UNITED STATES. 



G97 



dition of industrial establishments placed under rigid 

 control, the competition of contract convict-labor abol- 

 ished, a bureau of labor statistics established, facto- 

 ries, mines, and workshops inspected, the employment 

 of children under fourteen years of age forbidden, and 

 wages paid in cash. 



4. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap la- 

 bor being simply slavery, the importation and pres- 

 ence of Chinese serfs necessarily tends to brutalize 

 and degrade American labor ; therefore immediate 

 steps should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame 

 treaty. 



5. 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. 



6. It is the duty of Congress to regulate inter- 

 State commerce. All lines of communication and 

 transportation should be brought under such legisla- 

 tive control as shall secure moderate, fair, and uni- 

 form rates for passenger and freight traffic. 



7. We denounce as destructive to prosperity and 

 dangerous to liberty the action of the old parties in 

 fostering and sustaining gigantic land, railroad, and 

 money corporations and monopolies, invested with and 

 exercising powers belonging to the Government, and 

 yet not responsible to it for the manner of their exer- 

 cise. 



8. That the Constitution, in giving Congress the 

 power to borrow money, to declare war, to raise and 

 support armies, to provide and maintain a nation, never 

 intended that the men who loaned their money for an 

 interest consideration should be preferred to the sol- 

 dier and sailor who periled their lives and shed their 

 blood on land and sea in defense of their country ; and 

 we condemn the cruel class legislation of the Republi- 

 can party, which, while professing great gratitude to 

 the soldier, has most unjustly discriminated against 

 him and in favor of the bondholder. 



9. All property should bear its just proportion of 

 taxation, and we demand a graduated income-tax. 



10. We denounce as most dangerous the efforts every- 

 where manifested to restrict the right of suffrage. 



11. We are opposed to an increase of the standing 

 army in time of peace, and the insidious scheme to es- 

 tablish an enormous military power under the guise 

 of militia laws. 



12. We demand absolute democratic rules for the 

 government of Congress, placing all representatives 

 of the people upon an equal footing, and taking away 

 from committees a veto power greater than that of the 

 President. 



13. We demand a government of the people, by 

 the people, and for the people, instead of a govern- 

 ment of the bondholder, by the bondholder, and for 

 the bondholder ; and we denounce every attempt to 

 stir up sectional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous 

 crimes against the people. 



14. In the furtherance of these ends we ask the 

 cooperation of all fair-minded people. We have no 

 quarrel with individuals, wage no war upon classes, 

 but only against vicious institutions. We are not 

 content to endure further discipline from our present 

 actual rulers, who, having dominion over money, over 

 transportation, over land and labor, and largely over 

 the press and the machinery of government, wield un- 

 warrantable power over our institutions and over life 

 and property. 



The proceedings of the Convention ran 

 through the night of June 10th, and in the 

 early morning of the llth the nominations for 

 President and Vice-President were made. The 

 first ballot for candidate for President was in- 

 formal, and resulted in 224 votes for General 

 J. B. Weaver, of Iowa; 126 for Hendrick B. 

 Wright, of Pennsylvania; 119 for Stephen B. 

 Dillaye, of New Jersey ; 95 for Benjamin F. 

 Butler, of Massachusetts; 89 for Solon Chase, 



of Maine ; 41 for E. P. A.lhs, of Wisconsin ; 

 and 21 for Alexander Campbell, of Illinois. 

 By changes in the votes before the result was 

 declared, General Weaver was unanimously 

 nominated. General B. J. Chambers, of Texas, 

 was nominated for Vice-President on the first 

 ballot. 



The Prohibition party held a National Con- 

 vention at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 17th of 

 June. There were 142 delegates present from 

 twelve States. Neal Dow, of Maine, was nomi- 

 nated by acclamation as the candidate for Pres- 

 ident, and A. M. Thompson, of Ohio, was made 

 the candidate for Vice-President. A platform 

 was adopted setting forth the well-known prin- 

 ciples of the party in regard to the manufacture 

 and sale of alcoholic liquors. It declared in 

 favor of a national prohibition law for the 

 District of Columbia and the Territories, con- 

 demned both the Republican and Democratic 

 parties for their attitude on the liquor ques- 

 tion, demanded the right of suffrage for women, 

 and asserted that the experience of nations 

 shows no loss of revenue following the aboli- 

 tion of liquor- taxes. 



Nominations were also made by the " Amer- 

 ican Antimason " party. The candidates were 

 General John W. Phelps, of Vermont, for 

 President, and the Hon. Samuel C. Pomeroy, 

 of Kansas, for Vice-President. The declared 

 object of this party was to " expose, withstand, 

 and remove secret societies, Freemasonry in 

 particular, and other anti-Christian movements, 

 in order to save the churches of Christ from 

 being depraved ; to redeem the administration 

 of justice from perversion, and our republican 

 government from corruption." 



On the 23d of February the National Execu- 

 tive Committee of the Democratic party held a 

 meeting in Washington, and determined on 

 Cincinnati as the place, and June 22d the time 

 for holding the National Convention. The 

 question of the candidacy of Samuel J. Tilden, 

 of New York, was prominent throughout the 

 preliminary canvass in the several States, and 

 was likely to affect somewhat seriously the pro- 

 ceedings of the Convention ; but two days be- 

 fore it was organized the following letter was 

 received by the New York delegates in Cincin- 

 nati, withdrawing his name : 



NEW YORK, June 18, 1880. 

 To the Delegates from the State of New York to tU 



Democratic Rational Convention : 

 Your first assembling is an occasion on which it is 

 proper for me to state to you my relation to the nomi- 

 nation for the Presidency which you and your asso- 

 ciates are commissioned to make in behalf ot the Dem- 

 ocratic party of the United States. Having passed my 

 early years in an atmosphere filled with the traditions 

 of the war which secured our national independence, 

 and of the struggles which made our continental sys- 

 tem a government for the people, by the people, I 

 learned to idolize the institutions of my country, and 

 was educated to believe it the duty of a citizen of the 

 republic to take his fair allotment of care and trouble 

 in public affairs. I fulfilled that duty to the best of 

 my ability for forty years as a private citizen. Al- 

 though during all my life giving at least as much 

 thought and effort to public affairs as to all other ob- 



