The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1876-07-06


The Secretary then, upon request, rean
nounced the times and places of meeting o.
the various committees, and the Convention
took a recess until five o'clock p. M.
On reassembling at the appointed hour
the Committee on Credentials reported thai
there we're no contested seats, and that the
States were fully represented. The District
of Columbia and the Territories were given
a representation in the Convention, without
right to vote. The Committee on Perma
nent Organization submitted a report: Fol
Permanent President, John A. McClernand
of Illinois; for Vice-Presidents and
Secretaries, one from each State. The re.
port was adopted, and Mr.. Manton Marble
of New York, led Gen. McClernand to the
Chair. Speeches were then made by the
Chairman and by August Belmont, and a
motion to adjourn until eleven o'clock next
day was carried.
SECOND DAY.
President McClernand called the Conven.
tion to order at five minutes after eleven
o'clock, introducing Father Brady, of st.
Louis, who offered prayer. Various resolu.
tions were offered, which were referred to
the Committee on Platform. Motions to
proceed to balloting were under discussion,
when the Chair recognized Mr.. Meredith,
Chairman of the Committee on Platform,
who said they had agreed on the resolutions,
but had referred them to a committee for
revision, and that they would meet again at
one o'clock. Mr.. Herman moved a recess
until two p. m. Carried.
The Convention met at 2:15, and the Com
I mittee on Resolutions read the following
platform:
ave, the delegates of the Democratic
party of the United States, in National Con-
ventien assembled, do hereby declare the
administration of the Federal Government
to be in urgent need of immediate reform
do hereby enjoin upon the nominee of this
Convention, and of the Democratic party
in each State, a jealous effort and co-opera-
ton to this end, and do hereby appeal to our
fellow-citizens of every former political con-
nection to undertake with us this first and
most pressing patriotic duty. For the
Democracy of the whole country we do here
reafirm our faith in the permanency of the
Federal Union, our devotion to the Consti-
tuition Of the United States, with its amend
ments universally accepted as final settle
ment OF the controversies that engendered
civil war, and do here record our steadfast
confidence in the perpetuity of republican
self-government; in absolute aequiescence
in the will of the majority, the vital prin-
clples of Republics; in the supremacy of
the civil over the 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 own en-
aetment; in the liberty of individual con
Duct, unVexed by sumptuary laws; in the
faithful education of the rising generation,
that they may preserve, enjoy and transmit
these best conditions of human happiness
and hope. We behold the noblest products
of hundred years of changeful history,
but while upholding the bond of Uuion, and
the great charter of these, our rights,
1t behooves free people to practice, also,
that eternal vigilance which is the price of
liberty.
Reform is necessary to rebuild and es-
tablish in the hearts of tie whole people of
the Union, eleven years ago happily rescued
from the danger of a secession of States, but
now to be saved from corrupt centralism,
which, after inhicting upon ten States the
rapacity OF carpet-bag tyranny, has honey
combed the offices of the Federal Govern
ment itself with incapacity, waste and fraud; I;
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 sound
currency, restore the public credit, and main
tain the National honor.
"We denounce the Republican party for
1tc 1ohuIO, lOE oil bIlESc cl6Ntn years, W Dldh6
good the promise Of the legal-tender notes
which are a changing standard of value in
the hands of the people, and the non-pay-
ment 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 nc tes, and
squandered four times this sum in useless
expense, without accumulating any reserve
for their redemption.
We denounce the financial imbecility
ald immortality of that party which, during
eleven years of peace, has made no advance
toward resumption, no preparation for re-
sumption, but, instead, has obstructed re-
sumption by wasting our resources and ex-
hausting all our surplus income, and while
annually protesting to intend speedy re-
turn to specie payment, has annually en-
acted fresh hlndrances thereto. As such
hindrance, we denounce the resumption
clause of the act Of 1875, and we here de-
mand its repeal.
"We demand judicious system of prep
aration by public economies, by official re-
trenchments, and by wise finance, which
shall enable the Nation soon to assure the
whole world of its perfect ability and its
perfect readiness to meet any of its prom
ises at the call of the creditor entitled to
payment.
we believe such system, well devised,
and, above all, entrusted 10 competent hands
for execution, creating at no time an artif-
cial scarcity OF currency, and at no time
alarming the public mind into withdrawal
Of that vaster machinery of credit, by which
ninety-hve per cent. of all business traDsac-
tiOns are performed, system open, public,
and inspiring general 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.
manufactures, and the mechanical arts, re-
store employment to labor, and renewing in
all its National sources 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.
ave denounce the present tariff, levied
upon nearly four thousand articles, as mas
ter-piece of injustice, inequality and false
pretense. 1t yields dwindling, not a yearly
rising, revenue. 1t has impoverished many
industries to subsidiZe few. 1t prohibits
imports that might purchase the products of
American labor. 1t has degraded American
commerce from the first to an inferior rank
upon the high seas. 1t has cut down the
and abroad, and depleted the returns of
American agriculture, an industry followed
by half our people. 1t costs the people five
times more than it produces to the Treasury
obstructs the processes of production, and
wastes the fruits of labor. Itpromotes fraud,
fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest Off
cials, and bankrupts 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 munich
pal. Our Federal taxation has swollen from
5000, 100000 gold, in 1860, to $500, 900
currency in 1870. Our aggregate taxation,
from s1S,OOO,OO0 gold, in 1860, to 10000, 600
currency in 1870, or in one decade from less
than So per head to more than $751; per head.
Since the peace, the people have paid to
their tax gatherers more than twice the sum
of the national debt, and more than twice
that sum for the Federal government alone.
We demand a vigorous frugality in every
department, and from every officer of the
government.
Reform is necessary to put stop to the
profigate waste of public lands, and their
diversion from actual settlers by the party in
power, which has squandered 100000
acres upon railroads alone, and out OF more
than thrice that aggregate has disposed of
less than a sixth directly to tilers OF the
soil.
"Reform is necessary to correct the omis-
sions of Republican Congress, and the er-
rors of our treaties and our diplomacy,
which have stripped our fellow-citizens of