The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1880-06-16
Tie Republican National Plat
form A Weak and PrelentiOus

II q ~
publicansat Chicago is about the
worst specimen Of that kind Of work
presented to the country for a long
time. Its preamble is false almost
throughout. II claims for the Re-
publican party, alone, the credit Of
suppressiDg the rebellion, though
that great work was done by the
North practically as a whole, and
could never have been accomplished
without the death Of thousands who
never were in afiiliation with that
party, and the aid Of other thousands
who, still living, opposeit. 1t claims
the honor Of having reconstructed
the States formerly in rebellion,
while il is matter Of history that
life has only been made tolerable
there by wrenching the government
Of those very States from the men
into whose hands the Republican
Administration put it, and by prun-
ing away the worst features of the
reconstruction measures, despite Re-
public anresistance.
AS TO The abolition of slavery, its
claim 10 have accomplished that, or
anything properly arising out of it,
falls with its claim to have alone
suppressed the rebellion. The claim
that the Republican party raised the
paper currency to par with gold and
restored the credit Of the Republic is
ridiculous, in the face Of the fact that
it was Republican Congress which
retired or contracted the paper cur.
rency of the country, (Greenbacks if
you please,) in the interest of the
bondholder, and were only brought
to stop by Democratic Congress,
which declared there should be no
further retirement of greenbacks,
but that it should remain at a GER
tain number of millions Of dollars.
1t was Republican Congress which
demonetized silver, until it was only
a legal tender for debts to the amount
Of five dollars; and it was Demo
cratic Congress that remonetized sill
yer, making it a full legal tender for
all debts. 1t was Republican
Congress that made an effort,
and came near succeeding, Of max
ing a single standard, and that gold,
treating our paper and silver as
worthless. And to a Democratic
Congress is the thanks of the people
due, that the greenback dollar and
| The silver dollar are a full legal ten,
der for ali debts, at this day. The
credit Of THO nation has been I'M
proved despite the acts Of the Re
publicans, and largely through the
wise legislation # P B &Sass4;
from the depression largely caused
by the financial Legislation of the
Republican party, is indeed remark
able, that they should have the i'm
pudence to place to their credit, when
a Democratic Congress has not per-
United Republican financial mistakes
tobe fatal. The claim that the Re-
publican party has carried the fnan-
clal burden patriotic people has
Willingly borne by which the ex
penses of the Government have been
met and the pensions of the soldiers
been paid while the public debt has
been reduced, is even more ridicu-
lous than the claim that it alone SUP.
pressed the rebellion, since the peo-
pie of the South as well as the North
have assisted in bearing this burden,
| Yet it is upon this record" say the
resolutions, that "the Republican
party asks for the continued conf.
dence and support of the people,
We do not believe it will get them,
and if it does it ought to be indicted
for obtaining them under false pre-.
fences.
The resolutions are as irrelevant
and insincero as the preamble, The
first affirms what nobody outside the
party making it denies, and declares
in favor of cherishing the peace re-
gained, though more than half the
delegates of this convention have but
recently advocated the application of
warlike methods to the government
of nearly half the country in time of
peace.
The second resolution manages to
stale the undisnrtod. foot +h,t a, :