TENNESSEE. 



679 



out authority of law ; that they were paid over to 

 railroad companies in violation of the conditions gov- 

 erning their issuance ; that the debt in law and in 

 equity is a railroad debt, which the railroads alone 

 should pay : therefore, with these views as to the na- 

 ture and validity of the debt, we oppose any measure 

 whatever looking to the payment ot the same in whole 

 or in any amount whatever, principal or interest. 



1. That neither the State of Tennessee nor its citi- 

 zens are bound in law or morals to pay the bonds is- 

 sued in aid of the railroads, amounting to $25,000,000, 

 and that such bonds arc no part of the State debt. 



2. That we are opposed to scaling the railroad bonds, 

 and to any other act recognizing them, because the 

 people of Tennessee do not owe them. 



3. That the railroad companies have persistently 

 disregarded the law under which the bonds were is- 

 sued, and have no grounds of equity to ask the people 

 to aid them, by taxation, to pay for the property and 

 franchises of corporations controlled for private bene- 

 fit and gain. 



4. That the State debt proper should be paid, but, 

 that there may be no misapprehension what the State 

 debt is, we adopt the description of it from the report 

 of S. W. Hatchett, the State Comptroller, made in 

 October, 1865, and substantially adhered to by his 

 successors, and which at present embraces the follow- 

 ing items, to wit : 



Capitol bonds $493,000 



Union Bank bonds 125,000 



Bank of Tennessee bonds 214,000 



Hermitage bonds 35,000 



Agricultural Bureau bonds 18,000 



Stock in turnpike bonds 728,000 



Stock in railroad bonds 412,000 



Total $2,025,000 



That in the work of sifting the false from the true, 

 and the illegal from the legal, the leaders of the Demo- 

 cratic and Republican parties have stood in the way, 

 and united or cooperated to deceive the people by one 

 funding act after another, the aim of which was to 

 wipe out and destroy or conceal the evidence of wrong 

 done, and finally to allure the votcr.s into approval of 

 the crimes of the funding schemers, at the ballot-box, 

 under the cry of a compromise of a debt that the State 

 does not owe. 



Resolved, That the members of the State Executive 

 Committee for the respective Congressional districts 

 be urged to call a Congressional Convention, not later 

 than "the 4th of July, to select Presidential electors, 

 and in default of such assembly and selection, the 

 members of the State Executive Committee for such 

 district shall be empowered to appoint such elector. 



The following preamble and resolution, sub- 

 sequently offered by a member, were also adopt- 

 ed by the Convention : 



Whereas, The antagonism of the Republican and 

 Democratic parties keeps alive the passions, prejudices, 

 and hatred of the past, renewing from year to year 

 the sectional idea of a North and South, ever condu- 

 cive to panic and disorder, to the great neglect of the 

 present distress and suffering of the people, and un- 

 mindful in their party pride and ambition of the pur- 

 poses of the glorious future that awaits a harmonious 

 and undivided whole country : therefore, 



Resolved, That we have forever severed our connec- 

 tion therewith, and pledge ourselves to the building 

 up of a true national party, in pursuance of the prin- 

 ciples embraced in the foregoing platform and resolu- 

 tions, and that we cordially invite all men, of what- 

 ever party affiliation heretofore sustained by them, to 

 join with us in securing to themselves and the whole 

 people their inalienable rights. 



The Democrats of Tennessee assembled in 

 State Convention at Nashville, on June 8th, to 

 select delegates to the National Democratic 



Convention and to nominate Presidential elec- 

 tors, and accomplished their object. 



The Democrats met in State Convention 

 again on August llth, to nominate their candi- 

 date for Governor, and determine the policy 

 of the party in the administration of State af- 

 fairs, the number of delegates in attendance 

 being so great that the hall of the House of 

 Representatives, where the meeting was held, 

 could not contain them, some of the delega- 

 tions occupying the galleries. The Committee 

 on the Basis of Representation reported to give 

 to each county one delegate for every one 

 hundred votes, and every fraction of tifty or 

 more, which gave for all the ninety-four coun- 

 ties 1,349 delegates, the numerical proportions 

 of these ranging from one in Scott County to 

 eighty-six in Shelby County. This Convention 

 is considered to have been the most numerous 

 of any ever assembled in the city of Nashville, 

 and at the same time the most earnest, though 

 divided in purpose. The contrariety of senti- 

 ments severally advocated and adhered to by 

 large numbers among the delegates regarded 

 almost exclusively the State debt, as to its va- 

 lidity, its amount, and the mode of its settle- 

 ment. Within the Committee on Resolutions, 

 composed of thirty members, three from each 

 Congressional district, the disagreement on the 

 State debt, while they were deliberating on 

 the draught of a platform, was such that three 

 distinct platforms were reported from that 

 body, and submitted to the Convention for its 

 exclusive adoption a majority report, signed 

 by twenty-one members, with the chairman at 

 the head of the list, and two minority reports, 

 each signed by four members, and commonly 

 styled the Garner and Johnson reports, from 

 the names of their first subscribers. Each of 

 the three platforms was read to the Convention, 

 the majority one being as follows: 



The Democratic party of Tennessee in convention 

 assembled do declare : 



1. Our unabated allegiance to the national Democ- 

 racy, and an unfaltering faith in and devotion to its 

 traditions and principles. 



2. That we endorse the action of the late National 

 Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, and reaffirm 

 the principles enunciated in the Cincinnati platform ; 

 and pledge our earnest and undivided support to the 

 Democratic nominees as presented to the country by 

 the Cincinnati Convention. 



3. That in the nomination of Winfield Scott Han- 

 cock, of Pennsylvania, and William H. English, of 

 Indiana, for President and V ice-President of the 

 United States, we recognize the complete restoration 

 of fraternal feelings to all sections of our common 

 country. 



4. We reassert our opposition to the repudiation of 

 any of the public obligations of the State or Federal 

 Government, and declare that the repudiation of cither 

 under any pretext or disguise would be the most dire- 

 ful of evils, moral, financial, and political, and, in the 

 patriotic language of the national Democratic plat- 

 form, we pledge ourselves to the strict maintenance of 

 the public faith, State or national. 



5. We recognize a disposition upon the part of the 

 creditors of the State, in view of the great losses en- 

 tailed by the late war, the great depression of business, 

 and the general shrinkage in values, to make a lib- 

 eral reduction in both the principal and interest of our 



