The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-06-25
The RADICAL PLATFoRM The Balti-

IHE RADICAL PLATFORM The Balti-
more Gazette takes up the platform
adopted at Philadelphia, and in picking
it to pieces, DECLARES that more .singe.
nloueiy self-stultifying piece of work
manshlp was never put together" The
0dSeHe goes on to say, and we adopt it's
language: 1t claims much, covers the
widest possible field, and is full of those
specious promises that the same deceit
ful party has 80 often made to the ear.
and 30 deliberately and scandalously
broken TO the hope. 1t required no less
than seventeen planks to set forth what
the party has done, what it's claims to
public approval are. and how patrioti-
caily, and wisely, and scrupulously, and
honestly, it intends to act in the future.
1t commences with solemn luudation of
the grand courage" with which for the
past eleven years the party has accepted
the duties OF the time; of its patriotism
IN war, its magnanimity (?) in peace, its
humane policy toward the Indians. it's
generous distribution of public lands to
settlers, it's reduction of the public debt,
10y means OF enormous taxation,) and
its honorable-and would any one be-
lleve lt?-its admirable foreign policy.
The negroes are told what great things
have been done for them. The enforce
ment III the constitutional amendment ia
declared to be duty; also, to protect
our citizens abroad and to sympathize
with foreign revolutionists. The present
mode OF appointing to Office is acknow-
lodged to be 80 fatally demoralizing as
to make reform of the civil service i'm
perative."
how Morton and the special partisans
OF Gen. Grant must have laughed in
their sleeves when this plank of the plat
form was read, and we can imagine the
sly winks and nudges that will pass be.
tween Pomeroy, and Harlan, and Ram
say, and the whole herd of Senatorial
and Congressional land -grabbers. when
they learn that the faction to which they
belong lis opposed to further grants OF
public lands to corporations and mono
poles, and demands that the national
domain"-what is left of it-"shall be
set apart for free homes of the people."
The protective tariff plank comes next
in order, and this asserts that all internal
taxes, except those on spirits and tobac
co, ought to be taken off, and the reye-
nue. raised by duties on imports. Next
follows bid for the soldiers and sailors
votes, IN the shape of pledge to favor
such additional legislation as will extend
existing bounties to everybody who can
claim he was disabled in the late war.
without regard to length of service or
the cause of his discharge" The next
farclcal proposition, knowing how
strenuousiy the Radicals have resisted il.
is that 1.-THE franking privilege ouobt to
be abolished" Then follows a bid for
the Labor Reform vote, in the shape of
o declaration that labor, being the cres
tor of capital, should enjoy lust share
OF the mutual profits of these two great
elements of civilization"-a deceptive
clause so vaguely expressed as to mean
anything-or nothing. For the Ku
klux Act and the bayonet election Act.
1t is claimed that Congress, in passing
these measures, and Gen. Grant. in en-
forcing them, "are entitled to the thanks
of the nation" Repudiation of the
public debt, which nobody dreams of;
ls denounced as a national crime" and
the hope Is expressed that, some day or
other, there will be q return to specie
payments. Nor are the women forgotten
in this all embracing platform. Their
admission to wider field of usefulness
is viewed with satisfaction, and they are
told evasively that "the honest demand
of any class of citizens, for additional
rights. should be treated with respectful
consideration. A csnting approval of
amnesty follows, in the face of the fact
that the bitterest opponents OF amnesty,
in its true and general senHe, have been
the partisans of Grant in Congress.
But the boldest hypocrisy crops out in
the sixteenth plank, which declares that
"the Republican party proposes to re-.
speot the reserved rights of the States as
carefully as the powers delegated by the
States to tho Federal Government" and
that lit disapproves of the resort to un
constitutional laws for the purpose of
removing evils by interference with the
rights not surrendered by the people to
either the State or National Govern
ment." The loss of our commerce. and
the fact that the enormous duties i'm
posed by the Radicals upon all materials
that enter into the building of ships
have destroyed that branch OF industry.
is CLOSED over with the declaration that
sit is the duty of the General Govern
ment to adopt suoh measures as will tend
to encourage American commerce and
ship-building."
Finally, and to crown all, the belief is
expressed that Hthe aarneet pnrpooo +ho