Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-08-30
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
Adopted by Tennessee state Conven.
lf0n. Iune q. ISG9 70 -'-

Committee on Resolutions, introduced the
following paeamble and resolutions which
were read and adopted: e. -e7.-
The people of Tennessee, irrespective of
former party affiliations or difference s of
opinion arising out of the recent civil war,
in convention assembled for the purpose
of appointing delegates to represent them
in the National Democratic Convention, to
meet in the city of New York on the 4th
of July next are profoundly sensible of
the troubled condition of public affairs,
and regard the approaching election Of
Chief Magistrate as the most Importantly
held since the establishment of the govern
ment. In its result to the nation at large,
they conceive is involved the pressrya-
ton of the Constitution and its guarantees
of equal and exact justice, individual liber-
ty, the general welfare and domestic tran
quillity. 10 themselves, in great part, la
boring under disfranchisement and unjust
dispossession of the primary and essential
rights of citizens of the republic, they es-
TEEN it to be crisis on which depends
their personal freedom and future pros
perity as community. Thus deeply i'm
pressed, they have convened in spirit
oblivious of past misunderstanding, and
resolved among themselves to exclude
from their deliberations, for the common
good, all questions decided by the var,
and to Danish from their breasts all unkind
feeling they may have excited;
and to take counsel only how best
they may re-establish political inter
course and associ alton with that por-
ton of their fellow-citizens Of other
States who coincide in opinion with
them, and desire to assert in the admins
tration of the Federal government princi-
pies and measures which will restore it to
its integrity. In this step they deem it
proper to adopt the name and designation
borne by the only political organization
with which they can associate, and
in thus formally uniting themselves
with the Democratic party as ii fOaO er-
lists, they herewith declare the principles
they maintain, and the measures they
hold necessary for a wise and safe adj
ministration of the public interests:
l. Resolved, That as in the course of
events, the question whether State of
the American Union could, under the
compact, secede, was submitted to con
test of arms, and decided in the negative;
and as it is wise that theories in a govern
ment should be abandoned when found
impracticable: therefore the American
people, North and South, should accept
such decision as final and conclusive;
nevertheless, we assert and maintain that
the Constitution created the Federal
government supreme under we'll defined
iinlItafIOno an6 racfrinfippc ~
the States a large mass of resi-
duary rights and powers over their
domestic concerns, and making the
States co-equal in respect of such
rights; and that the result of the
war has not, and should not
in any manner, be construed to impair
these rights, or aggrandize the power of the
general government to the enlargement
of the public liberty.
2 Resolved, That we recognize the
system of African slavery, formerly ex-
listing in apOr!ion of this country, as ex-
tinguished by the result of the war, and
that fact is ratified by binding constitu-
tiOnal amendment, but that we regard the
measures of the Federal Congress, be-
slowing the elective franchise on the black
race in ten States, and Withholding it
from large numbers of the white race
the owners of the soil and the payers of
government taxes-as a gross usurpation
of power, sand that such subsection of
these States to the political and social
control of the negroes, is policy unjust,
unwise and oppressive, and tending to
excite war of races; and that any meas
ure which seeks to deprive the white men
of America of their rightful position of
superiority and supremacy in the admins
tratiOn of thu governments, both Federal
and State, or to divide or impair it, is
fraught with great danger TO the perpetu-
ity of free, republican institutions.
Resolved, That notwithstanding the
enormous frauds in the creation of the
public debt, and the corrupt and ruinous
extravaganceby whichit is being increased,
the faith of the nation is pledged to its
payment, principal and interest, in the
terms of the acts of Congress issuing the
bonds which represent it, but not other
wise; and we are opposed to extending
the time of payment and the consequent
increase of the amount of gold interest to
more than the principal; and also to the
view that the principal of large portion
of these bonds is payable in gold; and
that, while we hold gold and silver to be
the true constitutional currency, we de-
clare that the tive-tWenty bonds SHOULD be
paid in the same currency received by the
government for their issue, and that, by
the withdrawal of the money granted
to the national banks, we hold this result
can be accomplished without an undue
increase of paper money, now the only
circulating medium; and that by this
means the people can soonest be relieved
of the burden of public debt corTupting
and enslaving in its character, and that in
this there is no infraction of the public
faith, nor violation of contract with the
holders of bonds. .....
| 4. Resolved, That every species of
| property in the country, including the gov
eminent bonds, which receive the equal
| protection of the government, should bear
an equal share of the burdens of taxation,
and that as justice is the true foundation of
all good government, there should not ex-
ist favored class paid in gold while the
government discharges its debts to the
mass of people in currency which is
kept deprecated in value by this iniquit-
GUS system.
5. Resolved, That the doctrines and
practices of the Radical Republican party
now in possession of the legislative de-
partment of the Federal Government,
and endeavoring by encrOachments on
the powers of the Executive and Judicial
branches of absorb to itself all power,
will inevitably lead, if not checked, to the
destruction of the republican system of
government and the civil liberties of the
people: and that it is the highest dictate
of patriotism to oppose it in gross aid
detail; and that, for the purpose of rem
derlng opposition effective, we cordially
ally ourselves with that party whose creed,
enunciated by Thos. jefferson in 1901, and
approved in substance and spirit by the
great leaders of every party that has flour
ished until the era of the civil war, and
which is in the following words: equal
and exact justice to all men of whatever
state or persuasion, religious or political;
peace, commerce and honest friendship
with all nations, entangling alliances with
none; the support of the State govern
ments in all their rights as the most COM
petent administration of our domestic
| o,,I e,1poof ht1Iuyasly St