Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-08-12
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
Reform, Retrenchment and Recon
ciliati0B.
adopted in Convention at st. Louis, June
20, 1876. Revised and corrected from the
original manuscript

of the United States in National Conven-
ton assembled, do hereby declare the adj
m1nistrat1on of the Federal Government
10 be in urgent need ofimmediate Reform
DO hereby enjoin upon the nominees OF
this Convention, and Of the Democratic
party in each State, q jealous effort and CO.
operation to this end and do hereby ap-
peal to our felIow-citizens of every former
pohtlcal connection, to undertake with us
TINS nrst and most pressing patriotic duty.
For the Democracy ofthe whole country,
we DO here reaffirm our faith IN the per-
manence of the Federal Union, our devo-
ton to the Constitution of the United
states with It's amendments universally
accepted as q final settlement OF the coz
troVerS1eS that engendered civil war, and do
here record our steadfast confidence in the
perpetulty of Republican self-goyernment.
In absolute acquiescenee in the will of
the majority-the vital principle of repub-
the military authority /; in the total separa-
ton OF Church and State, for the sake alike
OF c1Vll and religious freedom; IN the
equality of all citizens before just laws of
their own enactment; in the liberty OF In
diyidual conduct, 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 a hundred years OF
changed history; but while uphold1ng the
bond of our Union and great Charter of
these rights, it behooves a free people to
practice also that eternal vigilance which
Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish
In The hearts of the whole people, the
Union, eleven years ago happily rescued
from the danger of q Secession of States
but now to be saved from q corrupt Central
ism which, after inflicting upon ten states
the rapacity of carpet-bag tyrannies, has
honeycOmbed the offices of the Federal
Government itself with incapacity, waste,
and fraud infected States and municipal
tiles 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
maintain the national honor.
We denounce the failure for all these
eleven years of peace to make good the
promise of the legal-tender notes, which
are changing standard of value in the
hands of the people, and the non-payment
of which is a disregard ofthe pl1ghted latin
of the nation.
We denounce the improvidenee 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 their sum in
useless expense without accommodating any
reserve for their redemption.
Wedenounce the financial imbe cility and
immortality of that party which, during
eleven years of peace, has made no ad.
vance toward resumption, no preparation
for resumption, but instead has INSTRUCTED
resumption, by wasting our resources and
exhauSting all our surplus income and,
while annually protesting to Intend q
speedy return to specie payments, has an
nually enacted fresh hlndrances tnefeto'
sumption-day clause OF the act OF 1875, and
demand its repeal.
We demand judicious system Of prepa-
ration 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 It's
perfect readiness to meet any of its pro-
misses at the call of the creditor entitled to
payment.
We believe such a system, we'll devised,
and, above all, intruSted to competent
hands for exec ution, creating at no time
an artificial scarcity of currency and at no
time alarming epublic mind into with
draWal of that vaSter machinery of credit
by which 95 per cent. of all business trans
actions are performed-a system open,
public, and inspiring general confidence,
would from the day OF its adoption bring
healing or its wings to all our harassed1n in
dustries, set in motion the wheels of COM
| meree, manufactures. and the mechanic
arts, restore employment to labor, and re-
new in all its natural sources the prosper
ity of the people.
Reform is necessary in the sum and M odes
of Federal Taxation, to the end that cap
| ital 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 pretence.
| 1t yields q dwindling, not yearly rising
| revenue. 1t has Impoverished many in
| tlustries to subsidize a few. 1t prohibits
| imports that might purchase the products
J of American labor. 1t has degrated Amer
| lean commerce from the first to an inferior
rank on the high seas. 1t has cut down
| the sales of American manufactures at
home and abroad, and depleted the returns
| of American agriculture-an industry fol-
| lowed by half our people. 1t costs the peo-
pie five times more than 1t produces to the
| treasury, obstructS the processes of pro-
| duction, and wastes the fruits of labor. 1t
promotes fraud, 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 scales of Pub
! lie Expenses State, and NUM-
| cipal. Our Federal taxation has swollen
| from so millions gold in 1850 to 40 millions
| currency IN 1870; our aggregate taxation
from l54 millions gold in 1S60to 730 millions
currency in 1870; or in one decade from
| less than So per head to more than SIS per
| head. Since the peace the people nave
paid to their tax-gathererS more than
more than twice that sum for the Federal
| Government alone. We demand a rigOr-
Gus frugality in every department, and
from every officer of the Government.
Reform is necessary to put n stop to the
prOf1igate waste of public lands and their
diversion from actual settlers by the party
| in power, which has squandered AO mil
| lions of acres upon railroads alone, and out
of more than thrice that aggregate has dis
posed of less than a sixth directly to tillers
Reform is necessary to correct the omis-
sions of a Republican Congress and the err
rors of our treaties and our diplomacy,
which have stripped our fellow-citiZenS OF
foreign birth and kindred race recrossing
the Atlantic of the shield of American
citizenship, and have exposed our brethren
| of the Pacific coast to the incursiOns of a
race not sprung from the sam great par ent
stock, and, in fact, now by law denied citi-
zenShip through naturalization, as being
neither accustomed to the traditions of a
progressive civilization nor exercised in
liberty under equal laws. We denounce
the policy which thus discards the liberty
| loving German and tolerates the revival OF
| the coOlie trade in Monaghan women, i'm
| ported for immoral purposes, and Mongo-
liam men, hired to perform servile labor
| contracts.
Reform is necessary and can never be
| effected 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 the party in power seek
l. The false issue with which they would
enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the
| public schools, of which the establishment
| and support belong exclusively to the sew
eral States, and which the Democratic
party has cherished from the foundation,
| and is resolved to maintain without pre-
Judice or preference for any class, sect, or
creed, and without largesses from the treas
.. The false issue by which they seek to
1
| hate between kindred people once es-
tranged. but now reunited in one indivisi-
| blerepublic and common destiny.
Reform is necessary in the civil service.
! Experience proves that efficient, economi-
cal conduct of the government business is
| not possible if its civil service be subject to
| change at every election, be prize fought
for at the ballot box, be brief reward OF
party zeal, instead of posts of honor as
signed for proved competency, and held
! for fidelity in the public employ that the
| dispensing of patronage should neither
be a tax upon the time of all our public
| men, nor the inStrume nt oftheir ambition.
| Here again promises falsified in the per-
| Torrance, attest that the party in power
can work out no practical or salutary re-
form.
higher grades of the public service. Pres
| ident, Vice-PreSident, Judges, Senators
| Representatives, Caoinet officers, these and
| all Others in authority are the peoples ser
| wants. Their offices are nOt q private per-
| quisite-they are a'publ1c trust.
| When the annals of this Republic show
the disgrace and censure oil q Vice-Presi-
dent /; a late Speaker of the House of Re-
| representatives. marketing his rulings as q
| presiding officer; three Senators prOfiting
| secretly by their votes as lawmakers; five
chairmen of the leading committees of the
| late House of Representatives exposed in
| jobbery a late Secretary of the Treasury
| forcing balances in the public accounts; a
| late AttOrney-General misappropriating
| public funds q Secretary of the Navy en-
/ riched or enriching friends, by percentages
| levied off the profits of contractors with
| his department; an En- DaSSad0r TO Eng
| land censured in a dishonOrable specula-
| ton the Presidents Private Secretary
| barely escaping conviction upon trial foI
| guilty completely in frauds upon the reve-
| nue.; a Secretary of War impeached for
cd N DEM