Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-07-31
The Republican Platform.

resolutions adopted ut the RepuDlican
State Convention, held at Harrisburg,
on the 23rd instant, and which con-
stitute the platform of the Republican
party of Pennsylvania for the coming
campaign. We publish this document
that our readers may read and fully
judge for themselves how much truth
and honesty there is in these official ut
terances of the leaders of the Republi-
can party. Our neighbor of the Re
publican spent nearly two columns
last week in misrepresentation of the
Democratic platform and yet refused
to permit his readers to see it and
judge for themselves. 1t is by keep
ing the average Republican voter in
ignorance of the actual sayings and
doings of the Democracy that the
managers of that party expect to keep
alive the passions and prejudices en-.
gendered by the war, and thereby hold
the mass of their followers to the sup
port of doctrines and policies at war
with the best interests of the whole
people. On the other hand, the De
mocracy appeals to the intelligence of
the voters and is anxious for its mem
bers to see and know what the radical
managers are saying and doing. The
platform is so very long and contains
so many gratuitous and false state
mcnts that it would occupy entirely
too much space to attempt to point
them all out in a single article. We
shall take up these resolutions one By
one and dissect them during the cam
paign. The first resolution reads as
follows:
"FYrst The Republican party again
forced to stand forward for the defence of
human rights after a struggle lasting
through 3 generation, tinds itself confron.
ted with the same fycs Of federal unity, po-
ljtical freedom and national honor, which
Il has 80 often ovcrthT0wu in civil contests
aud armed conflict"
The amount of impudence and false
hood contained in this one resolution
is almost beyond description. The a.
sumption that the present radical par
ty and the army which fought the bat
ties of the Union are one and the same,
or that the Democratic party and the
Confederate army are the same organ
zation is as far from the truth n it il
possible to get. Not one in ten of the
delegates in the late radical conven-
ton was ever in the army. Not one
in fifty of them ever acquired any rep
utation as a soldier Not one in ten
of the entire Republican party of
Pennsylvania or of the Union was
ever in the army. The Republican
party of to-day has not among its list
of voters one-half of the living officers
and men of the Union army. A large
majority of all the officers who were
real soldiers and made honorable rep
utations for themselves, and who, when
the war was over. retired into the
ranks Of citizens, have left that party.
There is scarcely n reputable officer of
standing who has not been kept in
public office, or who is not candidate
for political preference, who belongs
to the stalwarts to-day. II is true that
the great army of shoddy contractors,
and camp-followers, still adhere to the
radicals. We know of no instance
where a mule contractor or an army
thief of any kind has left them.
The majority of Lincoln's cabinet
LETT the party before they died. The
leading, controlling men of the Re
publican party during the war, in each
State in the Union, have forsaken the
fortunes of the organization now con-
trolled by the stalwarts. On the other
hand, they have the Longstreets, the
Mosbys, the Ackermans, the Keys,
and all the guerillas and skulkers of
the rebel army shouting vociferously
for loyalty and the stalwarts.
Their struggle for Federal unity"
is good. They are now and ever have
been the foes OF Federal unity" and
instead of it desire National consoli-
dation." The political freedom"
they have fought for, was manifested