VIRGINIA. 



7J1 



Richmond on July Yth, above five hundred 

 delegates being present, and nominated an 

 electoral ticket in favor of the national Dem- 

 ocratic nominees for President and Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the United States. 



Electors for the State at large : William E. 

 Cameron, of Petersburg, and H. H. Riddle- 

 barger, of Shenandoah. 



The following platform, expressing the unani- 

 mous sentiment of all the members of the com- 

 mittee appointed to draught it, was adopted by 

 the Convention : 



The Eeadjusters of Virginia, in convention assem- 

 bled, renewing their declaration of allegiance to the 

 principles of local self-government, and reaffirming 

 their unalterable purpose to keep them steadily in 

 view 



Resolve, That party lines should be drawn with 

 sole reference to issues born of fundamental princi- 

 ples ; and that the highest guarantees for the faithful 

 execution of any public trust are a rigid and resolute 

 adherence to this canon of political liberty, and a free 

 avowal of sincere purpose to promote the welfare and 

 maintain the legal rights ot all the people of the 

 State, neither consenting to the subordination of the 

 one nor acquiescing in the postponement of the other, 

 from any considerations of policy or of expediency. 



2. That they reassert the right of the people, through 

 their representatives, to exercise sovereign control of 

 the revenues, and protest again against all devices to 

 subordinate the support of government and the main- 

 tenance of public institutions to any other claim what- 

 soever; and solemnly reaffirming _ the principles and 

 policy laid down by the Convention held at Mozart 

 Hall on February 25, 1879, do hereby approve and 

 endorse the u bill to reestablish the public credit " 

 upon which the people were denied the privilege^:' 

 passing judgment by a partisan and arbitrary exercise 

 of the Executive veto as correctly embodying the 

 same, as fairly meeting the equities of the case and 

 the necessities of the people, and as constituting the 

 extreme limit of legal and moral obligations upon the 

 part of this Commonwealth to the holders of her 

 bonds. 



3. That while it is of grave importance to every in- 

 terest of the Common wealth, that the question of the 

 public debt should be finally and fairly disposed of, 

 no settlement can have the essential feature of finality 

 which shall lack the approval of the people ; and con- 

 sent will never be given by the majority, for whom 

 this Convention is empowered to speak, to any plan 

 which involves an increase of taxation, which creates 

 any lien upon the revenues, which endangers the sys- 

 tem of free education ordained by the Constitution, 

 which includes war and reconstruction interest in 

 computation of the debt, which recognizes any lia- 

 bility for that portion set aside to West Virginia, 

 which makes or continues discrimination between 

 different classes of the public creditors, which places 

 the interests of State or bondholder in the keeping of 

 agents other than the financial affairs of the Govern- 

 ment, which relieves from taxation any property not 

 specifically exempted by the Constitution, which con- 

 verts a currency obligation into one payable in gold, 

 or which imposes ahlnterest liability larger than can 

 with certainty ba met out of revenues derivable from 

 a rate of taxation not destructive of the industrial in- 

 terests of the State. 



4. That recognizing their obligation, and proclaim- 

 ing their intention to support and obey the Federal 

 and State Constitutions as the only sure protection of 

 the civil and political rights of the citizen, and the 

 only safe bulwark against encroachment upon the 

 liberties of the residuaries of sovereignty in all pop- 

 ular governments, the Eeadjusters reiterate their pur- 

 pose to vindicate and maintain the constitutional 

 rights of the citizen to the exercise of a free and price- 



5. That as the voice of the people is the source of 

 all rightful power, so is the first duty of government 

 toward securing and maintaining the popular rights 

 and interests, and we demand at the hands of all de- 

 partments of the government of Virginia an honest 

 application of constitutional grants to the education of 

 the children of the people, a fostering policy toward 

 the public schools and colleges, and a full and gen- 

 erous recognition of the claims upon public support of 

 the institutions for the insane and unfortunate. 



6. That the paramount obligation of the various 

 works of internal improvement is to the people of the 

 State, by whose authority they were created, by whoso 

 money they were constructed, and by who.se grace 

 they live ; and it is enjoined upon our representative 

 and executive officers to enforce the discharge of that 

 duty, to insure to the people of Virginia such rates, 

 facilities, and connections as will protect every indus- 

 try and interest against discrimination, tend to the 

 development of their agricultural and mineral re- 

 sources, encourage the investment of active capital in 

 manufactures and the profitable employment of labor 

 in industrial enterprises, grasp for our cities those 

 advantages to which by reason of their geographical 

 position they are entitled, and fulfill all the great 

 public ends for which they were designed. 



7. That while looking to the maintenance of tho 

 principles and accomplishment of the local objects 

 above set forth as superior to all other considerations 

 with which the Eeadjusters, as a party, have to deal, 

 there are reasons both of duty and policy why this 

 organization, called into existence by a majority of 

 the people of Virginia, should control as such the 

 voice of this State in national affairs. It is impor- 

 tant to a successful issue of the contest in 1881 for su- 

 premacy in the Commonwealth that the representa- 

 tives to and of the Federal Government from and in 

 Virginia should not be found, as hitherto, contesting 

 and obstructing the manifest will of a majority of this 

 people upon domestic questions. To the end, there- 

 fore, that power may not fall into the hands of avowed 

 enemies of the cause of readjustment, of liberal gov- 

 ernment, and of popular sovereignty, this Convention 

 nominates a full ticket of electors, and that it reco.n- 

 mends to the party in the several districts of the 

 State to hold conventions and nominate candidates 

 for seats in the Federal Congress. 



And believing that the objects hitherto declared, 

 and the interests of all the people of Virginia, arc to 

 be best subserved by the election of Hancock and 

 English to the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the 

 United States, therefore further declare that the elec- 

 toral ticket nominated by this Convention is instruct- 

 ed in behalf of those condidates, and that they are 

 cordially commended to the earnest support of every 

 member of this organization in Virginia. 



8. That the Federal Government in every depart- 

 ment should be administered in exact conformity with 

 the Constitution as it is that it is the duty of the 

 citizen to accept in good faith the results of the war, 

 and that the aim of statesmanship should be to estab- 

 lish peace and good- will between all sections of our 

 common country and all classes of the people ; that 

 powers which are granted for the general good can 

 not safely nor rightfully be prostituted to the fostering 

 of classes, and the duties and privileges, the burdens 

 and benefits, of government should 'be equally dis- 

 tributed ; that the tariff and revenue systems of the 

 Government should be reformed to the extent that no 

 interest should be protected at the expense of another ; 

 that the Federal tax upon tobacco is an unjust dis- 

 crimination against the land and labor employed in 

 agriculture, and ought to be repealed. 



9. That in the exercise of such powers as the people 

 of Virginia may sec fit to bestow upon this party in 

 State or Federal affairs, the Bcadjustcrs stand pledged 

 to a faithful observance of the principles and an ear- 

 nest pursuit of the objects herein set forth. 



The simultaneous appearance of two rival 

 electoral tickets in the field, both apparently 



