffrage to all loyal men in the South, was
| demanded by every consideration of public
! safety, of gratitude and of Justice, and must
/ be maintained, while the question of suf-
| frage in all the loyal States properly belongs
| to the people of those States.
3 That we recognize the great principles
| laid down in the Declaration of Indepen-
| dence as the true foundation of democratic
government and we hail with gadness every
| effort toward making these principles liv-
! ing reality on every inch of American soil.
4. That We highly commend the spirit of
magnanimity and forgiveness with which the
men who have served the rebellion, and who
are now frankly and honestly cooperating
with us in reconstructing the Southern State
Governments upon the basis of impartial
Justice and equal rights, are received back
into the communion of the loyal people, and
that we are in favor of the removal of the
disqualifications and restrictions imposed
upon the late rebels in the same measure as
the spirit of dsIoyalty dies out, and as may
be consistent with the safety Of the loyal
people.
s. We denounce all forms of repudiation
as a national crime and national honor re
quires the payment of the national indeb
edness in the utmost good faith to our cred
itors at home and abroad, not only accord
ing to the letter, but the spirit of the laws
under which it was contracted.
g. Ii is due to the labor of the nation
that taxation should be equalzed and re-
duced as rapidly as the national faith will
permit.
Z The national debt, contracted as it has
been for the preservation of the Union for
all time to come, should be extended over
a fair period for redemption, and 1t is the
duty of Congr ess to reduce the rate of in
terest thereon whenever it can be honestly
done.
s That the best policy TO diminish our
burden of debt is to improve our credit, SO
that capitalists will seek to lend US money
at lower rates of interest than we now pay,
and must continue to pay, as long as repudi
alton, partial or total open or covert, Is
threatened or suspected.
9. The Government of the United States
should be administered with the strictest
economy The corruptlons which have been
so shalnefully nursed and fostered by Andrew
johnson, call loudly for radical reform.
10. We profoundly deplore the untimely
and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and
regret the accession of Andrew Johnson to
the Presidency; who has acted treacherous-
ly to the people who elected him and the
cause he was pledged to support has usurp-
ed high legislative and judicial functions;
has refused to execute the laws; has used
his high Office to induce other officers to vio-
late the laws has employed his executive
power to render insecure the lives proper
ty. peace, liberty and life of the citizen;
has abused the pardOning power has de-
nounced the National Legislature as uncon-
stitutional has persistentIy and habitually
resisted, by every means in his power, every
proper attempt at the reconstruction OF the
States lately in rebellion; has perverted
the public patronage into an engine of
wholesale corruption, and has been justly
mpeached for high crimes and misdemean-
ors and properly pronounced guilty thereof
bv the votes of thirty-five Senators.
II. The doctrine of Great Britain and
other European powers, that because man
lis once a subject he is always so, must be re
as a relic of the feudal times, not authorized
bv the law of nations, and at war with our
national honor and independence. Natural
lied citizens are entitled to be protected in
all their rights of citizenship, as though
they were native born. No citizen of the
United States native or naturalized, must
be liable TO arrest or Imprisonment by any
foreign power, for acts done words spo
ken in this country; and if so arrested and
imprisoned. it is the duty of the Government
to interfere in his behalf
IL OF all who were faithful in the trial of
the late war there were none more entitled
to special honor than the brave soldiers and
seamen who endured the hardships OF the
camp and cruise. and imperiled their lives
in the service Of the country. The bountles
and pensions provided by law for these brave
defenders of the Union are obligations new
er TO be forgotten. The widows and orphans
of the gallant dead are the wards of the peo-
plea sacred legacy, bequeathed TO the ma
tion's protecting care.
13 As immigration has in the past added
TO the wealth of the country, the develop
ment of our resources, and the increase of
our power as a nation, the coming Of the
oppressed Of all nations should be fostered
and encouraged by an impartial and just
policy.
IL This Convention tenders its sympathy
TO all the oppressed people which are strug-
81 inc for their rights