Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-06-28
For President of the United States,
BENJAMIN HARRISON, of Indiana
For viee-President of the United States,
LEVI P. MORTON, of New York.
THE PLATFORM.

PLEDGING THE PARTY TO THE CONTINU-
ANCE OF ITS POLICY OF PROTECTION
TO AMERICA AND HER INTERESTS.
The Republicans of the United States,
assembled by their delegates in National
Convention, pause on the threshold of
their proceedings to honor the memory of
their first great leade the immortal cham
piOn of liberty and the rights of the peo-
ple-Abraham Lincoln to cover also
with wreaths of imperishable remem-
trance and gratitude the heroic names of
our later leaders who have more recently
been called away from our councils
Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Logan, COnkling.
Nav their memories be faithfully cher
ished. We also recall with our greetings
and with our prayer for his recovery the
name of one of our living heroes whose
memory will be treasured in the history
both of Republicans and of the Republic
the name of that noble soldier and ia
vorite child of victory, Philip H. Sheridan.
In the spirit of those great leaders, and
of our own devotion to human liberty,
and with that hostility to all forms of des-
potism and oppression which is the fun
| y
we send fraternal cOngratulatiOn to our
fellow Americans of Brazil, upon their
great act of emancipation, which compile
ted the abolition of slavery throughout
the two American continents. We earn
estly hope that we may soon congratulate
our fellow-citiZenS of Irish birth upon the
peaceful recovery of home rule for Ire
land.
We reaffirm our answering devotion
to the National Constitution and to the
| indisSoluble union of the States, to the
autonomy reserved to the States under
the Constitution, to the personal rights
and liberties of citizens in all the States
and Territories of the Union, and eSpeci-
ally to the supreme and sovereign right
of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, ma
tive or foreign born, white or black, to
cast one free ballot in public elections,
and to have that ballot duly counted. We
hold the free and honest popular ballot,
and the just and equal representation of
all the people, to be the foundation of our
republican government, and demand eff
fective legislation to secure the integrity
and purity of elections, which are the
fountains of all public authority. We
charge that the present Administration
and the Democratic majority in Congress
the ballot by criminal notification of
the Constitution and laws of the United
States.
We are uncOmpromiSingly in favor of
the American system of protection; we
protest against its destruction as propoS-
ed by the President and his party. They
serve the interests of Europe; we will sup
port the interests of America We accept
the issue, and confidently appeal to the
people for their judgment. The protect
i've system must be maintained. Its aban-
donment has always been followed by gen.
eral disaster to all interests except those
] of the usurer and the Sheriff. We de-
nounce the Mills bill as destructive to the
general business, the labor and the farm
ing interests of the country, and we heart
lily indOrse the consistent and the patriot
ic action of the Republican Representa-
tiveS in Congress in opposing its passage.
We condemn the proposition of the
Democratic party to place wool on the
! free list, and we insist that the duties
thereon shall be adjusted and maintained
so as to furnish full and adequate protec-
ton to that industry.
| The Republican party would effect all
needed reduction of the National revenue
by repeating the taxes upon tobacco,
which are an annoyance and burden to
agriculture, and the tax upon spirits used
in the arts and for mechanical purposes; !;
and by such revision of the tariff laws as
will tend to check imports of such articles
| as are produced by our people, the pro-
ductiol of which gives employment to our
! labor, and releases from import duties
| those articles of foreign production lex
cept luxurieSl, the Like OF which can not
be produced at home. If there shall still
remain larger revenue than is requisite
| for the wants of the government, we favor
the entire repeal of internal taxes rather
than the surrender of any part Of the pro-
tective system, at the Joint behest of the
whisky trusts and the agents of foreign
manufacturers.
We declare our hostility to the intro
ductiOn into this country of foreign con-
| tract labor, and of Chinese labor, alien to
| our civilization and our Constitution, and
we demand the rigid enforcement of the
existing laws against, and favor such i'm
| mediate legislation as will exclude such
| labor from our shores.
We declare our opposition to all cOmbi-
nations of capital, organized III trusts or
otherwise, to control arbitrarily the con-
ditiOn of trade among our citizens, and
we recommend to Congress, and the State
Legislatures in their respective jurisdic-
tions, such legislation as will prevent the
execution of all schemes to Cypress the
people by undue charges on their supplies,
| or by unjust rates for the transportation
of their products to market. We approve
the legislation by Congress to prevent
alike unjust burdens and unfair diScrim-
nations between the States.
We feaffirm the policy of apprOpriating
the public lands of the United States to
be hOmesteads for American citizens and
settlers, not aliens, which the Republican
party established in 1852, against the per-
sistent opposition of the Democrats in
Congress, and which has brought our
great Western domain into such magnifi-
cent development.
The restoration of unearned railroad
land grants to the public domain for the
use of actual settlers which was begun
under the administration of President
Arthur should be continued. We deny
that the Democratic party has ever re-
stored one acre to the people, but declare
that by the joint action of Republicans
and Democrats about fifty millions of
acres OF unearned lands originally grant
ed for the construction of railroads have
been restored to the public domain in pur-
Suance of the conditions inserted by the
Republican party in the original grants.
We charge the Democratic administra-
ton with failure to execute the laws Sc
curing to settlers titles to their home
steads, and with using appropriations
made for that purpose TO harass innocent
settlers with spies and prosecutions un-
der the false pretense of exposing frauds |
and yindicating the law.
The government by Congress of the
Territories is based upon necessity only, |
to the end that they may become States |
IN the Union; therefore, whenever the |
condition of population, material resouf- |
ces, public intelligence, and morality are
such as to insure a stable local govern
ment therein, the people of such Terrific
ries should be permitted, as right inhe. |
rent in them, to form for themselves Con-
stitutions and State governments, and be |
admitted into the Union. Pending the
preparation for statehood, all officers
thereof should be selected from fine bonn