Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-07-08
PLATFORM OF THE NATIONAL
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

We, the delegates Of the Democrati
party of the United States in Nationa
Convention assembled, do hereby de
clare the administration of the FEEDER
al Government to be in urgent need o
Immediate reform, and do hereby en-
join upon the nominees of this con
lVention, and of the Democratic part,
in each State. jealous effort and co
operation to this end. and do hereb,
appeal to our fellow citizens of ever
former political connection to under
take with us this first and most press
ing patriotic duty.
For the Democracy of the whole
country we do here affirm our faith il
the performances ofthe Federal Union
our devotion to the Constitution of ths
United States, with its amendments
universally accepted as final settle
ment of the controversies that engen.
dered civil war.
We do here record our steadfast con
fidence in the perpetuity of republican
self f-gOvernment; in absolute acquies.
ence in the will Of the majority, the
vital principle Of Republics, in the su.
premacy of the civil over the military
authority; in the total separation oil
Church and State for the sake alike oi
civil and religious freedom; In the
equality of allcitizens before Just laws
of their own enactment, in the liberty
of individual conduct unvexed By
sumptuary laws; in the faithful educa-
ton of the rising generation; that they
may preserve, enjoy and transmit these
best conditions of humap happiness
and hope, we behold the noblest pro-
ducts of hundred years of changeful
history, but while upholding the bond
of our Union and great charter ofthese
our rights, it behooves free people to
practice also that eternal vigilance
which is the price of liberty.
Reform is necessary to rebuild and
people the Union, eleven years ago
happily rescued from the danger of a
corrupt centralisn, which, after in
fiicting upon ten States the repacity of
carpet-bag tyranny, has honey -combed
the offices OF the Federal Government
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 necessary to establish a
sound currency, restore the public
credit and maintain the national honor.
We denounce the failure for all
these IL years to make good the prom
ise of, the legal tender notes which are
changing standard of value in the
hands Of the people and the non-pay-
ment of which is pledge 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 denounee the financial imbecili-
ty and immortality of that party, which
during eleven years of peace, has made
no advance towards resumption, no
preparation forresumption, butinstead
has obstrncted resumption by wasting
all our surplus income, and while an
nually protesting to intend speedy
return to specie payments, has annu-
ally enacted fresh hindrance thereto.
We denounce the resumption clause
of the act of 1875, and we demand its
repeal. We demand a judicious sys-
tenn of preparation By public econo-
mics, by official retrenchments and by
wise finane which shall enable the
nation soon to assure the whold world
of perfect ability and its perfect read
mess to meet any Of its promises at the
call of the eseditors entitled to pay
ment
We believe such i system we'll de-
vised, and above all, entrusted to COM
petent hands for its execution, Great
ing at no time an artificial scarcity of
currency, and at no time alarming the
public mind into a withdrawal of that
vaster machinery of credit by which
95 per cent of all business transactions
are performed.
A system open to the public and in
spring general confidence, it would
from the day of its adoption bring
healing on its wings to all our harrow
ed industries, set in motion the wheels
of commerce, manufactures, and the
mechanical arts, restore employment
to labor and renew in all its national
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 dis
trust and labor lightly burdened.
We denounce the present tariff lev
led upon nearly four thousand articles
as master piece of injustice, Unequal
ity and false pretense. 1t yields a
dwindling, not rising, revenue. 1t
has impoverished many industries to
subsidize few. 1t prohibits imports
that might purchase the products of
American labor. It has degraded
American commerce from the first to
an inferior rank upon the high seas.
1t has cut down the sales of American
manufactures at home and abroad and
depleted the returns of American ag-
riculture aud industry, followed by half
our people. 1t costs the people five
times more than it produces to the
Treasury, abstracts the process of pro-
duetion, and wastes the fruit of labor
1t promotes fraud, fosters smuggling,
enriches dishonest officials and bank
rupts honest merchants.
We demand that all custom-house
taxation shall be only for revenue.
Reform is necessary in the scale of
public expense, Federal, State and
municipal. Our Federal taxation has
swollen from sixty millions gold in
1860 to four hundred and fifty millions
currency in 1870, and our aggregate
taxation from one hundred and fifty
four millions gold in 1860 to seven hun
dred and thirty millions currency in
1870, or in one decade from less than So
per head to more than $18 per head.
Since peace the people have paid their
tax -gatherers more than thrice the sum
of the national debtand more than twice
that sum for the Federal Government
alone.
We demand vigorous frugality in
every department, and from every otfl
Ger of the Government.
Reform is necessary to put a stop to
the profligate wastes of public lands
and their diversion from actual settlers
by the party IN power, which has
squandered 200,000,000 of acres upon
railroads alone, and out of more than
thrice that aggregate has disposed Of
less than a sixth directly to tillers Of
the soil.
Reform is necessary to correct the
omissions of Republican Congress
and errors of our treaties and our di-
plomacy, which have stripped our fell
low citizens of foreign birth and kind
red race recrossing the Atlantic ofthe
shield of American citizenship and