710 



VIRGINIA. 



that purpose. But no sooner was the Con- 

 vention organized than a delegate offered 

 three resolutions: the first, endorsing U. S. 

 Grant ; the second, instructing the delegation 

 to Chicago to vote as a unit for Grant ; the 

 third, declaring the inexpediency of nominat- 

 ing an electoral ticket at that time, and em- 

 powering the State Central Committee, here- 

 after to be appointed, to call a convention 

 for the 28th of July to nominate an electoral 

 ticket. These resolutions were referred for 

 consideration to a committee, who subsequent- 

 ly reported on them, and at the same time 

 presented two minority reports, both advo- 

 cating the nomination of an electoral ticket 

 now and by this Convention. 



This view of the subject finally prevailed, 

 but the apparently irreconcilable opposition of 

 large numbers of delegates upon that point was 

 the cause of very heated and stormy debates, 

 almost uninterruptedly continued for two days 

 and nights, till five o'clock in the morning 

 of April 24th, when the following resolutions 

 were adopted : 



1. Resolved, That no elector shall be placed upon 

 the Republican electoral ticket who is not pledged to 

 support the Republican nomination made at Chicago. 



2. Resolved, That the Convention now proceed to 

 nominate and elect our full electoral ticket. 



These resolutions had been offered by a del- 

 egate on the previous day, and signed also by 

 the President of the Convention, with three 

 more among the most prominent delegates, 

 and the sentiment manifested in the adoption 

 of either was remarkably different. The first 

 resolution was adopted unanimously : the sec- 

 ond by a very small majority, the votes on it 

 having been 69 for and 61 against. 



The nomination of Presidential electors and 

 the selection of delegates to the Chicago Con- 

 vention were then successively acted upon, 

 with the following results : 



For electors at large: "W. C. Wickham, of 

 Hanover, and J. M. Dawson (colored), of Wil- 

 liamsburg, were nominated unanimously. 



For district electors: first district, L. R. 

 Stuart, of Richmond County ; third, John W. 

 Poindexter, of Louisa ; fourth, William P. Aus- 

 tin, of Lunenburg; fifth, Asa T. Whitlock, of 

 Floyd ; sixth, Samuel Collier, of Amherst ; 

 seventh, E. W. Early, of Albemarle ; eighth, A. 

 W. Harris, of Alexandria; ninth, H. H. Flan- 

 nagan. 



The selection of the second district elector 

 was by resolution remitted to a Congressional 

 convention of that district, subject to the con- 

 ditions imposed by the Convention. 



For delegates to the Chicago Convention 

 from the State at large : D. S. Lewis, Peter J. 

 Carter, John W. Poindexter, and Joseph Jor- 

 gensen. 



The Democrats held their State Convention 

 at Richmond on the 29th of May, the meeting 

 being very numerously attended, and most har- 

 monious in its proceedings. For delegates to 

 the National Democratic Convention which 



was to assemble at Cincinnati on June 22d, 

 and for Presidential electors representing the 

 State at large, those were declared appointed 

 or nominated who at the ballots taken for the 

 purpose had received the highest numbers of 

 votes among the competitors. 



For Presidential electors at large : John Ech- 

 ols, of Augusta, and P. W. McKinney, of Prince 

 Edward. 



For delegates to the Cincinnati Convention 

 from the State at large : John W. Daniel, Wil- 

 liam Terry, James Barbour, and S. H. Moffett. 

 Alternates : R. B. Berkeley, of Farmville, and 

 Carson Patteson, of Buckingham. 



To direct the action of these delegates, a 

 resolution was adopted, instructing them " to 

 oppose the abrogation of the two-thirds rule." 



The platform adopted was as follows: 



1. Resolved by the Democratic party of Virginia, in 

 convention assembled, That we are in affiliation with 

 the national Democracy, and will support its nomi- 

 nees for President and Vice-President of the United 

 States. 



2. That party lines in Federal politics should be 

 drawn with sole reference to Federal issues. 



3. That it becomes a manly people to demand of 

 candidates for representative positions, and honest 

 aspirants, to decide where they stand as between the 

 two great parties of the country, and we will support 

 for elector no person who does not manifest his adhe- 

 rence to the national Democracy, and its candidates 

 on the presidential ticket. 



4. That the national Democracy deserves the con- 

 fidence and support of the people for its steady adhe- 

 rence to the principles of constitutional liberty upon 

 which the republic was founded, and for cherishing 

 those traditions and customs which tend to purify the 

 public service, and restrain the encroachments of cen- 

 tralized power ; that we endorse the general policy, 

 and especially its course in reducing "the tax on our 

 great staple product tobacco, in maintaining the inde- 

 pendence of the State judiciary, and the supremacy of 

 the civil over the military power, in resisting the 

 prostitution of the army to illegal interference in elec- 

 tions, and the use of a partisan and unscrupulous 

 police to intimidate and corrupt the suffrages of the 

 people, and in advocating liberal measures to wipe out 

 the hostile legislation wnich belonged to a period of 

 war, and has no fitting use in times of peace and rec- 

 onciliation. 



5. That we hold in abhorrence the high-handed 

 and ever-to-be-remembered fraud by which the Re- 

 publican party foisted a defeated candidate into the 

 Presidential chair in contempt of a large majority of 

 the votes of the people and of the electoral voice of 

 the States, thereby bringing odium upon the country, 

 and strengthening the hostility of monarchical and 

 autocratic governments to free institutions. The time 

 to rebuke that fraud and to vindicate the outraged 

 sovereignty of the people has come; and without re- 

 gard to any past differences between us, we invoke 

 the honest, liberty-loving masses of the people to 

 unite with us, and give the sentence of popular con- 

 demnation so clear "and emphatic an utterance that 

 fraud shall never again prove triumphant in under- 

 mining the Constitution and the laws, and trampling 

 down the people's will. 



The Virginia Readjusters, who once be- 

 longed to the Democratic party, and profess 

 still to act as such, but by reason of their con- 

 trariety of sentiments, chiefly on the debt of 

 the State, formally separated from it, and on 

 February 25, 1879, organized themselves into 

 a distinct body, held their State Convention at 



