Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-06-29

and fraud infected States and municipalities with
the contagon of msrule, and locked fast the pros
perity Of an industrious people in the paralysis of
hard times
Reform is necessary to establish a sound cur
rency, restore the public credit and maintain the
national honor.
We denounce the failure of all these eleven
years to make good the promise of the legal ten
in the hands Of the people, and the non payment
of which is a disregard of the plighted faith OF
the Nation.
We denounce the improvidence, which in
eleven years of peace has taken from the people,
in federal taxes, thirteen times the whole amount
of the legal tender notes, and squandered four
times this sum in useless expense without accumu.
lating any reserve for their redemption.
We denounce the financial imbecllty and I'M
morality of the party which, during eleven years
of peace has made no advance toward resumption {;
that instead has obstructed resumption by wasting
our esources and exhausting ali our surplus in
come, and while annually protesting to intend a
speedy return to specie payment, has annually en-
acted fresh hindrances thereto. As such him
drance we denounce the resumption clause of the
act of 1885, and we here demand its repeal.
We demand jndicious system of preparation
by public economies. by official rCtrenchments and
by wise finance which shall the nation soon to as
sure the whole world of its perfect readiness to
meet any Of its promises at the call of the creditor
entitled to payment We believe such a system
we'll devised, and above all entrusted to competent
hands for execution, creating at no time artf-
cial scarcity of currency, and at no time alarming
the public mind into withdrawal of that waste
machinery of credit, by which 80 per cent. Of all
| business transactions are performed. A system
open public and inspiring general confidence
would. from the day of its adoption, bring healing
on its wings to all our harrassed industry and sci
in motion the wheels of commerce, manufactures
and the mechanical arts, restore employment to
labor, and renew all its national force the pros
perity of the people.
We denounce the present tariff levied upon
nearly 1000 articles, as masterpiece Of Unequal
ity and false pretences, 1t yields dwindllng,
not yearly rising revenue. 1t has impoverished
many industries to subsdze few. 1t prohibits
imports that might purchase the products of
American labor. 1t has degraded American COM
merce from the first to an inferior rank the
high seas. 1t has cut down the sale of American
manufactures at home and abroad, and depleted
the returns Of American agrcul ure, An industry
followed by half our people. 1t costs the people
five times more than it produces to the treasury
obStructs the processes OF production, ana wastes
the fruits of labor. 1t promotes fraud and fosters
smuggling. Enriches dishonest officials and
bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that
all custom house taxation shall be only for reve-
nue..
Reform is necessary in the scale of public ex
penses, federal. state and municipal. Our federal
taxation has swollen from S60O00,000 in gold in
1861, to $3.50, 600 currency in lS70,-or in a
decade from less than IS per head to more than
Sl8 per head. Since the return of peace the peO-
pie have paid to their tax gathers more than thrice
the sum of the national debt and more than twice
that sum for the federal government alone.
We demand vigorous frugality in every de-
partment and from every officer Of the govern
ment.
Reform is necessary to put stop to the profit
gate waste of public lands and their diversion from
actual settlers by the party in power which has
squandered two hundred millions of acres upon
railroads alone, and out of mo re than thrice that
aggregate has disposed Of less than sixth di-
rectly to the tillers of the soil.
Reform is necessary to correct the omissions Of
the republican Congress and the errors of our
treaties and our diplomacy, which have stripped
our fellow citizens of foreign birth and kindred
race re-crossing the Atlantic, OF the shield OF
American citizenship and have exposed our hreth-
rem of the Pacific coast to the incursons of race
not sprung from the same great parent stock, and
in fact now by law denied citizenship through
naturalization, as being neither accustomed to the
traditions of progressive civilization, nor exer-
cised in liberty under equal laws.
We denounce the policy which thus discards
the liberty loving German and toierates the rev-
val of the Coole trade in Monaghan women i'm
ported for immoral purposes. and Mongolian men
hired to perform servile labor contracts and de-
mand such modification of the treaty with the
Chinese empire, or such legislation by Congress
within a constitutional limitation, as shall prevent
the further immigration or importation of the
Monaghan race.
Reform is necessary in the civil service. ES-
perience proves that efficient and economical con-
duct of the governmental business is not possible
if its civil service be subject to change at every
election.
Reform is necessary in the higher grades of the
public service, President, Vice President, Judges.
Senators, Representatives, Cabinet officers. These
and all others in authority are the peoples SER
wants. Their offices not private perquisite.
They are public trust. Reform can only
be had by fearful civic revolution. We demand
q change of system,-a change of parties,-that
we may have a change Of measures and of men.
At the conclusion Of the reading MIR Dorshem.
Ter said the committe had adopted and endorsed,
though not as part of the platform. the resolu-
ton he had read endorsing the action of the House
of Representatives in cutting down the appropria-
tions aud exhorting them to frmness; also the
resolution In reference to the just claims of SOL
diers' and sailors widows and orphans.
LAO p. M.-The majority report of the com.
miltee on resolutions was adopted by vote of
65l to 3S.
The result of the baoting for the candidate for
President is follows
FIRST BALLOT.
Whole number of votes 1873
Necessary to choice, 492
Tilden, 4l7t
Hendricks, l40t
Hancock, 70
Allen, 10