The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-06-29

and the motion to proceed to ballot was with
drawn.
Mr.. Meredith, chairman of the committee OF
resolutions, said the committee had agreed or
the resolutions but had referred them to com
nittee on revision.
Convention then adjourned till o'clock.
speech of ex-senator DoOliuIe.
After adjournment the band played Dixie
and Gen. Pryor was called for but not respond
ing ex Senator Doolittle took the stand. He
said the Republican patty was not weak
party. He had fought with it and against i
and knew it inside and out. He claimed thai
for fifteen years the Republican party had beer
war party Not only during but after the
war had ended by the reconstruction of the
South, in order to gain control of both houses
of Congress, and in nominating Hayes anG
Wheeler the Republicans had not changed it!
spirit and it will still lie despotic.
Speech of MIR. Breckinridge.
Mr.. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, urged a
broad, national, unsectional cooperation tc
change the national administration. and said
said that they were here, not as Eastern OF
Western men, but as Democrats and Ame1i
cans, and should act only IN that spirit and &C
to battle under some great leader who should
lead them to victory. He said that it was nc
common foe they had to fight, no enemy easy
to overcome, it was a party controlling The
sword and pnrse of the country and with nc
conscience to restrain it from using them un.
scrupulously for the retention of their power
In conclusion he again counselled CONFRONT Sc
unity and cordial cooperation for the common
cause.
Afternoon Session.
After addresses by Messrs. Gratz Brown and
Wallace of Pennsylvania, the afternoon ses-
sion began. Judge Meridith, of Va, chairman
of the committee on resolutions, presented a
report which states that great many resolu-
tions were presented, all of which had
haav, c,,l1,y
coming to an agreement. He 4ben requested
Lit Gov. Drisheimer of New Yark to read it to
the convention as follows:
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 gov
eminent TO be in urgent need of immediate re-
form. We do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of
this convention and of the Democratic party in eac
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 of the De-
mocracy OF the whole country. We do hereby reaf-
unon our devotion to the Constitution of the United
States with its amendments universally accepted as
gendersd 5y Tie e %af aG a. that
steadfast confidence in the perpetutty of Republican
segovernment in absolute aGgaiesence to the will
the supremacy of the civil over the military au-
thority in the total separation of church and state
the equality of all citizens before just laws of their
enactment; in the liberty of individual conduct
unvexed by sumptuary laws; in the faithful educa-
enioy and transmit those best Conditions Of honoe
happiness and hope. We behold the noblest pro-
ducts of hundred years of changeful history, but
willie upholding the bond of Union and the great
charter of these, our rights, it behooves free peo-
pie to practice also that eternal vigilance which is
the price Of liberty.
Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish in the
hearts whole DpOnie
ago happily rescued from the danger of seces-
sion OF states but none to be saved faom a corrmpt
centralism which, after nfctng upon ten states the
rapacity of carpet-bag tyrannies, has honeycombed
the offices of the federal government itself with inca
pacty, waste and fraud, in federal states and NUM-
cipaities with the contagon of misrule and locked
fast the prosperity of an industrious people in the
paralysis of hard times.
Reform is necessary in the sum and mode of fed
eral taxation, to the end that capital mny
be set free from distrust and labor lightly
burdened. We denounce the present tariff levied
upon nearly 400 articles as masterpiece of injustice,
aud false pretence. 1t yields dwndling
not yearly rising revenue; it has impoverished
money industries to subsidize few it prohibits
imports that ought purchase the products of Amer-
san labor; 1t has degraded American commerce from
the first to an inferior rank the high seas it has
cut down the sale of American manufactures at home
and abroad, and depleted the returns of American
agricuturean industry followed by half our people
it costs the people five times than it produces
to the easury it obsructs the process of production
and wastes the fruits of labor; it promotes frauds
and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that
all custom house taxation shall be only for revenue.
Reform Is necessary to establish sound currency,
restore public credit and maintain the national hon.
or. We denounce the failure for all these eleven
years to make good the promise of the legal tender
notes which are changing standard of value in the
hands OF the people and the nonpayment of which is
a disregard ofthe plighted forth of the nation. We
denounce the improvdence 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 any,reserve for their redemption
We denounce the financial imbeclity and mmorali-
ty OF the party which for eleven years of peace has
made no advance toward resumption, that instead
has obstructed resumption by wasting resources
and exhausting all our surplus income and while
nually protesting to intend speedy return to specie
payments has annually enacted fresh hindrances
thereto. AS such hindranceiwe denounce the re-
sumption clause of the act of 1875 and we here de-
mand its repeal We demand a judicious system of
preparation by public economies, by official retrencn
ments and by wise finance which shall enable the
lon soon to assure 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
system well devised and above all entrusted to COM
petent hands for execution, creating at time an
artihca scarcity OF currency and at no time alarm
ing the public mind into withdrawal of that vast
of credit by which 95 per cent of all bust
ness transactions are performed system open pub
lie and inspiring general confidence, would from the
Jay OF It's adoption bring healing on its wings to all
our harrassed industry and set in motion the wheels
Of commerce, manufactures and the mechanical
Its national force the prosperity of the people.
Reform is necessary in the scale of pubic expen-
lion has swollen from $780, in gold in 1860 to
$3.50 900 in currency in 1870 in decade from
less than S. per head to more than $1s per head.
Since the peace the people have paid to their tax
gatherers more than thrice the sum of the national
debit and more than thrice that for the federal
government alone. We demand a vigorous frugal
ty 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 diversion from act
Tered a90oooooo Of acres upon railroads alone, and
)ut OF more than thrice that aggregate has disposed
u less than sixth directly to the settlers of the
Reform is necessary correct the omissions of the
Congress and the errors of our treaties
md our diplomacy, which have stripped our fellow
citizens of foreign birth and kindred race recrossing
he Atlantic of the shield of American citizenship,
md have exposed our brethren of the Pacific coast
% the tncursions of race not sprung from the
'ame parent stock, and in fact now by law denied
through naturalization as being neither
to the traditions of progressive civili
ation nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We
fenounce the policy which thus discards the liberty
owing German and tolerates the revival of the Cooie
rade in Monaghan women imported for immoral
purposes, and Mongoians hired to perform servile
abor contracts, and demand such modification of the
Teaty with the Chinese empire such legislation by
congress within constitutional limits shall prevent
urther importation or immigration OF the Monaghan
ace.
reform is necessary and can never be effected but
y making it the controlling issue of the election and
lftng 1t above the two false issues with which the
'fce holding class and the party in power seek to
mother it. The false issue with which they would
'nkindle sectional strife in respect TO the public
chools, which the Democratic party has cher
shed from their foundation and resolved to maintain
Without partalty preference for any class sect or
reed, and without contributions from the treasury
% any of them, and the false issue by which they
eek to light anew the embers of sectional hate be-
ween kindred people once estranged but now re-
United in one indiysible republic and q common
iestiny. n
Reform is necessary in the civil service. Expe-
fence proves that efficient economical conduct of the
governmental business is not possible if the civil
service be subject to change at every election, be
1rze fought for at the ballot box be brief reward
# party zeal instead OF posts of honor assigned for
proved competency and held for fidelity in the pub
icemploy; that the dispensing of patronage should
neither be tax upon the time of all our public
lor the instrument of their ambition. Here again
falslied in performance attest that the
)arty in power can work ont practical sautary
eform.
Reform is necessary more in the higher grades
II the public service. President, Vice President,
udges representatives cabinet Offices these and all
'thers in authority are the peoples servants. Their