The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-07-01
THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION.
TIIpEN AND HENDRICKS DOMINATED.

of Illinois. Almost the entire first and
second days were taken up in organizing
and adopting platform. The following is
THE PLATFORM:
We, the delegates of the Democratic
party of the United States, in National
Convention assembled do hereby declare
the administration of the Federal Govern
ment to be in urgent need of immediate
reform-do hereby enjoin upon the nomi-
nee of the Convention and of the Demo
cratic party in each State, Jealous effort
and cooperation to this end, and do hereby
appeal to our fellow citizens of every former
political connection, to undertake with us
this first and most pressing duty for the
Democratic party of the whole country.
We do here reaflirm our faith i'll the per-
manency of the Federal Union, our devo-
ton to the Constitution of the United
States, with its amendments universally
accepted as a final settlement of the con-
troverSes that engendered civil war, and
do here record our steadfast confidence in
the peIpetuity of republican self-govern-
ment in absolute acquiescence i'll the Will
of the majority, the vital principles of the
republican in the supremacy in the civil
over the military authority, in the total
separation of 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 sumptu-
airy laws in the faithful education of the
rising generation that they may preserve,
enjoy and transmit the best condition of
human happiness and hope, we behold the
noblest products of hundred years of
changeful history, but while upholding the
land of our Union and great charter of
these our rights, it behooves free people
to protect also that eternal vigilance which
is the price of liberty. Reform is neces
sary to rebuild and establish the hearts of
the whole people the union eleven years
ago happily rescued from the danger of a
corrupt centralism, which, after inflicting
upon ten States the repair of carpet bag
tyrannies, has honeycombed the officers of
the Federal Government itself with inca
pacty. waste and fraud, infected States
and municipal ties, with the contagion of
mlsrule, and locked fast the prosperity of
an industrious people i'll the paralysis OF
hard times. Reform is necessary to estab-
lsh sound currency, restore to the public
credit and maintain the national honor; we
denounce the failure for all these eleven
years to make the promise of the legal
tender notes which are exchanging stand
ard of value in the hands of the people,
and the non-payment of which is 4 dsre-
gard 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 the same in
useless, without accommodating any reserve
for their redemption, and we denounce the
financial imbeclity and immortality of that
party, which during eleven years of peace
has made no advance toward resumption
by wasting our resources and eXhausting
all our income, and while annually profess
ing to intend speedy return to specie
payments, has annually invited fresh him
drance thereto. AS such hindrance we
denounce the resumption clause of the act
of 1879, and we here demand its repeal.
We demand judicious system of pre-
paration by public economies; by official
retrenchments, and by wise finance which
shall enable the nation soon to assume the
whole work of its perfect ability, and its
perfect readiness to meet any of its pro-
misses at the call of the creditor entitled to
payment. We believe such a system well
devised. and above all intrusted to compe-
tent hands for execution, creating at no
time an artificial scarcity of currency, and
at no time alarming the public mind with
d "lluul " dl vi tlilb NdolCl LidSulhClS Vi
credit by which 95 per cent of all business
transactions are performed, a system open,
public and inspiring general confidence,
could from this day of its adoption, bring
healing on its wings to all our harassed
industry, and set i'll motion the wheels of
our commerce. manufactures and the me-
chanical arts, restore employment to labor
and renew in all its National source the
prosperity of the people. Reform is neces-
sary in the sum and mode of Federal taxa
ton to the end, that capital may be set
free from distrust and labor lightly bur-
dened. We denounce the present tariff
levied upon nearly four thousand articles,
a master piece Of injustice in equality and
false pretense, it yields a dwindlng, not
yearly rising revenue, it has impoverished
many industries to subsidize few, it pro-
hibits imports that might purchase the pro
ducts of American labor. 1t has degraded
American commerce from the first to an
inferior rank upon the high seas, it has cut
down the sales of American manufacturers
at home and abroad, and depleted the re-
turns of American agriculture, and indus
try, followed by half our people, and it
costs the people five times more than it
produces to the Treasury, obstructs the
procession of production and wastes the
fruits of labors. 1t promotes fraud and
fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest Off
GERS, and bankrupts honest merchants, we
demand that all Custom House taxation
shall be only for Revenue. Reform is ne
cessary in the scale of public expense, Fed
eral, State and municipal. Our Federal
taxation has swollen from 10000, 600 gold
in 1860 to $50, 600, 900 currency in 1870;
our aggregate taxation from 154, 600, 900
gold in 1860 to 1000, 900 currency in
1870 or in one decade from less than five
dollars per head, to more than eighteen
dollars per head since the peace, the people
have paid to their tax gatherers more than
thrice the sum of the National debt and
more than twice that sum for the Federal
Government alone. We demand vigor-
GUS frugality in every department, and from
every officer of the Government. Reform
is necessary to put stop to the protligate
waste of public lands, and their division
from actual settlers by the party in power
which has squandered J, 600, 600, 900 of acres
upon railroads alone, and out of more than
three times that amount has disposed of
less than a sixth directly to settlers of the
soil. Reform is necessary to correct the
omissions Of the Republican Congresses,
and the errors of our treaties and our diplo
macy, which have stripped our fellow citi-
Zens of foreign birth and kindred race of
the privilege of recrossing the Atlantic
| under the shield of American citizenship,
and expose our brethren of the Pacific
coast to the incursions of a race not sprung
from the same great parent stock, and i'll
fact now by law denied citizenship through
naturalization as being neither accustomed
to the traditions of a progressive civiliza-
ton, nor exercised in liberty under equal
laws. We denounce the policy which thus
discards the liberty loving German and
tolerates the revival of the Cooie trade in
| Mongolian women, imported for immoral
purposes, and Monaghan men hired to per-
| form servile labor contracts, and demand
such notifications of the treaty with the
Chinese Empire or such legislation by Con
gress within a constitutional limitation as
to prevent the further importation or i'm
migration of the Monaghan race.
The balloting for President then COM
menced, which resulted as follows:
| FIRsL BALLOT:
| Tilden, 403t Hendricks, 1881
Hancock, - Allen, Sc