Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1876-07-11
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PLAT
FORM

We, the delegates of the Democratic party
OF the United States in national convention
assembled, do hereby declare the administra-
ton OF the Federal overnment to be in urgent
| need OF immediate reform; do hereby enioin
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 connection to undertake with
us this first and most pressing patriotic duty
for the Democracy of the whole country
We do hero rcaffirm our faith in the perma-
nency CT the Federal Union, our devotion to
the constitution of the United States, with
its amendments. universally accepted as a
final settlement of tho controversies that en-
genGered the civil war, and do here record
our steadfast confidence in the perpetuity Of
republican sclt>government; in absolute ac-
quiescence in the will of tho majority, the
vital principle of republics; in the supremacy
of the civil over the military authority in
tho 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 in
dividual conduct unvexed by sumptuary laws
in the faithful education of the rising gener>
alton that they may preserve, enjoy and trans
NIT these best conditions of human happiness
and hope, we behold the noblest products of
hundred years of changeful history but
while upho!ding the bond of our Union and
great charter of these, our rights, it bchooves
free people to practice also the eternal Wig
lance which is the price of liberty.
Reform is necessary to rebuild and estab-
lish in the hearts of the whole people the
Union eleven years ago happily rescued from
the dangers of q secession of States, but now
90 be saved from corrupt centralSm which,
after infiictng upon ten States the rapacity of
carpet-bag tyrannies, has honeycombed the
| Offices OF the federal government itself with
incaPacity, waste and fraud, infected States
and municipalities with the contagion Of mis-
| rule, aud locked fast the prosperity of an iu-
dustriOus people in the paralysis Of hard times.
Reform is necessary to establish sound cur>
reucy, restore the public credit aud maintain
the national honor. We deuounce the failure
for all these eleven years to mako good the
promises of the legal-tender notes, which arc
changing standard of value in the hands of
the people, and the nnn>payment of which is
disregard of the plighted faith Of the nation
| We denourco the improvidence which in
| eleven years Of peace has taken from the peo-
| pie In federal taxes thirteen times the whole
amount of the legal-tcnder notes, and squan-
dered four times this sum in useless cxpcnsc
without accumu!ating any revenue for their
redemption. We denounce the financial inn
becllty and immortality Of that party which
during eleven years of peace has made no nd,
vance toward resumption that instead has
obstructed resumption by wasting our re-
sources and exhausting all our surplus income,
and while annually protesting to intend a
| speedy return to specie payments has annually
enacted fresh hindrances thereto; as such
hindrance We denounce the resumption clause
Of the act OF 1875, and we here demand its
repeal. We demand a judcous system of
preparation by public economics, by official
retrenchmeuts, and by wise finance which
shall enable the nation soon to assure the
whole world of its perfect ability and its per-
feet readiness to meet any of its promises at
the call of the creditor entitled to payment
We believe such system, we'll devisetS and
above all entrusted to competent hand$ for
execution, creating at no time an artificial
scarcity of currency, and at no time alarming
the public mind into q withdrawal of that
vHster machinery of credit by which ninety
FIVE per cent. of all business transactions nre
performed. a system open, public and in
spring general confidence would from the day
OF its adoption bring healing on its wings to
all our harassed industry, and set in motion
the wheels of commerce, manufactures and
the mechanical arts, restore employment to
labor and renew in all its natural force the
prosperity of the people.
Reform is necessary in the form and mode
of Federal taxation, to the end that capital
may be set free from distrust and labor lightly
| burdencd. We denounce the present tariff
levied upon nearly four thousand articles as
masterpiece of injustice, inequality and false
pretense. 1t yields GwindlinG, not yearly
rising revenue. 1t has impoverished many
Industries to subsdize few. 1t prohibits
imports that might purchase the products of
American labor. 1t has degraded American
commerce from the first to an inferior rank
upon the high seas. 1t has cut down the
sales of American manufactures at home and
| abroad, and depleted the returns of American
agriculture and industry, followed by half of
the people. Il costs the people five times
more than it produces to the treasury, OBJ
structs the processes of production and wastes
the fruits of labor. It promotes fraud and
fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest officials
and bankrupts honest merchants We de-
mand that all custom house taxation shall be
only for revenue.
Reform is necessary in the scale of public
expense-Federal. State and municipal Our
Federaltaxation has swollen from SEQ 900 900
gold in 1860 to $3.50, 900, 900 currency in
1870. Our aggregate taxation from Sl54,-
600, 900 gold in 1860 to $3.50, 900, 900 cur
rency in 1870, or in one decade from less
than FIVE dollars per head to more than eigh-
teen 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 Gov
ernment alone. We demand vigorous fru-
gality in every department and from every
officer of the government.
Reform is necessary to put stop to the
profigate waste of public lands and their di-
version from actual settlers by the party in