The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-09-15
PLATFORM.
Adopted by the Ohio Democratic
State Convention, July 7, 1869.

State Convention, July !, 1869.
1. Resolred, That the exemption
from tax of over two thousand five
hundred million dollars in govern
ment bonds and securities, is uni ust to
the people and ought not to be tolerat-
ed, and hat we are opposed to any
appropriation for the payment OF In.
terest on public bonds until they are
made subject to taxation.
2. Resolved, That the claims of the
bond holders, that the bonds which
were bought with greenbacks and the
principal of which is by law payable
in currency, should nevertheless be
paid in gold, is unjust and extortionate
and if persisted in will inevitably force
upon the people the question of repu-
diation.
3. Resolved, That we d~enounce the
high-protective tariff, which was de-
signed only in the interests of New
England manufacturers. That said
tariff is also, by its enormous imposi-
tons on salt, sugar, tea, coffee, and
other necessaries, uncomfortable OPP
pressive especially upon the people Of
the West ; and that we demand its
repeal, and the substitution of another
based upon revenue principles alone,
upon the closest possible approxima
ton to absolute free trade.
4. Resolred, That the Democratic
party of the Uuited States have always
been permanently friendly to the
rights and the interests of the laboring
man /; that they are in favor Of limit
ed number of hours in all manufac-
turing neutrality-suspicious. dictated by
the physical and mental well-being of
the laborer. That they favor the
most liberal laws in regard to house
hold and homestead exemption from
sale and execution. That they also are
in favor of liberal grants of land from
the public domain to the actual settler
without any cost, and are opposed to
the douation ofthem to swindling
railroad corporations, and that they
are generally friendly to the system Of
meaures advocated by the labor and
industrial congresses, and we pledge
the Democratic party, if restored to
power, to exercise their influence in
giving them practical application.
5. ResOIred, That the attacks oil
Governors Hayes and Lee upon the
doings of the late General Assembly,
are false in fact, malicious IN spirit,
and unworthy Of gentlemen occupy
ing their elevated positions.
=. ResOlred, That the late General
Assembly were called upon to make
large and extraordinary appropriations
to rebuild the burned Lunatic Asylum,
to provide a Reform School for girls,
construct a new Blind Asylum, tc
make appropriations to pay ver $50,
900 of a Judgment obtained in the Su.
preme Court of the State in favor Of
the Lie Insurance and Trust Com
pany, and to meet a deficiency of over
$500, 900 OF the preceding Republican
Legislature, all of which, together with
the extra compensation paid to mem.
bers under a law passed by a Repub
lican Legislature, were provided fol-
without an increase of the State levy
and the appropriations in the aggregate
are much less than that of the preced
ing Republican Legislature, without
abstracting $780, 900 from the RELIEF
fund for the MANNED and disabled sol.
diers and their families.
l. RESOLVED, That we hereby return
our thanks to the 5Sth General As
sembly, for their enconmical expendi
lures in, the administration ofthe State
Government, and for the exposure o.
the wholesale frauds in the erection o.
State buildings, whereby the people
we're swindled out of half a million o.
dollars, by the negligence of Repub
lican State officials and the dishonesty
Of contractors.
s. Reso1red, That it is the right Of
each State to decide for itself who
shall possess the elective franchise
within it /; that by the attempt to reg
ulate suffrage in Ohio, by the means
of the so-called 18th constitutional
amendment, is subversive of the
principles of the Federal Constitution.
9. Resolved, That the policy and
legislation of the Radical party direct
ly tend to destroy all the reserved
rights of the States and convert the
Republicfhto a consolidated despotism.
That, whether such despotism be ex,
ercised by an Emperor, a President,
or a Congress, the result would be IA
tai to liberty and good government.
That consolidation in this country
means the absolute dominion of mono
poly and aggregate capital over the
lives, the liberty and the property OF
the ~toiling masses.
10. Re3oEUed, That we denounce the
National Banking System as one of the
worst o~utgrowths of the bonded debt,
which unnecessarily increases the bur-
den of the people thirty millions OF
Edollars annually, and that we demand
its immediate repeal.
II. ResozUed, That the trial and sen
tence to death by military commission
of a citizen of Texas, not in the mill.
tiary or naval service, when the civil
courts were in the unobstructed ex.
ercise of their functions in that State,
and in the time of profound peace, and
the approval of that sentence by Pre-,
sident Grant, are violations of the
most sacred rights of American citi
zens, guaranteed by their Constitution:
State and Federal, and deserve and
should receive the severest dondem
nation of every lover of liberty anc
Constitutional Government.
-. ResoZreG. That the numa ro,,