Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-10-06
To Young Voters.
SOME VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG
VOTERS ABOUT CASTING THEIR
FIRST VOTE.

cast their first vote this year. 1t Is
eminently desirable that they should
begin right. 1t would be unfortunate
if any of them through ignorance
should enroll themselves in the wrong
party. But which is the wrong party?
Shall they become republicans or dem-
ocrats? 1t will help earnest inquirers
to answer these questions if they will
read and compsre the platforms of the
two parties, made in national conven-
ton, since 1856. That is the right year
to start the examination, since il was in
1856 that the republican party, which
was born but little earlier, put forth
its first national platform. We CON-
mend this exercise to young voters for
an obviously good reason. Platforms are
to political bodies what confessions of
faith are 20 religious bodies. They are
so many relations of principles and
politics, of character and tendencies
Their respec. We national platforms
since 1856 enabl, any intelligent young
man-who desire to know what his
political duty is 10 The end that he may
perform ito pass upon the respective
claims of republicaniSm and democra-
cy.
Take the two platforms of 1S56-the
republican is in the interest of freedom,
the democratic in the interest of slav-
| cry. The former pronounces against
the extension of slavery into free terri
tory and in favor OF admitting Kansas
as a free state The latter maintains
that ''all efforts of the aboitionists or
others made to induce congress to
interfere with questions of slavery, or
to take incipient steps in relation there
to, are calculated to lead to the most
alarming and dangerous consequences :"
So IN 1860, the republican platform
holds that 'the new dogma that the
constitution of its own force carries
slavery into any or all of the territories
of the United States is a dangerous
political keresy, at variance with the
explicit provisions of that instrument
itself, and with contemporary exposition
and with legislative and judicial prece.
dent; is revolutionary in its tendency
and subversiYe of the peace and har-
mony of the country" Two democratic
national conventions were held that
year, 1860. But in the platforms of
both the plank was inserted: RE
solved. That the enactments of state
legislatures to defeat the faithful execu-
ton of the fugitive slave law are hostile
IN character, subversive of the constitu-
ton, and revolutionary in their effect.
In 1864 the platform adopted by the
republicans demanded that the govern
ment should prosecute the war for the
maintenance of the integrity of the
union with the utmost possible vigor
to the complete suppression of the
rebellion, in full reliance upon the self
sacrificing patriotism, the heroic galor
and the undying devotion of the Amer
I lean people to the country and its free
institutions" The platform of the
democrats of 1864 contained the notori-
our plank pronouncing the efforts of
our boys in blue in behalf of the union
failure This is the plank:
That this convention does explicitly
declare, as the sense of the American
people, that after four years of failure
to restore the union by the experiment
of war, during which. under the pre-
tense of a military necessity of war
power higher than the constitution, the
constitution itself has been disregarded
in every part. and public liberty and
private right alike trodden down, and
the material prosperity OF the country
essentially impaired. justice, humanity,
liberty and the public welfare demand
that immediate efforts be made for a
cessation of hostilities with a view to
the ultimate convention of the states, or
other peaceful means, TO the end that
at the earliest practicable moment
peace may be restored on the basis Of
IL federal union of the states.''
Ia 1865 the republican platform
denounced ali forms of reputation las
national crime adding: And the
national honor require, the payment Of
the public Indebtedness in the uttermost
good faith to all creditors at home and
abroad, not only according to the letter
but the spirit of the laws under which
it was contracted" The financial
plank Of the democratic platform of
that year was brazen proposition to
swiadle the public creditors-in case
Uncle Sam could do so and keep within
the letter of the law. Where the
obligations of the government" this is
the plank-"do not expressly state upon
their face or the law under which they
were issued does not provide that they