The Portland daily press., 1874-09-29
The Principles Of the Republican Party
A TERsE AND SENSIBLE ADDRESS.

The address of Hon. Isaac H. Bailey 10
the New York state convention, made at the
request of the committee on resolutions as
an amplification of the platform and unani-
mously adopted by the convention, is, as
Judge Pierrepont said in introducing it, ssof
such Importance, so tersely, so vigorously and
well expressed" that we present it in full as
declaration Of Republican faith.
THE ADDRESS.
First. We affirm our faith in the Republi-
can party. 1t is the party of liberty and ius-
tce. 1t has made the declaration that all
men are created equal living truth. 1t has
crushed rebellion, preserved the Union and
maintained the national honor untarnished,
1t has put into the constitution full and final
guarantees of human rights. 1t has conduct-
ed war, diplomacy and government on
scale as vast a1d amid difficulties as grave as
are to be found in the history of nations, and
its career has been marked by wisdom, cour-
age and truth. Like every successful organ
ization it has not been wholly free from knay-
ish parasites; but it has purged itself of them
as last as they were unmasked. The mission
OF the Republican party, however, is not vet
completed. Its continued ascendency is vital
~ AOho dS duy CltiZcl, Willie OF Dldck, Is 1QSe-
cure in his personal and political rights. Dur
ing its terms and trials it has been sullenly
opp osed by party false to freedom in peace,
false to the flag which bore the name, but
not the spirit, of Democracy, and which final
ly-in national conventiOn-cOnfessed itself
wrong on all the great issues on which it had
fought and been beaten.
Second. The administration of President
Grant deserves the hearty approval of all pat
riots. Its foreign policy has secured pacific
relations with all the powers of the earth, on
conditions creditable alike to our sense of rec
titude and our pride of country It's domestic
management has effected great reduction of
taxes, the payment of fifteen per cent of the
national debt, substantial appreciation of
Government securities and decided advance
towards specie payments. The national debt
OF March list, 1862 was 81, 2,525, ,463, ,26O. OIL:
July 1st, 1874, 50, las, ,OSS, ,241.1 IS, showing a
decrease in five years of $685., ,375, ,O1S.85. In
1869 the annual interest on the debt was
$126, SSO,55O. In 1874 it was s9S, 796, ,OO4.44,
showing decrease in the yearly expenditures
for that object of 1855, ,545.56. In May,
1869, the treasury purchased its own bonds of
the par of one dollar for the sinking fund at
the rate of 50. 72-100 gold. The market value
OF the same bonds in September, 1874, is
1O4f-a rise of PSI per cent. In March, 1859,
gold was at a premium of 80 per cent. In
September, 1874, 81 per cent. The appropri-
ations OF 1874 were reduced twenty millions,
and thus further levy of taxation in time
of general embarrassment was prudently
averted. ~ t
Third. While differences of opinion on
question OF finance must inevitably exist and
should be generally tolerated, there are GER
tain truths established by the laws of political
economy and teachings Of experience. Among
them is the cardinal one that specie is the
only standard by which values can accurately
be measured. We hold that the legal tender
act having been resorted to in a critical emer-
gency, should be regarded as a temporary ex-
pedient; that an early restoration of specie
payments is essential to the permanent well
fare of the country, and that the veto BY the
President OF the currency bill was judicious
and commendable exercise of his high pre-
rogative.
Fourth. The faith of the nation is irrevoc-
ably pledged to the redemption of the public
debt IN coin. That pledge was made anew
by the people at the Presidential election of
1868. The national Democratic convention
OF that year, held on the 4th of July in Tam
many Hall, in New York, declared and
pledged its candidates to the doctrine of pay
ing the nations debt in paper currency. The
Republican convention of the same year de-
clared in favor of paying the nations debt in
coin, the money of the world. The country
estab lished the Republican creed in making
the choice of its nominees. In harmony with
this expression of the popular will, General
Grant said, in his first inaugural message,
1.-THE Government Indebtedness should be
paid in gold" In March, 1869, both houses
OF Congress-by two-thirds vote-enacted
law in conformity to this mandate of the peo-
pie. Thenceforth the law was binding upon
all the people of the United States. Upon
its faith securities were bought and sold at
home and abroad, and any attempt to evade
it is an act Of fragrant dishonesty. The Dem
ocratic state conventions of this year in Ohio,
Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska, recommend
ing its abrogation, have shocked the moral
sense of the nation.
Fifth-We deprecate the spirit of caste
which has wroght such evil in the south: first.
in preciptating it into rebellion and after thai
was suppressed IN rendering it's white citizens
adverse to accepting the obvious conditions of
emancipation. Recognition of the political
equality OF the freedmen was the paramount
duty OF the government. To deny the ballot
to those who fought for the flag when not
man arrayed against it was disfrapchised
would have been inexpedient and unjust
Practlcaily, amnesty has been universal; for
wnlie lew OF the leaders were prohibited from
holding office, there is no instance where the
removal of this disability has been refused
when asked for. For whatever of misrule
there has been in the secession states since hos
white citizens, who, by declining to participate
IN the work of reconstruction and holding
themselves haughtily aloof from interference
in their local affairs, suffered them to fall un-
der the control of strangers and adventurers.
Sixth. The recent outrages upon unoffend-
ing coored men, women and children in the
southern states are without provocation or pall-
alton. The atrocious masssacres in Tennessee .
and Louisiana have few parallels in any age for
ferocity or barbarity. Their perpetrators should
h IN cmif and ,,,,lc