The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-07-01
Democratic National Platform.

The following platform and resolutions were
adopted by the National Democratic Conven-
ton assembled at Cincinnati, June q, 1880:
The Democrats Of the United States in con-
vention assembled declare:
1. We pledge ourselves anew to the Constitu-
tonal doctrines and traditions of the Demo-
cratic party as illustrated by the teaching and
example of o long line of Democratic statesmen
and patriots and embodied in the platform 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 create what
ever the form of government a real dispotism;
no sumptuary laws; separation of church and
state for the good of each; common schools fos-
tered and protected.
8. Home rule; honest money, consisting of
gold and silver and paper convertible into coin
on demand, and strict maintenance of the
public faith, State and National. and tariff of
revenue only.
6. The subordination of the military to the civil
power, and genuine and thoroughreform of the
civil service.
5. The right to free ballot is the right preser-
vative of all rights, and must and shall be MAIN
aimed in every part of the United States.
6. The existing administration Is the represent
ative of conspiracy only, and its claim of right
to surround the ballotrboxes with troops and
Deputy Marshals to intimidate and obstruct the
elections, and the unprecedented use of the veto
to maintain its corrupt and despotic powers, in
suit people and imperl their institutions.
z. We eexecrate the course of this administration
in making places in the civil service reward
for political crime, and demand a reform by
statute which shall make it forever impossible
for defeated candidate to bribe his way to the
seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the
people.
g. The great fraud of 1876 and 1877 by
which, upon false count of the electoral votes
of two States the candidate defeated at the
polls was declared to be President and for the
fret in fho uri1J of tbo
people was set aside under threat of military
violence, struck deadly blow at our system Of
representative government. The Democratic
party, to preserve the country from the horrors
of o civil war, submitted for the time, in the
firm and patriotic belief that the people would
punish this crime in 1880. This issue precedes
and dwarfs every other. 1t imposes more sa-
cred duty upon the people of the Union than
ever addressed the consciences of a nation of
freemen.
9. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not
again to be candidate for the exalted place to
which he WAS elected by majority of his coun-
trymen, and from which he was excluded by
the leaders of the Republican party, is received
by the Democrats of the United States with
deep sensibility, and they declare their conf
dence in his wisdom, patriotism and integrity,
unshaken by the assaults of the common
| enemy; and they further assure him that he is
| followed into the retirement he has chosen for
| himself by the sympathy and respect of his fel-
elevating the standards of the public morality,
and adorning and purifying the public service,
merits the lasting gratitude of his country and
his party. -
| 10. Free ships and a living chance for American
| commerce upon the seas and upon the land.
| No discrimination in favor Of transportation
| lines, corporations or monopoles.
II. Amendment of the Burlingame Treaty. Nc
more Chinese immigration, except for travel
| education and foreign commerce, and therein
carefully guarded.
IL. Public money and public credit for public
purposes solely, and public land for actual set
| tiers. as-
| 49, The Democratic party is thefriend oflabol
and the laboring friend Of labor and the labor.
ing man, and pledges itself to protect him alike
| against the cormorants and the Commune
IA. We congratulate the country upon the hon
esty and thrift of a Democratic Congress
which has reduced the public expenditure $40,
0O0, 900 a year; upon the continuation of pros
| perity at home, and the national honor abroad
and above all, upon the promise of such
change in the administration of the Govern
ment as shall insure us genuine and lasting
reform in every department of the publ
service.