Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-07-07
The Democratic Platform.

do hereby enjoin 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 fe,-
low citizens Of every former political con.
nectiou to undertake with us this first and
most pressing patriotic duty Of the democ-
racy Of the whole country.
We do here reaffirm our faith in tho per-
manency of the federal Union, our devo.
ton 10 the constitution Of the United States, |
with its amendments, universally accepted |
as a final settlement Of the controversies |
that were engendered by the civil war, and |
do here record our steadlast confidence in |
the perpetuity Of republican self government,
in absolute acquiescence to the will Of the |
majority, the vital principles Of republics,
in the supremacy of the civil over the mill.
tary authority, IN the total separation Of the
church and state for the sake alike Of civil
and religious freedom, in the equality Of all
citizens before Just laws Of their own enact
ment, in the liberty Of individual conduct
unvexed by sumptuary laws, in the faithful
education Of the rising generation that they
may preserve, enjoy and transmit those best
conditions of human happiness and hope.
We behold the noblest products OF a hundred
years Of Changeful history, but while up
holding the bond of our Union and the
great charter of these, our rights it behooves
free people to practice also that eternal
vigilance which is the price of liberty.
Reform is necessary to rebuild and estab.
fish in the hearts of the whole people of the
Union, eleven years ago happily rescued
from the danger of a secession OF states, but
now to be saved from a corrupt centralism,
which, after inAicting upon ten states the
rapacity Of carpet-bag tyrannies, has hon
ey.oombed the Offices Of the federal govern
ment itself with incapacity, waste and fraud,
infected states and municipalities with the
contagion Of misrule, and locked fast the
prosperity Of an industrious people in the
paralysis of hard times. Reform is neces.
sary to establish a 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 a changing
standard of value in the hands of the people,
and the non-payment of which is disregard
OF the plighted faith Of the nation.
We denounce the improvidence 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 accommodating any reserve
for their redemption.
We denounce tho financial imbecility and
immortality of the party which during eleven
years Of peace, has made no advance tow
ard resumption that instead, has DISTRACTED
resumption by wasting our resources and ex.
hausting all our surplus income, and while
annually protesting to intend a speedy re-
turn to specie payments, has annually eu-
acted fresh hinderances thereto as such a
hinderance we denounce the resumption
clause Of the act o f 1875, and we here de-
mand Its repeal.
We demand judicious system Of prepar.
alton by public economies, by official retrench-
ments and by wise finance, which shall en-
able the nation soon to assure the world Of
its perfect readiness to meet any Of its prom
Uses at the call OF the creditor entitled TO
payment. We believe such system well
devised, and above all entrusted to compe-
tent hands for execution, creating at no time
an artificial scarcity of currency, aud at no
time alarming the public mind into a with
drawal Of that vaster machinery Of credit
by which 80 per cent OF all business trans
actions are performed, system open, public
and inspiring general confidence, would,
from the day Of its adoption, bring healing
on its wings to all our harrassed in.
dustry and set in motion the wheel of COM
| nuf, oN md tha nix
restore employment to labor and renew in
all its natural force the prosperity of the
people.
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 articles, as
a masterpiece Of injustice, inequality and
false pretense. 1t yields dwindling, not a
yearly rising revenue; it has impoverished
many industries to substitute few it pro-
hbts imports that might purchase the prod.
ucts Of American labor; it has degraded
American commerce from the FIRST to an inle-
rior rank on the high seas it has cut down the
sale of American manufactures at home and
abroad, and depleted the returns of Ameri-
can agriculture, an industry followed by
half our people; it costs the people five
times more than it produces to the treasury,
obstructs the processes of production and
wastes the fruits Of labor it promotes fraud
and fosters smuggling enriches dishonest
officials and bankrupts honest merchants.
We demand that all custom house taxation
shall be only for revenue.
Reform is necessary in the scale of public
expenses, federal, state and municipal Our
federal taxation has swollen from 500, 000,-
900, gold, in 1862 to S450,000,000, cur
rency, in 1870, or in decade from less than
So per head to more than Sl8 per head.
Since the peace the people have paid to their
taxgathers more than thrice the sum OF the
national debt, aud more than twice that sum
for the federal government alone. We de-
mand vigorous frugality in every depart
ment and from every officer Of the govern
men..
Reform is necessary to put stop to the
proagate waste of public lands and their
diversion from actual settlers by the party
in power, which has squandored two hun
dred millions Of acres upon railroads alone,
and out of more than thrice that aggregate,
has disposed Of less than a sixth directly to
the tillers of the soil.
Reform is necessary to correct the omis-
siOns of the republican congress and the
errors Of our treaties and our diplomacy,
which have stripped our fellow citizens Of
foreign birth aud kindred race, recrossing
the Atlantic, Of the shield Of American citi.
zenship, and have exposed our brethren OF
| the Pacific cOask 10 the inouraiOps of n raoe
not sprung from the great parent stock, aud
in fact now by law denied citizenship through
naturalization as being neither accustomed
to the traditions Of progressive CIVILIZATION
nor exercised in liberty under equal laws.
We denounce the policy which thus dis.
| cnrha the lihertu .lnvinr Chairman md tnlar