The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-07-14


setts, Edward Avery; Michigan, William l.
Bancroft; Minnesota, Daniel Bucks; Misis
sippi, a. NJ. Clayton Missouri, c. II. Harden
Nebraska, George /. Mellen; Nevada, A. c.
Ellis; New Hampshire, E. G. Braley; New
Jersey, james w. Gates; New York, VIII
liam Dorshimer; North Carolina, Thomas L.
Clergyman; Ohio, General Thomas Ewing
Oregon, NJ. V, Brown; Pennsylvania, MalcOn
Hay; Rhode Island, William B. Bead South
Carolina, Samuel M'Gowan; Tennessee,
John C. Brown Texas, Ashbel Smith; Yer
mont, James H. Williams; Virginia, John A.
Meredith; West Virginia, John j. Davis
Wisconsin, Alexander Mitchell.
Resolutions were offered by S. S. Hayes,
of ILL.,, and Mr.. Miller, of Nebraska, and
referred to the committee.
The secretary then, upon request, re-
announced the times and places of meet
ing of the various committees, and the
convention took a recess until five O'Clock
in the evening.
REASSEMBLED.
The convention reasscinbled at twenty
minutes past five o'clock.
The first business before the cOnven-
ton being the report of the committee
on credentials, the secretary read as fol-
lows:
Your committee on credentials would re-
spectfully report that there are no contested
seats applause], that the states are fully rep
resented [renewed applausel, and that the
delegates reported by the chairmen of the re-
spective dele cations as delegates to the con-
ventiOn are entitled to seats in this cenyen-
ton as delegates from their respective states.
Respectfully submitted,
JAMES LAWRENCE ENGLISH,
Chairman of the Committee.
Mr.. Hauna, of Missouri, from the
committee on permanent organization,
made the following report:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN-In behalf of the commit
tee on permanent organization l have the
homer to submit the following report of Off
GERS for this convention:
For permanent president, Gen. John A.
McClernard, of Illinois.
For vice-presidents and secretaries, one
from each state.
The temporary secretaries, with Mr.. Prince
of Boston, as chief, were continued as the
working secretaries, and sergeant-at-arms
Able was also reappOinted.
Gen. M'Clernand was then escorted to
the platform amid loud applause, and
spoke as follows:
GENTLEMEN OF THE NATIONAL DEMO
CRATIC CONvENTION-I thank you for the
distinguished honor which YOU have done
liberatIons. You are the delegates of the
democracy of the whole union of thirty-seven
states, once unnaturally estranged, but
now forever united in one indiviSibie repub-
lie, brethren OF one political family, with
the same heritage of liberty, under equal
laws, and heirs of one destiny. Shall we
preserve and transmit that great inheritage?
Shall we make that destiny the most glO
riouS in the history of free peoples? II
your deliberations, acknowledgements, to-day,
shall be wise; if your perception of the
necessities of our time, our country and our
politics shall be jnst and sagaciOus; if
your sympathy shall be quick with the
hearts of great people, then, beyond all
peradventure, we will transmit to our chill
dren and our childTen's children, unim-
paired, this priceless heritage. Yours will
be better renOwn than the renOwn most
priced by the ROmans-the cOHdHOrS imDer-
JjOrUm-fOr greater than the founders of
empires are the preservers of republics.
There are no enemies of the union on this
continent except that administrative cen
tralism which is cOngesting at the capital OF
vital currents which ought to flow through
every part, giving life to the farthest ex-
tremities of the body polite and energy to
all its members, exceOt that corruption
which is the curse that centralism has never
failed in age or land TO entail upon any
government. Ccntralism has imposed upon
ten states the rapaciOus tyrannies of carpet
bag rule, and since war have added two
hundred millions to their debts. They have
infected the governments of our northern
states and cities with the same disease of
and fraud. They have de-
bauched the federal government itself, and
made the names of scores of its high officers
and public men our public scandal and our
open shame. The record is horrible in in
capacity, venality, waste and fraud. The
republican party, which has been pOWerleSS
90 Il nj -,
cOrruptionists, with stupendGus effrontery
pledges itself to a reform of which it has be
come incapable. That party pledged itself
to restore specie payments, and every year
is taking us further from specie payments.
itself to civil service reform, and
then dropped and mocked its reformers. So
it pledged itself to protect American labor,
and with its mOnstrOus custOmhOuse taxa
tiOn on over three thousand articles it has
impoverished American labor. A few score
few thousand cOrruptiOniSts,
have been enriched, but capital in the hands
of those that earned it by industry snd
saved it by frugalitv, is everywhere distrust-
full and rists unused. while honest labor
goes abOutAthe streets begging bread. Is
this the final outcome of a centenary OF re-
publican self government? God forbid iti
But we have wandered far from the right
paths. We must return to the constitu-
tionaI principles the frugal expenditures
ers of the republic. This is the first, the
most imperiOus necessity of our day and
nation. This is the appeal we have to make
to our fellow citizens of every former politi-
cal affiliatiOn. This is the one supreme COM
manding issue to which all others are in
feriOr, all others trivial. Reforml refOrmi
reform If You shall recognize this i'm
periOus necessity; if you shall guarantee in
your platform the successful achievement of
this ardUouS work of national regeneration;
if you shall select standard bearers true to
your own high purpose and faithful to your
pledge, victory in the November, and vic
tory in the October contest is already yours.
Incarnate the vital issue of reform in the
candidates and platform, and the states that
have hOnored Douglass and Lincoln, the
states that to-day honor Hendricks and
Thurman, Hancock and Parker, Bayard and
Tilden, these states, with all their vast popu-
lations, will rise like the woods and the
winds that followed the feeting OrpheuS,
and follow you to victory.
August Belmont, of New York, then
obtained the floor and addressed the con-
ventiOn, finishing by offering the fol-
lowing resolution, which was referred.
Resolred, That we appeal to the honor and
manhood of the American people to begin
this second century of American union and
Independence by tramplng under foot and
of distI ust, rancOr, and animOsitv between
the two great sections of our common cOun-
try. We denOunce with Indignation the
calculated malIgnity with which the leaders
of the republican party have labOred to
keep alive through eleven years of peace
the worst passions of civil war. The Mach-
avelian motto of the republican party has
been and is, divide the people and we shall
rule them for the democratic party. We
reply, unite the people and make them free.
We denounce the republican party on this
great issue as party of false pretenses. 1t
is false pretense to assume the character
of a national party, and at the same time to
exist only by sectional divisions. 1t is a
false pretense to assume the name of a union
party and at the same time to be an obstacle
to national unity. 1t is a false pretense to
assume the name OF liberal party, and at the
same time to appeal to the religious preju-
dices of the people. 1t is a false pretense to
clam the title of a progressive party and at
the same time to turn the people back from
peace and the future to war and the past.
On motion of Mr.. Williams of Ind,
the convention then adjourned until
IL o'clock to morrow.
SECOND DAY.
The convention was not called to or
der until little past l / o'clock, the COM
mittee on resolutions not beinp Drena red