PENNSYLVANIA. 



617 



casts an illegal vote, our Government will not be safe, 

 and whoever deprives a citizen of his right to vote, or 

 of the legal effect of his vote, is a traitor to our 

 Government. 



(7.) An honest count of all votes legally cast, and 

 an honest return of whoever is elected, free from all 

 attempts to defraud the people of their choice through 

 technicalities or by an arbitrary rejection of their 

 votes. 



6. We extend to the Republicans of Mairc our con- 

 gratulations over the peaceful and successful resistance 

 to an effort to defraud the people of that State of the 

 right to choose their own representatives, and to the 

 attempt to steal the government of that State. Our 

 Republican form of government will be a signal failure 

 when any political party can succeed in defying the 

 public will as shown by the people at the ballot- 

 box. 



7. We deeply regret the growing tendency to throw 

 elections aside on mere technicalities and informalities. 

 The right of the people to choose their public ser- 

 vants is too sacred to be subverted upon any pretext 

 that the returns of election are deficient in some 

 trivial matters of form. 



8. We thank our Senators and Representatives at 

 Washington, in the last Congress and in this, for their 

 firm adhesion to Republican principles and policy, and 

 for their opposition to Democratic schemes to renew 

 the obsolete doctrine of State rights, and to cripple the 

 Government by withholding needed appropriations in 

 order to coerce legislation repealing all national laws 

 that protect the purity of the ballot-box. 



Resolved, That the chairman of the Republican 

 State Committee is hereby instructed and required to 

 carefully examine whether any person to-day placed 

 on the electoral ticket be legally disqualified, from 

 any cause, from serving as an elector ; and, in case 

 any such legal disability be found, the State Com- 

 mittee shall substitute another name from the same 

 Congressional district. 



The list of delegates and of candidates for 

 electors was accepted as reported by the com- 

 mittee, and the membership of the State Cen- 

 tral Committee was agreed to. The only State 

 offices to be filled were those of Judge of the 

 Supreme Court and Auditor-General. For the 

 former, Henry Green, of Northampton County, 

 was nominated ; and for the latter, John A. 

 Lennon, of Blair County. 



The Democratic Convention was held at 

 Harrisburg, on the 28th and 29th of April. 

 There had been symptoms of division among 

 the leaders of the party on the question of 

 maintaining what is known as the "unit rule." 

 Senator Wallace was at the head of those in 

 favor of maintaining the rule, while Speaker 

 Randall, of the national House of Representa- 

 tives, led those who favored its abrogation. 

 The latter was also understood to be in favor 

 of the nomination of Samuel J. Tilden as the 

 candidate for President, and the former to be 

 opposed to it. On the meeting of the Conven- 

 tion there were contesting delegations from 

 Philadelphia and from Alleghany County. A 

 conference of the leaders took place, and it 

 was agreed to refer all matters of differences 

 to a special committee, to which all contests 

 should also be referred without debate. The 

 report of the committee threw out the Alle- 

 ghany contest and admitted both delegations 

 from Philadelphia, giving to each delegate half 

 a vote. It also agreed upon an equal division 

 of the delegates to the National Convention 



and the members of the State Central Com- 

 mittee for the Philadelphia districts. This plan 

 for compromise and harmony was accepted, 

 and the Convention proceeded to appoint dele- 

 gates to the National Convention, and to nomi- 

 nate candidates for electors. The Committee 

 on Resolutions reported the following : 



Resolved, That we, the Democratic party of Penn- 

 sylvania, in convention assembled, renew our vows 

 of fidelity to the fundamental principles proclaimed 

 and practiced by the illustrious men who settled our 

 free institutions and founded the Democratic party to 

 protect and preserve them. 



Resolved, That the just powers of the Federal Union, 

 the rights of States, and the liberties of the people, are 

 vital parts of one harmonious system, and to save 

 each part in its whole constitutional vigor is to .save 

 the lite of the nation. 



Resolved, That the Democratic party maintains, as 

 it ever has maintained, that the military are and ought 

 to be in all things subordinate to civil authorities. It 

 denies, as it has denied, the right of the Federal Ad- 

 ministration to keep on foot, at the general expense, a 

 standing army to invade the States for political pur- 

 poses, without regard to constitutional restrictions, to 

 control the people at the polls, to protect and encour- 

 age fraudulent counts of votes, or to inaugurate candi- 

 dates rejected by the majority. 



Resolved, That the right to a free ballot is a right 

 preservative of all rights, the only means of peacefully 

 redressing grievances and reforming abuses. The pres- 

 ence at the polls of a regular military force, and of a 

 host claiming power to arrest and imprison citizens 

 without warrant or a hearing, destroys all freedom 

 of elections, and ruptures the very foundation of self- 

 government. We call upon all good citizens to aid us 

 in preserving our institutions from destruction by 

 these imperial methods of supervising the right of suf- 

 frage and coercing the popular will in keeping the way 

 to the ballot-box open and free, as it was to our fa- 

 thers, in removing the army to a safe distance from 

 the people assembled to express their sovereign pleas- 

 ure at the polls, and insuring obedience to their will 

 when legally expressed by their votes. 



Resolved, That Rutherford B. Hayes, having been 

 placed in power against the well-known and legally- 

 expressed will of the people, is the representative of a 

 conspiracy only, and his claim of right to surround 

 the ballot-boxes with troops and deputy-marshals to 

 intimidate and obstruct electo?-s, and his unprecedented 

 use of the veto to maintain this, is an insult and men- 

 ace to the country. 



Resolved, That the Democratic party, as of old, fa- 

 vors a constitutional currency of gold and silver, and 

 of paper convertible into coin. 



Resolved, That we are opposed to a system of sub- 

 sidies by the General Government, under which dur- 

 ing the period of Republican ascendancy, political 

 rings and corporations profited at the people's ex- 

 pense, and to any appropriations of public moneys or 

 public credit to any object but public service. The 

 reforms and economies enforced by the Democratic 

 party since its advent to power in Congress have saved 

 to the people many millions of dollars, and we believe 

 that a like result would follow its restoration to power 

 in the State of Pennsylvania. 



Resolved, That the Democratic partv, being the nat- 

 ural friend of the workingman, and having through- 

 out its history stood between him and oppression, re- 

 news its expression of sympathy with labor and its 

 promise of protection to its rights. 



Resolved, That we look with alarm and apprehen- 

 sion upon the pretensions of the great transportation 

 companies to be above the fundamental laws of this 

 Commonwealth, which governs all else within our bor- 

 ders, and. until they accept the Constitution of 1873 

 in good raith, they should remain objects of the ut- 

 most vigilance and jealousy of both the Legislature 

 and the people. 



