The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-07-14
DURING THE RECESS,

| The vast audience renamed IN Une
hall, and there were loud cries for Pryor,
Doolittle, Ewing and others. Meantime
the band played several popular airs,
"Dixie," "Yankee Doodle" etc, amid
loud cheers, the following gentlemen
were called upon, and addressed the
audience briefly: James r. DoOlittle,
Mr.. Breckenridge, of kentucky; B.
Gratz Brown and Mr.. Wallace, of Pa.
REAssEMBLED.
The convention reassembled at a quar-
ter past two.
The committee on resolutions having
finally agreed upon their report, 1t.
Gov. DOrsheimer, of New York, pre-
sented the majority report on platform.
which was adopted after somewhat
vigorous discussion, Gen. Tom Ewing,
of Ohio, Ex-G Gov. John G. Brown, of
| Tennessee, and other members of the
committee proposing a substitute for a
portion of the resolution on finance,
which, though demanding the repeal of
the resumption act, they did not deem
sufficiently explicit.
| THE PLATFORM.
| We the delegates of the democratic party OF the
hereby declare the administration of the federal
government to he in urgent need OF immediate re-
| form. ana do hereby enjoin upon the nominees OF
the convention and of the democratic party each
state Jealous effort and cooperation to this end,
and do hereby appeal felloweitizens of every
| former political connection to undertake with us
| this first and most pressing private duty.
| FOR the democracy of the whole country we do
here reafrm fifth in the permanence of the fed
era Union devotion to the constitution of the
United states, with its amendments universally ac-
cepted as nal settlement of the controversies that
engender civil war, and do here record steadfast
confidence in the prosperity Of republican self-gOy
ernment; in absolute acquescence in the will of the
M no
supremacy of the civil over military authority in
the 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
| enactment; in the liberty of individual conduct
unvexed by sumptuary laws in the faithful eduea-
tion of the rising generation that they may pre-
serve, enjoy and transmit these best conditions of
human hapI iness ana hope; we behold the nobest
products of a hundred years of changeful history
| But while upholding the bond of union and |
the great charter of these rights, it behOOyes
Tree people TO practice also that eternal vigilance
which is the price of our liberty. Reform is neces-
sary TO rebuild and establish In the hearts of the
whole people the union, eleven years ago happily
rescued from the danger of a corrupt centTalisn,
which, after inficting upon ten states the rapacty
ef carpetbag tyrahnies, has hohey-conlbed to offices
of the federal government itself with incapacity,
waste and fraud; states and municipalities with |
the contag1On OF mlsTule ana locked last the pros
peiity of an industrious people in the paralysis OF
| ard 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 to make good the promise of the legal tender
notes, which changing standard of value i'll the
hands Of the people, and the non payment o which
is disregard of the plighted faith of the nation.
We denounce the improvidence which in eleven
of peace has taken from the people, in federal
taxes thirteen times the whole amount of the legal
tender notes, and squandeIed four times this sum in
useless expense without accumulating any reserve
for their redemption. We denounce the financial
imbecility and immortality Of that party, which
during eleven years OF peace has made no advance
toward resumption and no preparation for resump-
wasting resources and exh3usting all our sur
plus income; and while annually protesting to in
huS
ally enacted fresh h ndTances thereto As such
hindrance we denounce the resumption clause OF
the act of 1S75 and we here demand its repeal
We demand judicious system OF preparation, by
public economies by official retrenehment, and by
wise finance, which shall enable the nation soon to
the whole world Of its perfect ability and its
perfect readiness meet of its promises at the
call of the creditor entitled to payment. We be
lieve such a SYSTEM well devised, and above all, in
trusted to competent hands for execution creating
at no time artificial scarcity OF currency, and at
no time alarming the public mind into Withdraw
al of that vaster machinery of credit by which
ninety-fve per cent of all business transactions is
performed; system open to the public, and in
spring general confidence, would, from the day of
its adoption, bring healing on its wings to all our
harTassed industries. set in motion the wheels of
commerce, manufactures aud the mechanical arts |
restore employment to labor and renew in all its
national sources, the prosperity of the people.
IIeform is necessary in the sum and mode of fed
eral taxation, to the end that capital may be set
free from distrrlst and labor lightly burtened We
denounce the present tariff levied upon nearly four
thousand articles a masterpiece of injustice, in
equality and false pretense Ii Yields twindiing |
not q yearly rising revenue; il has impoverished
many ind duStres to subsidize few; it prohibits I'M
ports that might pure hase the products of American
labor il has degraded American commerce from the
first to an inferior rank upon the high seas; it has
cut down the sales of American manufactures at
home and abroad, and depleted the returns OF
American agriculture il tOsts the people five times
than it produces to the treasury obstructs pro-
ceSses of productions fnd wastes the fruits of labor
il promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dis
honest officials, and haIkrupts honest merchants.
We demand that all custOmhOuse taxation shall be
only for revenue.
Reform is neceS AIRY IN the scale of public
expense, federal, state and municipal. Our
federal taxation has swollen from sixty mil
lion dollars in gold in 1860 to four hundred
and fifty million dollars in currency in 1870; |
our aggregate taxation from one hundred
and ffty-fOur million dollars 1 gold in 1860 |
to seven hundred and thirty million dollars
in currency in 1870, or in one decaGe from
less than five dollars per head TO mere than
eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace
the people have paid their tax gatherers
more than thrice the of the national
debt, and more than twice that sum for the
federal government alone. We demand Il
vigorous frugality in every department and
from every officer of the government.
Reform is necessary to put stop to the
prohigate waste of public lands and their di-
versions from actual settlers by the party i'll
power, who have squandered two hundred
million acres of land upon railroads alone,
and out of more than thrice that aggregate
has disposed of less than sixty directly to
tillers of the soil.
Reform is necessary to Orrect the Omis
sI.ns of republican congl ess and errors of
our treaties and of our diplomacy, which
have stripped cur fellow-citizens of foreign
birth and kindred race, when recroSsng the
Atlantic, of the shield of American citizen
ship, and have exposed our brethren of the
Pacific coast to the incurSiOns of a race 10
sprung from the same great parent stock
and, i'll fact, now by law denied citizenship
through naturalization, because it is neither
accustomed to the traditions of progressive |
civilization, nor exercised in liberty unoer
equal laws. We denounce the policy which
thus dscards the lberty-lOving German,
and tOlcrates the renewal of the CoOlie trade
in Mongolia women imported for immoral
purposes, and MOngOlian men, held to per-
form servile labor contracts. We, therefore, |
demand such notifications of the treaty of
the Chinese empire, and such legislation by
congress- within constitutional limitation
as shall prevent the further importation or
immigration of the MOngolian race.
Reform is necessary, and can never be eff
fected but by making it the controlling
issue of the elections and lifting it above
the two false issues with which the Office
holding class and party in power seek to
smother it. These false issues with which
they would enkindle sectarian strife in re-
spect to the public schools, OF which the
establishment 9nd support belong exclusive
ly to the several states, ahd which the
democratic party has cherished from their
foundation, and is resolved to maintain with
out partiality or creed, and without con-
tributing from the treasury to any false issue
by which they seek to light anew the dying
embers of sectional hate between kindred
people once unnaturally estranged but now
reunited in one indivisible republic and a
common DESTINY.
Reform is necessary in the civil service, |
and experience proves that an efficient and
economical conduct of the governmental
business is not possible if its civil service be
subject to change at every election; if it be
a prize fought for at the ballot-box, or if it
be a reward of party instead of posts of
honor assigned for proved competency and
held for fidelity in the public employ. That
the dispensing of patronage should neither
be tax upon the time of all our public
men, nor the instrument of their ambition.
Here again, professions falsifed in the per-
formauce attest that the party in power can
work out no practical or salutary REFORM
which is necessary even more in the higher
grades of the public service-president,
judges, senator's representatives and cabinet
officers. These and all others in authority
off |