26 



WISCONSIN. 



Convention assembled at Milwaukee, and 

 nominated a full State ticket, with Charles D. 

 Robinson as candidate, for Governor, and H. 

 H. Gray for Lieutenant-Governor. The fol- 

 lowing resolutions were adopted as the plat- 

 form of the State Democracy : 



Resolved, That the unity of the nation and the per- 

 manence of Eepuhlican institutions depend upon the 

 subordination of the Government to the popular will, 

 upon the cheerful and implicit obedience of rulers 

 and people to law, upon the reservation to the sev- 

 eral States of the sacred and imperishable right to 

 local self-government, upon the inalienable right of 

 citizens to life and liberty, upon freedom of speech 

 and of the press, and upon a rigidly honest and 

 economical application of the public revenues ; and 

 that we solemnly protest against those acts of the 

 Republican party by which these fundamental condi- 

 tions of national freedom and prosperity have been 

 repeatedly and ruthlessly violated. 



Resolved^ That we entertain the most grateful re- 

 membrance of those true and noble men who laid 

 clown their lives in defence of the integrity of the 

 Union, and that we will ever cherish the highest 

 admiration of the living who have survived the shock 

 of arms. 



^ Resolved, That the financial disorder and depres- 

 sion apparent to all business-men, the corruption 

 which confessedly attends the administration of the 

 laws, the ingenious and burdensome system of taxa- 

 tion, by which enterprise is paralyzed, and the vast 

 surplus wealth of the State is fruitlessly squandered 

 and consumed, are evils which demand less of parti- 

 sanship, more of statesmanship, a purer morality in 

 our rulers, and a radical reform in the administration 

 of the State and Federal Governments. 



Resolved, That the continued and persistent impo- 

 sition upon the people of the tariff laws, avowedly 

 designed to tax the masses of the people for the 

 benefit of the accumulated capital of the Eastern 

 States, whereby millions of dollars are annually ab- 

 stracted from Wisconsin, without any corresponding 

 gain to the common Government, is a wanton and 

 intolerable abuse of Federal power, for which the 

 only effective remedy is the complete union of the 

 friends of free labor and our domestic industry at the 

 ballot-box. 



Resolved, That we lament that chronic infirmity 

 of the dominant party, by which the exercise of its 

 long-continued and abundant power to "adjust the 

 burden of taxation by revisions and modifications, 

 from time jto time, 01 the tariff and other revenue 

 laws," is limited to pretentious confessions of the 

 consequences of its own misrule, and to periodical 

 resolutions deploring the evils which it persistently 

 refuses to abolish. 



Resolved^ That we believe the honor and welfare 

 of the nation alike require the rapid and complete 

 extinction of the national debt by the full payment 

 of the principal and interest thereof, in exact accord- 

 ance with the terms of the contract between the Gov- 

 ernment and its creditors ; but that we oppose, with 

 all the influence at our command, the ill-disguised 

 efforts of the party in power to convert the debt into 

 a permanent burden for the aggrandizement of spe- 

 cial classes, by discriminating legislation against the 

 people and the lesser creditors of the Government in 

 behalf of incorporated capital. 



Resolved, That the public avenues, on which move 

 the commonest products of the States, are the high- 

 ways to wealth and the general prosperity of the 

 people ; that, kindred with the numerous improve- 

 ments that have received the protection of the Gen- 

 eral Government, is the work of enlarging the Fox 

 and "Wisconsin Eivers, in order to secure a perma- 

 nent channel of water communication between the 

 great lakes and the Mississippi ; that we ask the aid 

 of the General Government for this purpose ; and, in 



addition, will unite with our sister States of the West, 

 equally to be benefited with "Wisconsin in, securing 

 the completion of the same, as a matter of State en- 

 terprise, should the General Government fail to aid 

 us therein ; and that the continuous failure of the 

 party in power, after many years of ample opportu- 

 nity, ^to contribute effective legislative aid to this en- 

 terprise, leads us to doubt its sincerity, or its capa- 

 city to fulfil its professions. 



Resolved, That we protest against the nar.row parti- 

 sanship and pervading greed for spoil which charac- 

 terizes all the influences surrounding our State gov- 

 ernment, against the exaction of exorbitant fees in 

 the State departments, and against that indifference 

 to the burdens of the people which compels the tax- 

 payers to contribute the enormous sum of nearly one 

 million dollars per annum for the support of the State 

 government and its partisan dependants. 



Resolved, That the Democratic party of Wisconsin 

 rejoices in the extinction of slavery; in the prompt 

 and general acquiescence of the Southern people in 

 the results of the war ; in every wellTdirected effort 

 for the enlightenment and elevation of oppressed 

 humanity at home and abroad, and in every measure, 

 compatible *with good government and public order, 

 to broaden the basis of suffrage and extend the bless- 

 ing of free institutions to all classes of people ; and 

 thatj in strict fidelity to this spirit of progress and 

 patriotism, we deplore the many and inexcusable in- 

 fringements of our national Congress upon the lib- 

 erty of the citizen and the freedom of the ballot ; its 

 failure to recognize the equitable right of foreign- 

 born residents to an early participation in the privi- 

 leges of the ballot-box, on terms as liberal as those 

 prescribed by the Democratic constitution of Wis- 

 consin ; its constant effort to burden labor and en- 

 courage monopoly, and its covert purpose to centralize 

 and enlarge the powers of the Federal Government. 



Eesolutions were also adopted by both con- 

 ventions, recommending that some plan be 

 devised for the promotion of European immi- 

 gration to the States of the Northwest. 



The election was held on the 2d of Novem- 

 ber, and resulted in the success of the entire 

 Republican ticket. The whole number of 

 votes cast was 130,866, of which Lucius Fair- 

 child received 69,582, and Charles D. Robin- 

 son 61,239, making the majority for the former 

 8,343. Of the total number of votes (143,510) 

 cast at the preceding State election, in 1867, 

 Governor Fairchild received a majority of 4,764 

 votes, while at the Presidential election in 1868 

 there were 103,584 votes cast, of which Gen- 

 eral Grant received a majority of 24,150. 



The Legislature for 1870 is composed of 

 18 Eepublicans, 12 Democrats, and 3 Inde- 

 pendents, in the Senate, and 54 Republicans, 

 39 Democrats, and 7 Independents, in the 

 House. 



During the past year active efforts have been 

 made by the citizens of this State in favor of 

 the improvements in the "Wisconsin and Fox 

 Rivers, which are intended to effect a great * 

 change in the freight transportation * system 

 between the Northwestern and the Eastern 

 States. This movement is prompted by the 

 belief that the cost of transporting freight 

 from the Northwest to Eastern markets will 

 be greatly reduced by the establishment of a 

 water communication between the Mississippi 

 River and the northern lakes through the Wis- 

 consin and Fox Rivers, thus securing an ade- 



