Daily Kennebec journal., 1880-06-29
The Democratic Platform.

The democrats of the United States in con-
vention assembled declare
l. We pledge ourselves anew to the con-
stitutional doctrines and traditions of the
democratic party, az illustrated by the teach
ing and example of long line of democratic
statesmen and patriots, and embodied In the
platform of the last national convention Of
the party.
ii. Opposition to centralizationism and
that dangerous spirit of encroachment which
tends TO consolidate the powers of all depart
ments in one, and thus to create, whatever
be the form Of government a real despotism !;
no sumptuary laws; separation of church
and State for the good Of each; common
schools fostered and protected.
III. Home rule, honest money, consisting
of gold and silver AMI paper convertible into
coin on demand; the strict maintenance of
the public faith, State and National, and a
tariff for revenue only.
w. The subOrdination of the military to
the civil power, and general and thorough
reform of the civil service.
v. The right to free ballot 10 the right
preservative Of all rights, and must and shall
be maintained in every part of the United
States.
vi. The existing administration is the
claim of the right to surround the ballot
boxes with troops and deputy marshals to in
timidate and obstruct the electors, and the
unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its
corrupt and despotic power, insult the people
and imperil their institutions.
VII. Tine great fraud of lS76-77 by which
upon false count of the electoral vote of
two States, the candidate defeated at the
polls was declared to be President, and for
the first time in American history the will of
the people was set aside under a threat of
military violence, struck deadly blow At
our system Of representative government.
The democratic party, to prevent the country
| from the horrors of civil war, submitted
for the time in the firm and patriotic faith
that the people would punish this crime in
1880. This issue precedes and dwarfs every
other. 1t imposes more sacred duty upon
| the people of the Union than ever addressed
| the conscience of nation of freedmen.
VIII. We execrate the course of this ad-
ministration in making places in the civil
| service reward for political crime, and de-
mand a reform by statute which shall make
it forever impossible for the defeated candidate
| to bribe his way to the seat of q usurper by
billeting villains upon the people.
Ix. The resolution Of Samuel J. Tilden
not again to be q candidate for the exalted
place to which he was elected by a majority
Of his countrymen, and from which he was
excluded by the leaders of the republican
party, is received by the democrats with sen-
sibility, and they declare their confidence in
his wisdom, patriotism and integrity unshak-
en- by the assaults of the common enemy.
and they farthur assure him that he is fol.
lowed into the retirement he has chosen for
himself by the sympathy and respect Of his
en1 rse ~,
by elevating the standard Of public morality
and adorning and purifying the public service
merits the lasting gratitude Of his country
and his party.
X. Free ships and q living chance for
Americans on the seas and on the land; no
discrimination in favor of transportation lines,
corporations or monopolies.
xI. The anne ndment of the Burlingame
teaty: no more Chinese immigration, ex-
cepe for travel, education and foreign COM
merce. and therein carefully guarded
XII. Public money and public credit for
public purposes solely. and public land for
actual settlers.
XIII. The democratic party is the friend
Of labor and the laboring man, and pledges
iteelf 10 protect him alike against the eormo-
rants and the commune.
XIV. We congratulate the country upon
the honesty an1a thriftof democratic congress-
which has reduced the public expenditures
forty millions Of dollars year upon the
continuation Of prosperity 1t home and the
national honor abroad. and above all upon
the promise Of such . change in the admins
tration Of the govefnmeut - shall insure ne
genuine and lasting reform in every depart
ment of the public service.
The platform Nas adopeed unanimously.