Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-10-16
Democratic National Platform.

The democrats of the United States, in
cor. vention assembled, declare, first, that we
pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional
doctrines and traditions of the democratic
party as illustrated by the teaching and ex-
ample of q long line of democratic states
men and patriots and embodied in the plat
form of the last national convention of the
party.
2. Opposition to Capitalization and to that
dangerous spirit of encroachment which
tends to consolidate in one and thus to ere
ate in whatever form of government a real
despOtism, no sumptuary laws, separation
of state and church for the good of each !;
common schools, foStered and protected.
3. Home rule, honest money, consisting
gold and silver, and paper convertible into
coin on demand strict maintenance of
public faith, state and national and a tariff
for revenue only the Subordination of the
military to the civil power, and genuine
and thorough reform of the civil service.
The right to a free ballot is right preserv-
alive of all rights, and must and shall be
maintained in every part of the United
States.
The existing administration is the repre-
sentative of conspiracy only, and its claim
of right to surround the ballot-boXes with
troops and deputy-marshaIs to intimidate
and ohstruot the electors, and the unprece-
dented use of the veto to maintain its cor
rupt and despotic power, insults the people
and iInperils their institutions.
We eXecrate the course of this administra-
ton in making places in the civil service
rewards for political crime, and demand a
reform in The statute which shall make it
forever impossible for defeated candidate
to bride his way to the seat of usurper by
billeting villains upon the people.
The great fraud of 1867, by which, upon
a false count of the electoral votes of two
states, the candidate defeated at the polls
was declared to be the president, and for the
first time in American history the will of
the people was set aside under a threat of
military violence, struck a deadly blow at
our system of representative government.
The democratic party, to preserve the coun-
try from the horrors of civil war, submitted
firm trio I'll holt
that the people would punish this crime in
1880. This duty shrinks and warps every
other. 1t imposes a more sacred duty upon
the people of the Union than ever was adj
dressed to the cOnscienceS of a nation of
freemen.
The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not
again to be q candidate for that exalted
position to which he was elected by a ma
jority of his cOuntrymen, and from which
he was excluded by the leaders of the re-
publican party, is received by the democrats
of the United States with deep sensibility,
and they declare their confidence in his
wisdom, patriotism and integrity, unshak-
en- by the assaults of the common enemy
They further assure him that he is followed
into the retirement he has chosen for him
self by the sympathy and respect OF his fell
lslow-citizenS, who regard him one who,
by eleVating the standard of the public mo-
rality and adjoining the public service, mer-
its the lasting gratitude of his country and
his party.
Free ships and a living chance for Ameri-
can commerce upon the seas and upon the
land.
No discrimination In favor of transporta-
ton lines, corporations or monopolfes.
Amendments to the Burlingame treaty; no
more Chinese emigration, except for travel,
education and foreign commerce, and there
in carefully guarded.
Public money and public credit for public
purposes solely, and public land for actual
settlers.
The democratic party is the friend of la
Dor and the labOring man, and pledges itself
to protect him alike against the cormorants
and the commune.
We congratulate the country upon the
honesty and thrift of a democratic congress
which has reduced the public expenditure
S4O,OOO,OO0 year, upon the continuation of
prosperity at home and the national stand
ing abroad, and above all, upon the promise
of such change in the administration OF
the government as shall insure q genuine
and lasting reform in every department of
the public service.