Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-08-26
Reform, Retrenchment and Recon-
citation.
I Adopted in Convention at St. Louis, Jun
70, 1876. Revised and corrected from tn
original manuscript

equality of all citizens before just laws of
their own enactment in the liberty OF IN
diyidual conduct, invoked by sumptuary
laws; in the faithful education of the
rising generation, that they may preserve,
enjoy and transmit these best conditions
of human happiness and hope, we behold
the noblest products of a hundred years of
changed history; but while upholding the
bond of our Union and great Charter of
these rights, it 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
but now to be saved from a corrupt Central
ism which, after infiicting upon ten States
the rapacity of carpet-baG tyEannies, has
honeycombed the offices of the Federal
Government itself with incapacity, waste,
and fraud infected States and municipal
tiles with the contagion OF misruie, and
locked fast the prosperity OF an industrious
people in the paralysis of Hard Times"
Reform is necessary to establish sound
currency, restore the public credit, and
maintain the national honor.
We denOunce the failure for all these
eleven years of peace to make good the
pi omise of the legal tender notes, which
are changing standard OF value IN the
hands of the people, and the nOn-payInent
of which is a disregard of the plighted faith
of the nation.
We denounced 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 their sum in
useless expense without muIat1ng any
reserve for their redemption.
We denounce the financial imbecility and
Immortality of that party which, during
eleven years of peace, has made no adj
vance toward resum ptiOn, no preparation
for resumption, but instead has obStructed
resumption, by wasting our resources and
exnausting all our surplus income and,
while annually protesting to intend a
speedy return to specie payments, has an
nually enacted fresh hindrances thereto.
AS such O hindrance we denounce the Re-
sumption day clause OF the act of 1875, and
demand its repeal.
We demand a judieious system of prepa-
ration by public economies, by official re-
trenchments, and by wise finance, which
shall enable the nation soon to assure the
whole world of its perfect ability and its
perfect readiness to meet any of its pro-
misses at the call OF the creator entitled TO
payment.
We believe such system, well devised,
and, above all, intrusted to competent
hands for. execution, creating at no time
an artificial scarcity of currency and at no
time alarming the public mind into with
drawal of that Vaster machinery of credit
actions are perfOrmed-a system open,
public, and inspiring general confidence,
would from the day of its adoption bring
healing on IS wings to all our harassed in
dusJrieS, set in motion the wheels of COM
merce, manufactures, and the mechanic
arts, restore employment to labor, and re-
new in all its natural sources the prosper
ity of the people.
Reform is necessary in the sum and modes
of Federal Taxation, to the end that cap
ital may be set free from distrust, and labor
lightly burdened.
we denounce the present Tariff, levied
upon nearly 900 articles, as masterpiece
of injustice, inequality, and false pfetence.
1t yields dwindling, not yearly rising
revenue. 1t has impoverished many in
duStrieS to SubSidiZe n few. 1t proh1DlIS
imports that might purchase the products
of American labor. 1t has degraded Amer
lean commerce from the first to an inferior
rank on the high seas. 1t mas cut DOWN
the sales of American man ufactufeS at
home and abroad, and depleted the returns
OF American agriculture-an industry Iol-
lowed by half our people. 1t costs the peO-
pie five times more than it produces to the
| treasury, obstruetS the processes of pro-
| duction, and wastes the fruits of labor. 1t
| prom Otes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches
! dishonest officials, and bankTuptS honest
/ merchants. We demand that all Custom
| House taxation shall be only for Revenue.
Reform is necessary in the scales of Pub
| lie EXpenses-Federal, State, and NUM-
cipa1. Our Federal taxation has swollen
| from 80 millions gold in 1860 to 40 millions
currency III 1870; our aggregate taxation
| from l54 millions gold in le6Ouo $50 millions
| currency in 1870; or In one decade: from
| less than SIS per head to more than SIS per
| head. Since the peace the people nave
| paid to their taX-gatheferS more than
/ thrice the sum of the national dept, ana
1
| Government alone. We demand rigOr-
| Gus frugaIity in every department, and
from every officer OF the Government.
Reform is necessary to put stop to the
profiigate waste of public lands and their
| diversion from actual settlers by the party
| lions of acres upon railroads alone, and out
| of more than thrice that aggregate has dis
| posed of less than sixth directly to tillers
| of the soil.
Reform is necessary to correct the omis-
| sions of a Republican Congress and the er-
| rors of our treaties and our diplomacy.
| which have stripped our fellow-citizens OF
| foreign birth and kindred race recrossing
| the Atlantic of the shield of American
| citizenship, and have exposed our brethren
| of the Pacific coast to the incursiOns of a
| race not sprung from the same great parent
| stock, and, in fact now by law denied citt-
| zenShip through naturalization, as being
| neither accustomed to the traditions OF a
| progressive civilization nor exercised IN
| liberty under equal laws. We denonnee
| the policy which thus discards the liberty
| loving German and tolerates the revival OF
| the coolie trade in Monaghan women, i'm
| ported for immoral purposes. and Mongo-
| liam men, hired to perform servlle labor
| contracts.
Reform is necessary and can never be
effected but by making it the controlling
| issue of the elections, and lifting it above
| the two false issues with which the otnce-
holding class and the party in power seek
/. The false issue with which they would
enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the
public schools, OF which the esta bIl 81 ment
| eral States, and which the Democratic
| party has cherished from the foundation,
| and is resolved to maintain without pre-
| iudice or preference for any class, sect, or
| creed, and without 1argesseS nom the treas
| ury to any.
light anew the dying embers of sectional
| hate between kindred people once es-
| tranged. but now reunited in one tndivisi-
blerepublic and common destiny
Reform is necessary in the civil service.
| Experience proves that efficient, ecOnOmi-
| cal conduct OF the government business is
not possible if it's civil service be subject to
| change at every election, be prize fought
| for at the ballot box, be brief reward OF
| party zeal, instead of posts of honor as
| signed for proved competency, and held
| Tor fidelity in the public employ that the
| dispensing of patronage should neither
be a tax upon the time of all our public
men, nor the instrument oftheir ambition.
| Here again promises falSlfied In the per-
| fOrmance, attest that the party IN power
| can work out no practical or salutary re-
| form.
Reform is necessary even more in the
higher grades of the public service. Pres
| ident, Vice-PreSident, Judges, Senators
| Representatives, CABINET officers, these and
all others in authority are the peoples ser
| wants. Their offices are not a private per"
quisiUe-they are public trust.
| When the annals of this Republic show
| the disgrace and censuTe OF 8 Vice-PreSi-
dent q late Speaker of the House OF Re-
| presen tatives marketing his rulings as a
| presiding officer; three Senators prOtiting
| secretly by their votes as lawmakers; five
| chairmen of the leading com mittees of the
| late House of Representatives exposed in
tobbery a late Secretary of the Treasury
| forcing balances in the public accounts; a
| late Attorney-General Incorporating
| public funds a Secretary of the Navy en-
| riched or enrtching friends, by percentages
levied off the profits of contractors with
his department; an ambassador to Eng
| ton the Presidents Private Secretary
| barely escaping conviction upon trial for
| guilty completely in frauds upon the reye.
| nue.; a Secretary of War impeached for
| high crimes and misdemeanors,-the DEM
| onstration is complete, that the first step
in Reform must be the peoples choice OF
honest men from another party, lest the
GIaeeo u y M IS. = = -. :, Z,