The Russellville Democrat., 1876-10-12
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC
 PLATFORM.


 bled, do hereby declare the ad- ministration of the Federal Gov ernment to be in great need of immediate reform. Do hereby enioin upon the nominees oi this Convention, and of the Demo- cratic party in each state, a zeal ous effort and cooperation to thls end. and do here appeal to our fellow-citizens of every form of political connection to undertake with us this first and most press ing patriotic duty for the Democ- racv of the whole country, we do here reaflirm our faith in the per manence of the Federal Union, our devotion to the Constitution of the United States with its amendments universally accept ed as final settlement of the controversy that engendered the civil war-and do here record our steadfast confidence in the per petuity of republican self-govern- ment: in absolute acquiescence Ill the will of the majority, the vital principle of republics; in the SUI premacy of the civil over the mli- itary; in the two-fold separation of the Church and State, for the sake alike of civil and religious freedom; in the equality of all citizens before just laws of their own enactment; in the liberty of individual conduct unveXed by sumptuary laws; in the faithful education of the rising generation, that they may preserve, enjoy ana transmit these best conditions of human happiness and hope, we behold the noblest products of a hundred years of changeful histo- ". But while upholding the bond of our Union and great charter of these, our rights, 1t behooves a free people to practice, also, that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty.
 Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish in the hearts of the whole people the Union eleven years ago happily rescued from the danger ofa secession of States, but now to be saved from cor rupt centralism, which, after in fiicting upon ten States the rapac- ity of carpet bag attorneys, has honey -combed the offices oi the Federal Government itself with incapacity, waste and fraud: in- feeted States and municipalities with the contagion of misrule, and locked fast the prosperity ot industrious people in the paraly- sis of hard times. Reform is nee essarv to establish sound cur rencv, restore the public credit and maintain the national honor. We denounce the failure for all these eleven years to make good the promise of the legal tender | notes which are q changing stan dard of value in the hands Of the people, and the non-payment oi which is the disregard of the plighted f.aitL of the Nation.
 We denounce the lmprovidence which, in eleven years of peace, has taken from the people m Federal taxes thirteen times the whole amount of the legal tender notes and squandered four times their sum in useless expense without accommodating any reserve for their redemption. We de
 nounce the financial imbecillty and immortality of that part, which, during eleven years O
 peace, has made no advance to
 ward resumption, no preparation
 for resumption, but instead hal obstructed resumption by vast
 ing our resources and exhaustlns | ali our surplus income, and while
 annually professing to intend
 speedy return to specie payments
 has annually enacted fresh hin
 drances thereto. As such hin
 dranccs, we denounce the resump
 ton clause of the act Of 1879, an'
 we here demand its repeal. w
 demand judicious system O
 preparation by public economies
 by official retrenchments, and D,
 a wise finance which shall enabl'
 the Nation soon to assure th'
 whole world of its ability and 1t
 perfect readiness to meet any O
 it's promises at the call of cred itor entitled to payment. We be
 lieve such a system weil-advise'
 and, above all, entrusted to com
 petent hands for execution, creat ino at no time an artificial scarci ty of currency, and at no tim
 alarming the public mind int a withdrawal of that vast machin
 cry of credit by which ninety nv per cent. of our business transac tions are performed-a system
 open and public, and inspirln:
 general confidence--would, Iron the day of it's adoption, bring , healing on it's wings to all ou , harassed industries, set Tn mo , ton the wheels of commerce a manufactures and the mechanlca : arts, restore employment to labor
 and renew in all it's sources tn !, prosperity of the people. Reforr / is necessary in the sum and mol'