The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-04-28
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM

The National Republican party of the United
States Assem- bed in National Convention in the city
of Chicago, on the 21st day of May 1856, nuke the
following declaration of principles:
/. We congratulate the country on the assured
success the reconstruction policy OF Congress- as
evlnced by the adoption, in the majority of the
States laiely in rebellion OF constitutions securing
equal civil and political rights to all and it ia the
duty of the Government to sustain those institutions
and prevent the people of such States from being
RENTED to q state of anarchy.
2. The guaranty by Congress of equal suffrage to
all loyal men at the South was demanded by every
justice and must be maintained; while the question
of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs
to the people of those States. tl,a
3. We denouncs all forms of reputation as ma
tionsl crime; and the national honor requires the
payment of the public indebtedness in the utter
most good faith to all creditors at home aud abroad,
not only according to letter. but the spirit of the
| laws under which it was contracted.
T. 1t is due to the labor of the nation that taxa
ton should be equalized and reduced az rapidly as
| the national faith will permit.
g. The national debt, contracted as it has been for
the preservation of the Union for all time to come,
should be extended fair period for redemption;
and it the duty of Congress to reduce the rate OF
interest thereon whenever it can be honestly DONE
6. That the best policy to diminish our burden Of
debt Is to improve credit that capitalists will
seek to loan money at lower rates of interest than
we now pay and must continue TO pay long as re-
pudiation partial or total open or covert il threat
| 7. The Government of the United States should be
| administered with the strictest economy; and the
| corruptions which have been so shamefully nursed
and fostered by Andrew johnson call loudly for rad
| cal reform.
g. We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic
death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession
to the Presidency of Andrew Johnson who has acted
treacherously the people who elected him and the
| cause he was pledged to support; who has usurped
high legislative and judicial iunctions who has re-
fused to execute the laws who has used his high
Office to induce other officers to ignore and violate
the laws; who has employed his executive powers
to render insecure the property the peace liberty
| ing power; who has denounced the national legisa-
ture as unconstitutional; who has persistently and
corrupty resisted by every means IN a pc th
States lately in rebeon who has perverted the
public patronage into an engine of wholesale cor
! | ruption; and who has been justly impeached fol
high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly pro
nonnoed guilty thereof by the vote OF thirtyhvt
Senators. rf
o. The doctrine Of Great Britain and other Eu
ropean powers, that because man is once subject
he is always So must be resisted at every hazard by
the United States, relic of feudal times not au
thorzed by the laws OF rations and at war with ou
national honor and independence Naturalzed cit
liens entitled to protection in all their rights
citizenship, though they were native-born; AMI
no citizen of the United States, native or natural
ized must be liable to arrest and Imprisonment b,
any foreign power for acts done words spoken IL
this country and, If 80 arrested and imprisoned,
the duty of the Government to interfere in his be
I, | half
l | 10 OF all who were faithful In the trials of tn
O | late war there were none entitled to especa
honor than the brave soldiers and seamen who en-
dured the hardships Of campaign and cruise and i'm
{ pered their lives in the service of the country
. the bounties and pensions provided by the laws TO
these brave defenders of the nation obligation
h never to be forgotten the widows and orphans o
the gallant dead the wards of the peoples sa
cred legacy bequea,hed to the nations PROTECTING
care. .=
n H. Foreign immigration. which in the past ha
% added so much to the wealth, deveopement and re
sources and increase of power to this republic, tn
n asylum of the oppressed of all nations, should b
fostered aud encouraged by liberal and just policy
~ This convention declares itself in sympath
with all oppressed peoples struggling for their rights
49, That we highly commend the spirit of mBe
4 | panimity and forbeaIance with which men who hay
served in the rebellion, but who frankly an
j., honestly cooperate with In restoring the peac
AZ of tho country and reconstructng ths soutt
= err State governments upon the basis of imparti'
% Justice and equal rights, received back into u
l. communion of the loyal people; and we favor ii
removal of the dsqualifcations and restrictions In
ia posed upon the late rebels In the same measure
the spirit of disloyaty will die out and may be cor
rs sistent with the safety Of the loyal people.
IA. That we recognize the great principles la
down In the immortal Declaration of independents
as the true foundation of democratic government
"A aud we hail with gladness every effort toward ma
~ ing these principles living reality on every inch
American soil.