696 



UNITED STATES. 



The nomination of General Garfield was 

 made unanimous on motion of Mr. Conkling, of 

 New York. General Chester A. Arthur, of 

 New York, was nominated for Vice-President 

 on the first hallot, the vote being 468 for Ar- 

 thur; 193 for E. B. Washburne, of Illinois; 44 

 for Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut ; 30 for 

 Horace Maynard, of Tennessee; 8 for B. K. 

 Bruce, of Mississippi ; 2 for E. J. Davis, of 

 Texas; 4 for J. L. Alcorn, of Mississippi; 1 

 for Thomas Settle, of North Carolina ; and 1 

 for Stewart L. Woodford, of New York. 



The Greenback or National Greenback -Labor 

 party took an active part in the canvass. Early 

 in the year its Executive Committee called a 

 National Convention to be held at Chicago on 

 the 9th of June. On that day there were two 

 separate factions gathered in that city, but 

 they succeeded in effecting a union, and the 

 business of the Convention was disposed of on 

 the day following. The following platform 

 was adopted : 



Civil government should guarantee the divine right 

 of every laborer to the results of his toil, thus ena- 

 bling the producers of wealth to provide themselves 

 with the means for physical comfort, and the facili- 

 ties for mental, social, and moral culture ; and we con- 

 demn as unworthy of our civilization the barbarism 

 which imposes upon the wealth-producers a state of 

 perpetual drudgery as the price of bare animal exist- 

 ence. Notwithstanding the enormous increase of pro- 

 ductive power, the universal introduction of labor- 

 saving machinery, and the discovery of new agents 

 for the increase of wealth, the task of the laborer is 

 scarcely lightened, the hours of toil are but little short- 



* One vote for Philip H. Sheridan, 

 t One vote for lioscoe Conkling. 



ened, and few producers are lifted from poverty into 

 comfort and pecuniary independence. The associated 

 monopolies, the international syndicates, and other in- 

 come classes demand dear money and cheap labor ; 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 

 the unjust distribution of the products of labor, and 

 of building up monopolies of associated capital en- 

 dowed with power to confiscate private property. It 

 has kept money scarce, and scarcity of money enforces 

 debt, trade, and public and corporate loans. Debt en- 

 genders usury, and usury ends in the bankruptcy of 

 the borrower. Other results are deranged markets, 

 uncertainty in manufacturing enterprise" and agricul- 

 ture, precarious and intermittent employment for the 

 laborers, industrial war, increasing pauperism and 

 crime, and the consequent intimidation and disfran- 

 chisement of the producer, and a rapid declension 

 into corporate feudalism ; therefore, we declare 



1. That the right to make and issue money is a sov- 

 ereign power, to be maintained by the people for the 

 common benefit. The delegation of this right to cor- 

 porations is a surrender of the central attribute of .sov- 

 ereignty, void of constitutional sanction, conferring 

 upon a subordinate, irresponsible power absolute do- 

 minion over industry and commerce. All money, 

 whether metallic or paper, should be issued and its 



private. 



2. That the bonds of the United States should not 

 be refunded, but paid as rapidly as is practicable, ac- 

 cording 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. 



3. That labor should be so protected by national 

 and State authority as to equalize its burdens and in- 

 sure a just distribution of its results. The eight-houl 

 law of' Congress should be enforced, the sanitary con- 



