Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-07-08
The Platform.

The republican party, in national con-
ventiOn assembled at the end OF twenty
years since the federal government was
first committed to its charge, submit to the
people of the United States this brief re-
port of its administration It suppressed
a rebellion which had armed nearly
million men to subvert the national au-
tnority. 1t reconstructed the union OF the
states with freedom instead of slavery as its
cornerstone. 1t transformed four million
human beings from the likeness of things
to the rank Of citizens. It relieved con-
gress from the Infamous work of hunting
fugitive aves and charged it to see that
slavery does not exist. It has raised the
value of our paper currency from thirty
eight per cent to the par of gold. It has
restored upon solid basis tie payment in
coin of all the national obligations and has
given US currency absolutely good and
equal in every part of our extended country
1t has lif ed the credit of our nation from
the point where per cent. bonds sold at 80
to that where 4 per cent. bonds are eagerly
sought at a premium. Under Its admins
tration, railways have increased from thir y
one thousand miles in 1860 TO m )re than
eighty thousand in 1879. Our foreign trade
has increased from $700C0 900 to 81 ,5O0,-
t00,00J in the same time, and our exports,
which were $50, COO, 900 less than our i'm
ports in 1860, were $264, 0O, 600 more than
our imports in 1879. Without resortlng to
loans, it has, since the war closed, betrayed
the expenses of the government, besides
paying the sccruing interest on the public
debt and disbursed annually more than
I30,0O0,CC0 for soldiers pensions, It has
paid 1888, 100000 of the public debt. and,
by refunding the balance at lower rates,
has reduced the annual interest charge
from nearly $l51, 10000 to S99 COZ, 900.
All the industries Of the country have re-
vived. Labor is in demand. Wages have
increased. and throughout the entire coun-
try there is evi1ence of coming prosperity
greater than we have ever enjoyed. Upon
this record the republican party asks for
the continued confidence and support Of
the people, and this convention submits for
their approval the following statement of
the principles and purposes which will
continue to guide and inspire its efforts:
We affirm that the work of the last
twenty-one years has been such as to COM
mend itself to the favor of the nation, and
that the fruits of the costly victories which
we have achieved through immense diff
culties should be preserved; that the peace
regained should be cherished; that the dis
severed Union, now happily restored :,
should be perpetrated, and that the liber-
ties secured to this generation should be
transmitted undiminished to future gene
rations; that the order established and
that the pensions promised should be paid;
that the debt SO much reduced should be
extinguished by the full p eyment of every
dollar thereof; that the reviving industries
should be further promoted, and that the
commerce, already so great, should be
steadily encouraged,
2. The constitution of the United States
! is a supreme law and not O mere contract.
| Out of confederate states il made g SOW
eregn nation. Some powers are denied TO
the nation, while others are denied to the
states; but the boundary between the
powers delegated and those reserved is to
be determined by the national and not the
state tribunals.
g. The work of popular education is one
| left TO the care of the several stat g, but il
is the duty of the national government tC
aid that work to the extent of its constitu-
tional ability. The intelligence of the ma
ton is but the aggregate intelligence in the
several states, and the destiny of the nation