Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1876-07-17
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

We, the delegates Of the Democratic
party of the United States, in National
Convention assembled, do hereby declare
the administration of the Federal Gov
ernment to be in urgent need of immedi-
ate reform We do hereby enjOin upon
the nominees of this convention and of
the Democratic party in each State
jealous effort and cooperation to this
end, and do hereby appeal to our fellow
citizens of every former political connec-
tion to undertake with us this first and
most pressing patriotic duty of the De-
moeracy of the whole country.
We do here reafirm our faith in the
pernanency of the Federal Union, our
devotion to the Constitution of the Unit
ed States with its amendments univers-
ally accepted as final settlement of the
controversies that engendered civil war,
and do here record our steadfast conf
dence in the perpetuity of republican
self-government, in absolute aequiescence
to the will of the majority-the vital
principle of republican the supremacy
of the civic over the military authority,
in the total separation of Church and
State for the sake alike of civic and re-
ligiOus 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 gen.
GRAFTON, that they may preserve, enjoy
and transmit these best conditions of hu-
man happiness.
But, while uphOlding the bond of our
union and great charter of these our
rights it behOoves a free people to prac-
tice also that eternal vigilance which is
the price of liberty. Reform is necessa-
ry to rebuild and establish in the hearts
of the whole people of the Union, eleven
years ago happily rescued from the dan
ger of secession of States but now to
be saved from corrupt centralism which
after inhieting upon ten States the ra-
pacity of carpet-bag tyrannies, has hon.
eycOmbed the offices of the Federal Gov
eminent itself with incapacity, waste
and fraud, infected States and munich
palities with the contagion OF misrule
and locked fast the prosperity of an in
dustriOus people In the paralysis of hard
times.
Reform is necessary to establish a
sound currency, restore the public credit
and maintain the national honor.
We denounce the failure for the past
eleven years to make good the promise
of the legal tender notes, which are q
changing standard of value in the hand;
of the people, and the nonpayment o.
which is disregard of the plighteG
| faith of the nation.
! We denounce the improvidence which
In eleven years of peace has taken from
! the people in Federal taxes thirteer
: times the whole amount of the legal-ten.
der notes, and squandered four time
this sum in useless expense, without ac
r eumulating any reserve for their redemp
0 ton.
e We denounce the financial imbecilit,
5 and immortality of that party which, du
!. ring eleven years of peace, has made N
: advance toward resumption; which, in
: stead, has obstructed resumption b
: wasting our resources and exhausting al
t our surplus income, and, while annuall
y protesting to intend a speedy return t
S specie payments, has annually enacte'
n fresh hindrances thereto. As such hin
drance, we denounce the resumptio
, clause of the act of 1875, and we hereb
demand its repeal. We demand jud
ciOus system of preparation, by publ
economies, by official retrenchments an
by wise finance, which shall enable th
nation soon to assure the whole world {
its perfect ability and its perfect read
ness to meet any of its promises at ii
call of the creditors entitled to paymen
We believe such system, well-devise'
and above all, intrusted to competer
hands for execution, creating at no tim
an artificial scarcity of currency, and q
= no time alarming the public mind into
withdrawal of that vaster machinery
: credit by which 50 per cent. of all bus
ness transactions are performed, 2 sy
: :, TEN open. public and inspiring gener
confidence. would from the day of
adoption bring healing on its wings
all our harassed industry, and set
motion the wheels of commerce, man
faetures and the mechanical arts, resto
. I SAPAOl iHcuk ~ 4dDOAy anu iCuSh III
its national resources the prosperity
! the people.
- Reform is necessary In the sum al
mode Of Federal taxation to the end th
:. capital may be set free from distrust al
to labor lightly burdened.
We denounce the present tariff, levi
upon nearly 1000 articles, as a masts
piece Of injustice, inequality and fal
bit pretenee- 1t yields dwindling. not
IS. yearly rising. revenue 1t has impOy'
e, ished many industries to subsidize fe
sir 1t prohibits imports that might purcha
We the products Of American labor. 1t b
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