The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1876-07-06
Democratic Nation
al Convention.
THE PLATFORM.
Samuel j. Tilden Nominated
for President.
Thomas A. Hendricks, for
Vice President.

Ice L IroSlOelll.
We last week announced the organ.
ization Of the Democratic National
Convention which assembled at St
Louis on Tuesday, June 9th. Upon
| assuming the chair Gen. John A. Nc.
Clernand, of Illinois, addressed the
Convention as follows:
/. GENTLEMEN OF THE NATIONAL Dem.
iOCHATIC Conventions: ltbank you fol
the distine uished honor you haye done
me in directing me to preside over
your deliberations. You arc the dele
gates of the Democrats of the whole
/ Union of thirty-seven States, unnatur-
ally estrayed, but now forever united
in one indivisible Republic; brothers
| 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 heri-
tage? Shall we make that destiny the
most glorious in the history of free
people? If your deliberations, fellow
Democrats, to-day shall be wise; il
your perception of the necessities OF
| our time, our country, our politics,
| shall be just and sagaciOus; if your
sympathy shall be quick with the
hearts OF a great people, then beyond
all peradventure we will transmit ia
our children, aud our children's child.
rem, unimpared, this priceless heritage
and yours he y better renOwn than the
renowii most priced by Roman cOndi.
torres impeioruDs, for greater than the
| founder. cot empires are the preservers
of republics. There are no enemies
| OF the Union to-day on this cOntinent,
except that administration centraiism
which is congesting the vital currents
W hich ought to flow out through every
part. giving life to the farLherest ex-
tremities OF the body polite ana ener-
gy 10 all its members, except that cor
ruptiOn which is the curse that CEN
tralism has never failed in any age or
land to engraH upon Government.
Centralism and corruption have i'm
posed upon ten States the capricious
tyrannies of carpet-bag rule, and since
the peace haye added two hundred
millions to their debts. They have
inoculated the Governments of our
Northern States and Northern cities
with the same disease OF extravaganza
aud fraud. They have debauched the
the names OF scores of its high officers
and public men our public scandal,o our
open shame.
The record is horrible in capacity,
yenality, waste, fraud, and the party
which has been powerlcss TO bear
down, trainple under foot, its cOrrup.
tionists, with stupendons efIrontery
opposes itself to reform of which it
has become incapable. That party
pledged itself to restore specie pay
ments, every year taking us further
from specie payments. SO it pledged
itself to civil service reform, and then
dropped and Knocked its reformers.
So it pledged itself to protect Ameri-
can labor, and with its monstrous GUS
tom house taxation on over three
thousand articles it has impoverished
American labor. A few score of
monopOlists, q few thousand corrnp-
tionists, have been enriched, but capi-
tai in the hands of those that earned it
by industry and saved it by by frugal
ity is everywhere distrusttcl and rests
unused, while honest labor goes about
the streets begging bread. Is this,
then, the final outcome OF century OF
republican self government! Forbid
it, gracious Godi But we have wan-
dered far from the right paths. We
must return to the constitutional prin-
ciples, the frugal expenditures, and
the administrative purity of the found
crs 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 political affiliatiOn.
This is the one supreme commanding
issue to which all others are inferior,
all others trivial-refprm, reform, re-
form. Ii you shall recognize this i'm
perious necessity, if you shall guaran-
tee in your platform the successful
achievement OF this arluous work OF
National regeneration, if you shall Sc
lect standard bearers true to your own
high purpose and faithful to your
pledge, victory in the November, vic
tory in the October contest is already
ours. incorporate the vital issue of
reform in candidate and platform, aud
the States that have h0nored Douglas
aud Lincoln, the States that To-day
honor Hendricks aud Thurman, Han
cock and Parker, Bayard and Tiiden,
these States, with all their vast popu
lations, will rise like the woods and
winds that followed the f1eeting Or
pheus, will rise and follow you to VIC
tory. .fiis4ai- ~7iti- aai-i
At the re-assembling OF the Con-
vent'on Wednesday afternoon, the
Committee on Resolutions made their
report, which was read to the Conven-
ton by Lieutenant Governor Dor
OF New York, and which as
adopted, after considerable debate, is
a. follows: - Fhi i4e '-it'
THE PLATFORM.
We, the delegates Of the Democratic |
party of the United States in National |
assembled, do hereby de- |
clare the Administration of the FEEDER |
al Government to be in urgent need of |
reform do hereby enjoin
upon the nominees of this Convention
and of the Democratic pa-r'y, in each
State Il Jealous effort and uo-OperatiOn
~ this end, and do hereby appeal to
,ur fellow citizens of every former po-
itical connection to undertake with
ls this first and most pressing patriotic
iuty for the Democracy of tie whole
We do hereby reaffirm our faith i'm
he permanence of the Federal Union;
,ur devotion to the Constitution of the
United States, with its amendments
accepted as final settle
nent of the controversy that engen-
Tered civil war; and do here record
'ur steadfist confidence in the purity
If republican self-government, our alb
0lute acquiescence in the will of the
The vital principle of the
Republic is i'm the. supremacy of the
ivil over the military authoritis the
Otal separation of church and state for .
he sake both of civil and religious :
reedom in the equality of all citizens ,
'efore just laws of their own enact 1
nent; in the liberty of individual con-
uct from sumptuary laws in the ]
aithful education of the rising genera {
ion, that they may preserve, enjoy !,
nd transmit these best conditions of
uman happiness and hope, we behold S
ne noblest products of changeful his $
)ry, but while upholding the bond of u