Commerce, already so great, should be steadily encouraged.

2. The constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and not a mere contract; out of confederate states it made a sovereign nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others are denied to states; but the boundary between the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the national and not by the state tribunals.

3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several states, but it is the duty of the national government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional ability. The intelligence of the nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence in the several states; and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the genius of any one state, but by the average genius of all.

4. The constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion; but it is idle to hope that the nation can be protected against the influences of sectarianism while each state is exposed to its domination. We, therefore, recommend that the constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon the legislature of each state, to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools.

That the purity and patriotism which characterized the early career of Rutherford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which guided the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to select him for a presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as chief executive, and that history will accord to his administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his interposition between the people and proposed partisan laws.

8. We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and patronage. That to obtain possession of the national and state governments, and the control of place and position, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of suffrage; have devised fraudulent certifications and returns; have labored to unseat lawfully-elected members of Congress, to secure, at all hazards, the vote of a majority of the states in the House of Representatives; have endeavored to occupy, by force and fraud the places of trust given to others by the people of Maine, and rescued by the courageous action of Maine's patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, at5. We reaffirm the belief, avowed in tached partisan legislation to appropria1876, that the duties levied for the pur- tion bills, upon whose passage the very pose of revenue should so discriminate as movements of government depend; have to favor American labor; that no further crushed the rights of the individual; have grant of the public domain should be made advocated the principle and sought the to any railway or other corporation; that favor of rebellion against the nation, and slavery having perished in the states, its have endeavored to obliterate the sacred twin barbarity-polygamy-must die in memories of the war, and to overcome its the territories; that everywhere the pro- inestimably valuable results of nationality, tection accorded to citizens of American personal freedom, and individual equality. birth must be secured to citizens by Ameri- Equal, steady, and complete enforcement can adoption. That we esteem it the duty of the laws, and protection of all our citizens of Congress to develop and improve our in the enjoyment of all privileges and imwater-courses and harbors, but insist that munities guaranteed by the constitution, further subsidies to private persons or cor- are the first duties of the nation. The danporations must cease. That the obliga-ger of a solid south can only be aveted by tions of the republic to the men who preserved its integrity in the day of battle are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen years since their final victory-to do them perpetual honor is, and shall forever be, the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American people.

6. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Congress of the United States and its treaty-making powers, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise of that power to restrain and limit that immigration by the enactment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as will produce that result.

the faithful performance of every promise which the nation made to the citizen. The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured, and genuine prosperity established throughout the south. Whatever promises the nation makes, the nation must perform; and the nation can not with safety relegate this duty to the states. The solid south must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find free expression; and to this end honest voters must be protected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican party to use all legitimate means to restore all the states of this Union to the most perfect harmony

which may be practicable; and we submit to the practical. sensible people of the United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country, at this time to surrender the administration of the national government to a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy, under which we are so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there is now order, confidence, and hope.

9. The Republican party, adhering to a principle affirmed by its last national convention, of respect for the constitutional rule covering appointments to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical, and complete. To this end it demands the co-operation of the legislative with the executive department of the government, and that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service; and that the power of removal for cause, with due responsibility for the good conduct of subordinates, shall accompany the power of appointment.

1880.-National (Greenback) Platform, Chicago, Illinois, June 9.

prises and agriculture, precarious and intermittent employment for the laborer, industrial war, increasing pauperism and crime, and the consequent intimidation and disfranchisement of the producer, and a rapid declension into corporate feudalism. Therefore, we declare

First. That the right to make and issue money is a sovereign power, to be maintained by the people for their common benefit. The delegation of this right to corporations is a surrender of the central attribute of sovereignty, void of constitutional sanction, and conferring upon a subordinate and irresponsible power an absolute dominion over industry and commerce. All money, whether metallic or paper, should be issued, and its volume controlled, by the government, and not by or through banking corporations; and, when so issued, should be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private.

Second. That the bonds of the United States should not be refunded, but paid as rapidly as practicable, according to contract. To enable the government to meet these obligations, legal-tender currency should be substituted for the notes of the national banks, the national banking system abolished, and the unlimited coinage of silver, as well as gold, established by law.

Fourth. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap labor being simply slavery, the importation and presence of Chinese serfs necessarily tends to brutalize and degrade American labor; therefore, immediate steps should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame treaty.

The civil government should guarantee Third. That labor should be so prothe divine right of every laborer to the re-tected by national and state authority as to sults of his toil, thus enabling the pro- equalize its burdens and insure a just disducers of wealth to provide themselves tribution of its results. The eight hour with the means for physical comfort, and law of Congress should be enforced, the facilities for mental, social, and moral cul- sanitary condition of industrial establishture; and we condemn, as unworthy of our ments placed under the rigid control, the civilization, the barbarism which imposes competition of contract convict labor abolupon wealth-producers a state of drudgery ished, a bureau of labor statistics estabas the price of a bare animal existence. lished, factories, mines, and workshops inNotwithstanding the enormous increase of spected, the employment of children under productive power by the universal intro- fourteen years of age forbidden, and wages duction of labor-saving machinery and the paid in cash. discovery of new agents for the increase of wealth, the task of the laborer is scarcely lightened, the hours of toil are but little shortened, and few producers are lifted from poverty into comfort and pecuniary independence. The associated monopolies, the international syndicates, and other income classes demand dear money, cheap labor, and a strong government, and, hence, a weak people. Corporate control of the volume of money has been the means of dividing society into hostile classes, of an unjust distribution of the products of labor, and of building up monopolies of associated capital, endowed with power to confiscate private property. It has kept money scarce; and the scarcity of money enforces debt-trade, and public and corporate loans; debt engenders usury, and usury ends in the bankruptcy of the borrower. Other results are deranged markets, uncertainty in manufacturing enter

Fifth. Railroad land grants forfeited by reason of non-fulfillment of contract should be immediately reclaimed by the government, and, henceforth, the public domain reserved exclusively as homes for actual settlers.

Sixth. It is the duty of Congress to regulate inter-state commerce. All lines of communication and transportation should be brought under such legislative control as shall secure moderate, fair, and uniform rates for passenger and freight traffic.

Seventh. We denounce as destructive to property and dangerous to liberty the action of the old parties in fostering and su☛

taining gigantic land, railroad, and money |ing platform of national reforms and meacorporations, and monopolies invested with sures: and exercising powers belonging to the government, and yet not responsible to it for the manner of their exercise.

The prohibition Reform party of the Fourth. To the state it is equally an United States, organized, in the name of enemy--legislative inquiries, judicial investhe people, to revive, enforce, and perpetu- tigations, and official reports of all penal, ate in the government the doctrines of the reformatory, and dependent institutions Declaration of Independence, submit, for showing that the manufacture and sale of the suffrage of all good citizens, the follow-such beverages is the promoting cause of

intemperance, crime, and pauperism, and of demands upon public and private charity, imposing the larger part of taxation, paralyzing thrift, industry, manufactures, and commercial life, which, but for it, would be unnecessary; disturbing the peace of streets and highways; filling prisons and poor-houses; corrupting politics, legislation, and the execution of the laws; shortening lives; diminishing health, industry, and productive power in manufactures and art; and is manifestly unjust as well as injurious to the community upon which it is imposed, and is contrary to all just views of civil liberty, as well as a violation of the fundamental maxim of our common law, to use your own property or liberty so as not to injure others.

Fifth. It is neither right nor politic for the state to afford legal protection to any traffic or any system which tends to waste the resources, to corrupt the social habits, and to destroy the health and lives of the people; that the importation, manufacture, and sale of intoxicating beverages is proven to be inimical to the true interests of the individual home, community, and state, and destructive to the order and welfare of society, and ought, therefore, to be classed among crimes to be prohibited.

Sixth. In this time of profound peace at home and abroad, the entire separation of the general government from the drinktraffic, and its prohibition in the District of Columbia, territories, and in all places and ways over which, under the constitution, Congress has control and power, is a political issue of the first importance to the peace and prosperity of the nation. There can be no stable peace and protection to personal liberty, life, or property, until secured by national or state constitutional provisions, enforced by adequate laws.

volving an annual waste to the nation of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and the sacrifice of one hundred thousand lives, have, under its legislation, grown up and been fostered as a legitimate source of revenue; that during its history, six territories have been organized and five states been admitted into the Union, with constitutions provided and approved by Congress, but the prohibition of this debasing and destructive traffic has not been provided, nor even the people given, at the time of admission, power to forbid it in any one of them. Its history further shows, that not in a single instance has an original prohibitory law been passed by any state that was controlled by it, while in four states, so governed, the laws found on its advent to power have been repealed. At its national convention in 1872, it declared, as part of its party faith, that "it disapproves of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils, by interference with rights not surrendered by the people to either the state or national government," which, the author of this plank says, was adopted by the platform committee with the full and implicit understanding that its purpose was the discountenancing of all so-called temperance, prohibitory, and Sunday laws.

Ninth. We arraign, also, the Democratic party as unfaithful and unworthy of reliance on this question; for, although not clothed with power, but occupying the relation of an opposition party during twenty years past, strong in numbers and organization, it has allied itself with liquor-traffickers, and become, in all the states of the Union, their special political defenders, and in its national convention in 1876, as an article of its political faith, declared against prohibition and just laws in restraint of the trade in drink, by saying it was opposed to what it was pleased to call "all sumptuary laws." The National party has been dumb on this question.

Tenth. Drink-traffickers, having the history and experience of all ages, climes, and conditions of men, declaring their business destructive of all good-finding no support in the Bible, morals, or reason-appeal to misapplied law for their justification, and intrench themselves behind the evil elements of political party for defense, party tactics and party inertia become battling forces, protecting this evil.

Seventh. All legitimate industries require deliverance from the taxation and loss which the liquor traffic imposes upon them; and financial or other legislation could not accomplish so much to increase production and cause a demand for labor, and, as a result, for the comforts of living, as the suppression of this traffic would bring to thousands of homes as one of its blessings. Eighth. The administration of the government and the execution of the laws are through political parties; and we arraign the Republican party, which has been in continuous power in the nation for twenty years, as being false to duty, as false to loudly-proclaimed principles of equal jus- Eleventh. In view of the foregoing facts tice to all and special favors to none, and and history, we cordially invite all voters, of protection to the weak and dependent, without regard to former party affiliations, insensible to the mischief which the trade to unite with us in the use of the ballot for in liquor has constantly inflicted upon in- the abolition of the drinking system, under dustry, trade, commerce, and the social the authority of our national and state happiness of the people; that 5,652 dis- governments. We also demand, as a right, tilleries, 3,830 breweries, and 175,266 places that women, having the privileges of citifor the sale of these poisonous liquors, in-zens in other respects, be clothed, with the

ballot for their protection, and as a rightful | ever impossible for a defeated candidate to means for the proper settlement of the liquor question.

Twelfth. To remove the apprehension of some who allege that a loss of public revenue would follow the suppression of the direct trade, we confidently point to the experience of governments abroad and at home, which shows that thrift and revenue from the consumption of legitimate manufactures and commerce have so largely followed the abolition of drink as to fully supply all loss of liquor taxes.

Thirteenth. We recognize the good providence of Almighty God, who has preserved and prospered us as a nation; and, asking for His Spirit to guide us to ultimate success, we all look for it, relying upon His omnipotent arm.

1880.-Democratic Platform,

Cincinnati, Ohio, June 22.

The Democrats of the United States, in convention assembled, declare:

First. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teachings and examples of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots, and embodied in the platform of the last national convention of the party.

bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the people.

Sixth. The great fraud of 1876-7, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes 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 a deadly blow at our system of representative government. The Democratic party, to preserve the country from the horrors of a civil war, submitted for the time, in the firm and patriotic belief that the people would punish the crime in 1880. This issue precedes and dwarfs every other. It imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than ever addressed the consciences of a nation of freemen.

Seventh. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden, not again to be a 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 of the United States with deep sensibility; and they declare their confidence in his wisdom, patriotism, and integrity unshaken by the assaults of the common enemy; and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, who reSecond. Opposition to centralization, gard him as one who, by elevating the and to that dangerous spirit of encroach-standard of the public morality, and adornment which tends to consolidate the powers ing and purifying the public service, merits of all the departments in one, and thus to the lasting gratitude of his country and create, whatever the form of government, his party. a real despotism; no sumptuary laws; separation of the church and state for the good of each; common schools fostered and protected.

Third. Home rule; honest money, consisting of gold and silver, and paper, convertible into coin on demand; the strict maintenance of the public faith, state and national; and a tariff for revenue only; the subordination of the military to the civil power; and a general and thorough reform of the civil service.

Fourth. The right to a free ballot is a right preservative of all rights; and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States.

Eighth. Free ships, and a living chance for American commerce upon the seas; and on the land, no discrimination in favor of transportation lines, corporations, or monopolies.

Ninth. Amendments of the Burlingame treaty; no more Chinese immigration, except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and, therein, carefully guarded.

Tenth. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, and public land for actual settlers.

Eleventh. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorants and the commune.

Fifth. The existing administration is the Twelfth. We congratulate the country representative of conspiracy only; and its upon the honesty and thrift of a Democlaim of right to surround the ballot-boxes cratic Congress, which has reduced the with troops and deputy marshals, to in- public expenditure $10,000,000 a year; timidate and obstruct the elections, and upon the continuation of prosperity at the unprecedented use of the veto to main-home and the national honor abroad; and, tain its corrupt and despotic power, insults above all, upon the promise of such a the people and imperils their institutions. change in the administration of the governWe execrate the course of this administra- ment as shall insure a genuine and lasting tion in making places in the civil service a reform in every department of the public reward for political crime; and demand a service. reform, by statute, which shall make it for