Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1876-08-02
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

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ment to be in urgent need of immediate
reform; we do hereby enjoin upon the
nominees Of this Convention and of the
Democratic party in each State a Jealous
effort and cooperation to this end, and do
hereby appeal o our fellow citizens Of
every former political conviction to I'M
dertake with us this first and most pres
sing patriotic duty Of the Democracy Of
the whole country.
We do here reaffirm our faith in the
permanency of the Federal Union, our de-
votion to the Constitution of the United
States with its amendments, universally
accepted as Il final settlement Of the con-
troversies that were engendered by the
civil war, and do here record our stead
fast confidence in the perpetuity of re-
publican government; in absolute ac-
qulescence to the will of the majority, the
vital principle of republics in the supre-
macy of the civil over the military author
ity in the tota! separation of Church and
State for the sake alike Of civil and relig-
ious freedom; in the equality of all citi-
zens before just laws Of their own enact.
ment; in the liberty of individual conduct
unveXcd by sumptuary laws; in the faith
full education Of the rising generation that
they may preserve, enjoy and transmit
those best conditions Of human happiness
and hope. We behold the noblest pro-
ducts Of o hundred years of changeiul his
tory, but while unfolding the band of our
Union and the great charter Of these, our
rights, it behooves free people to prac-
tice also taat eternal vigilance which is
the price of liberty. Reform is necessary
to rebuild and establish in the hearts of
the whole people of the Union, eleven
years ago happily rescued from the dam
ger of a secession of States, but now to
be saved from corrupt ccntraliSm,
which, after intiicting upon ten States the
rapaclty of carpet-bag tyrannies, has
honey-combed the offices of the Federal
Government itself with incapacity, waste
and fraud; infected States and municipal
tiles with the contagion of misrulc, and
locked fast the prosperity of an industri-
Gus people in the paralysis of hard times.
Reform is necessary to establish Il sound
currency, restore the public credit and
maintain the National honor.
We denounce the failure for all these
eleven years to make good the promise of
the legal-tender notes, which are chang
| pCODlt,
and the nOn-payment of which is disrc-
gard to the plighted faith Of the nation.
We denounce the mprovidence 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 accumu-
lating aay reserve for their redemption.
We denounce the financial imbecility
and Immortality of the party which, dur
ing eleven years of peace, has made no
advance toward resumption; that, in
stead, has INSTRUCTED resumption by vast
ing our resources and exhaustng all our
surplus income, and, while annually pro-
Tossing to intend speedy return to spe-
Gle payments, has annually enacted fresh
bindrances thereto. As such hindrance,
| we denounce the resumption clause of
the act of 1875, and we here demand its
| repeal.
We demand judicious system o. prep
aration by public economies, by official
retrenchments, and by wise finance,
which shall enable the nation soon to as
sure the whole world of it's perfect readi-
ness 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 competent
hands for execution, creating at no time
an artificial scarcity Of money, and at no
time alarming the public mind into a
withdrawal Of that vaster machinery of
credit by which 95 per cent of all bust
ness transactions are performed, a sys-
TEN open, public, and inspiring general
confidence, would, from the day of its
adoption, bring healing on it's wings to
all our harassed industries and set in mo-
ton the wheels of commerce, manufac-
lures and the mechanical arts, restore
employment to labor, and renew in all
its natural force the prosperity of the peo-
pie.
Reform is necessary In the sum and
mode of Federal taxation, to the end that
capital may be set free from distrust and
labor lightly burdened. We denounce the
present tariff, levied upon nearly 1000 ar
tices, as masterpiece of injustice, in
equality and false pretence. 1t yields a
dwindling, not yearly rising revenue;
it has impoverished many industries to
subsidize few; it prohibits imports that
might purchase the products of American
labor it has degraded American COM
merce from the first to an inferior rank
on the high seas; it has cut down the sale
of American manufactures at home AID
abroad, and depleted the returns of Amer
lean agriculture, an industry followed by
half our peoples it costs the people five
times more than it produces to the Treas
ury; obstructs the processes of produc-
ton and wastes the fruits Of labor it
promotes fraud and fosters smuggling
enriches dishonest officials and bankrupts
honest merchants. We demand that
Custom House taxation shall be only for
revenue.
Reform is necessary in the scale ofpub-
lie expenses, Federal, State and munich
pal. Our Federal taxation has swollen
from $50, 1000, 900, gold in 1860, to $780,
100000, currency, IN 1870, or in a decade
from less than So per head. Since the
declaration ofpeace the people have paid
to their taX-gatherers more than thrice
the sum Of the Nationa[ debt, and more
than twice that sum for the Federal Gov
ernment alone, We demand vigorous
frugality in every department and from
every officer of the Government.
Reform is necessary to put stop to the
protligatc waste of public lands and their
diversion from actual settlers by the party
in power, which has squandered two hun
dred millions of acres upon railroads
alone, and, out of more than thrice that
aggregate, has disposed of less than Il
sixth directly to the tillers of the soil.
Reform is necessary to correct the
omissions of the Republican Congress and
the errors of our treaties und our diplo-
macy, which have stripped our fellow
citizens, of foreign birth and kindred
race, recossing the Atlantic, Of the shield
of American citizenship; and have ex-
posed our brethren of the Pacific coast to
the incursions of race not sprung from
the same great parent stock, and, In fact,
now by law denied citizenship through