The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-06-29
THE PLATFORM.

THE PLATFORM.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS.
The Committee on Resolutions report
ed, Lieut.. Gov. Dorsheimer reading tht
report,
THE DOCUMENT RECEIVED WITH LoVD
CHEERS.
As each paragraph was read it wal
greeted with loud cheers. especially tina
part Of it which demands the repeal O
the resumption act. The followingis the
platform as read:
We, the delegates of the Democratic
party of the United States, in Nationa
Convention assembled, do hereby declare
The administration ofthe Federal Gov
ernment to be in urgent need of imme
diate reform; 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, anC
do hereby appeal to our fellow citizens
of every former political connection tC
undertake with us this first and mos
pressing patriotic duty.
For the Democracy of the whole Coun
try, we do here re-affirm our faith in thC
permanency of the Federal Union; oul
devotion to the Constitution of the Uni
ted States, with its amendments univer
sally accepted as final settlement of the
controversies that engendered the civi
war; and we do here record our steadfast
confidence in the perpetuity of Republi-
can selfgovernment; in the absolute ac'
quiescence in the will of the majority
the vital principle of Republics; in the
supremacy of the civil over the military
authority; in the total separation of State
and church for thesake alike of civil and
religious liberty; in the equality of all
citizens before Just laws oftheir own en-
actment; in the liberty of individual con.
duct by sumptuary laws; in the faithful
education of the rising generation, that
they may preserve, enjoy and transmit
these to the people in the paralysis o.
hard times.
FINANCIAL.
Reform is necessary 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 promises of the
legal tender notes, which are changing
standard of value in the hands of the
people, and the non-payment of which
is disregard of the plighted faith ofthe
nation.
We denounce the improvidence which,
in eleven years of peace, has taken from
the people in Federal taxes, thirteen
times the whole amount ofthe legal ten
der notes, squandered four times this
sum in useless expenses. without accu-
mulating any reserve for their redemp-
ton.
We denounce the financial imbecility
and immortality of that party which, du-
ring eleven years of peace, has made no
advance toward resumption, by waiting
our resorces and exhausting all our sur
plus income, and while annually profess
ing to intend a speedy return to specie
payments has annually enacted fresh
hindrances thereto. AS such a hindrance
we denounce the resumption clause of
the act of 1875. and we here demand
judicious system ofpreparation by public
economies, by official retrenChments and
by wise finance which shall enable the
nation soon to assure the whole world of
its perfect ability and is perfect readiness
to meet any of its promises at the call of
the credit entitled to payment
We believe such system well devised
and above all entrusted to competent
hands for execution, creating at no time
an alIscarcity of currency, and at
no time alarming the public mind into a
withdrawal of that vaster machinery of
credit by which ninety five-per cent of
all business transactions are performed;
a system open, public. and inspiring gen.
eral confidence, would, from the day of
its adoption, bring healing on its wings
to all our harassed industry and set in
motion the wheels of commerce. manu-
facture and the mechanical arts; restore
to labor and renewing all its
natural source-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 master
piece of injustice, inequality snd false
pretense. 1t yields dwindling, not a
yearly rising revenue. 1t has impov-
erished many industries to subsidize a
few. 1t prohibits imports that might
purchase the products of American
labor. 1t has degraded American com.
merce from the first to an inferior rank
upon the high seas it has cut down the
rates of American manufacturers at
home and abroad, and depleted the re-
turns of American agriculture and in
dustry, followed by half our people. 1t
costs the people five times more than it
produces to the Treasury, obstructs the
process of production and wastes the
fruits of labor. 1t promotes fraud and
fosters smuggling. enriches dishonest
officials and bankrupts honest merchants
We demand that all custom house taxa
tioh shall be only for revenue-Federal,
State and Municipal. Our Federal taxa
ton has swollen from $600O0,000, in
gold, in 1860, to $450000,000, currency,
in 1870. Our aggregate taxation from |
Sl4 100000 in gold in 1860 to $790,001,- |
700 in currency in 1870, or in one decade |
from less than five dollars per head to |
more than eighteen dollars per head.
Since peace was restored the people |
haze paid taxgathereIs more than thrice |
he sum of the national debt and more ]