90 



CALIFORNIA. 



nation the following ticket of candidates for 

 the State offices: For Governor, Henry H. 

 Haight, the incumbent of the office ; Lieuten- 

 ant-Governor, Colonel E. J. Lewis; Justices 

 of the Supreme Court, Jackson Temple and 

 Selden S. Wright ; Secretary of State, W. B. C. 

 Brown ; Comptroller, R. 0. De Witt.. The fol- 

 lowing platform was unanimously adopted : 

 Jiexolved, By the Democratic party of California : 



1. That, waiving all differences of opinion as to the 

 extraordinary means by which they were brought 

 about, we accept the natural and legitimate results of 

 the war, so far as waged for the ostensible purpose to 

 maintain the Union and the constitutional rights and 

 powers of the Federal Government. 



2. That we regard the three several amendments 

 to the Constitution, recently adopted, as a settlement 

 in fact of all the issues of the war, and that the same 

 are no longer issues before the country. 



3. That we demand that the rule of strict construc- 

 tion, as proclaimed by the Democratic fathers, and 

 embodied in the tenth amendment to the Federal 

 Constitution, be applied to the Constitution as it is, 

 including the three recent amendments to that in- 

 strument; that the absolute equality of each State 

 within the Union is a fundamental principle of the 

 Federal Government ; that we shall always cherish 

 and uphold the American system of State and local 

 government for State and local purposes only, as 

 essential to the maintenance of civil liberty ; and are 

 unalterably opposed to all attempts at centralization 

 or consolidation of power in the hands of the Federal 

 Government. 



4. That we demand of Congress universal amnesty 

 for all political offences. 



5. That while we condemn all riotous and unlawful 

 combinations to disturb the peace or infringe the 

 rights of any citizens, we denounce the act commonly 

 called the " Bayonet Bill," passed by Congress, and 

 the more recent act commonly called the " Ku-klux 

 Bill," as enacted for no other purpose than to com- 

 plete the work of centralization, and, by establishing 

 a military despotism, to perpetuate the present Ad- 

 ministration without regard to the will of the people ; 

 that these measures are not only inconsistent with 

 the whole theory and character of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment, and revolutionary and dangerous in their 

 tendency, but are in direct conflict with the spirit 

 and letter of the Constitution, including the amend- 

 ments which they pretend to enforce. 



6. That we are in favor of a tariff for revenue only, 

 and we denounce the system commonly called the 

 protective system as unjust, oppressive', prolific of 

 corruption, and injurious to the best interests of the 

 country ; that the tariff legislation of the Republican 

 party during the past ten years has destroyed our 

 shipping, paralyzed industry, and plundered the 

 mass of the people for the benefit of capitalists and 

 monopolists. 



7. That the profligate grants of vast tracts of the 

 public domain made by the radical majority in Con- 

 gress to railroad corporations, regardless of the rights 

 of jsettlers, and without any proper conditions or re- 

 strictions, are a fraud upon the people of the country. 



8. That the failure of Congress to repeal the odi- 

 ous income-tax, the maintenance of a vast army of 

 tax-gatherers to harass the people and eat out their 

 substance, and the failure to restrict the importation of 

 Chinese coolies, whose competition tends directly to 

 cheapen and degrade white labor, constitute a cata- 

 logue of t grievances for which a radical Congress will 

 be held justly accountable. 



a 9. That we are uncompromisingly opposed to sub- 

 sidizing railway or other private corporations out of 

 the public Treasury, to the overwhelming increase 

 of debt and taxation ; that laws which impose taxes 

 upon the mass of citizens in aid of such corporations, 

 whether in the form of donations, loans, or subscrip- 



tions, are an invasion of the rights of private prop- 

 erty and a departure from sound maxims of govern- 

 ment, and result in the bankruptcy of towns and 

 counties ; that they lead to gross abuses : are a pro- 

 lific source of corruption, and violate the cardinal 

 principle of democracy, to wit : that government is 

 instituted for the welfare and security of the mass 

 of the people, and not for the aggrandizement of a 

 favored few ; and that the law upon the statute-book 

 known as the five per cent, law ought to be imme- 

 diately repealed. 



10. That we are in favor of amending the State 

 constitution so as to provide additional safeguards 

 against the taxation of private property in aid of 

 private corporations or individuals, and against im- 

 provident legislation, and of securing needed consti- 

 tutional reforms. 



11. That the Democratic party, deriving its 

 strength from the working-classes, is the natural 

 enemy of monopolies, and has always been and al- 

 ways will be ready to support and urge such meas- 

 ures for the elevation of the laboring population and 

 the amelioration of their condition as an enlightened 

 policy may suggest ; that we point to the legislation 

 of the past three years, reducing the hours of labor, 

 requiring public work to be done by the day, and 

 seeking to restrict Chinese immigration, as evidence 

 of the sympathy of the Democracy with the wishes 

 and interests of the laboring-classes. 



12. That we believe that the labor of our white 

 people should not be brought into competition with 

 the labor of a class of inferior people, whose living 

 costs comparatively nothing, and who care and know 

 little about our churches, schools, societies, and social 

 and political institutions, and that we are, therefore, 

 opposed to Chinese immigration ; that Congress, by 

 its legislation, having sought to foster such immi- 



E ration and to prevent our local authorities from 

 iterfering with it, and by its attempted abrogation 

 of the foreign miners' license-tax, deserves our se- 

 verest condemnation, and has given us another illus- 

 tration of its intention to concentrate all power in 

 the hands of the General Government. 



13. That the public lands yet left to the United 

 States and the State of California should be disposed 

 of only to actual settlers in limited quantities, and 

 on the most favorable terms; and the laws, both 

 State and Federal, should be so framed as to insure 

 this result, so vital to a free people. 



14. That the interference by the President of the 

 United States with the military power of the Union, 

 in elections to overawe the people and control the 

 right of suffrage, is treason to the Constitution. 



15. That we are compelled, by profound convictions 

 of their injustice and impolicy, to record our solemn 

 protest against the leading measures of the national 

 Administration, and we pledge all the power with 

 which we may be intrusted to earnest efforts to lessen 

 the expenditures of the Government, to reduce and 

 equalize taxation, to hasten the extinction of the 

 public debt, and by honest legislation to protect the 

 public domain against the rapacity of the speculators 

 and robbers, and restore early and cordial union and 

 fraternity to the States and the people of the re- 

 public. 



16. That, by thorough organization and concerted 

 action, another victory is within the reach of the 

 Democratic party of this State, and this convention 

 pledges itself to effect such organization and action, 

 and ^to secure, by all honorable means, the election 

 of the candidates this day nominated. 



17. And whereas, since the advent of the Demo- 

 cratic party to power in 1867, the rate of taxation for 

 State purposes has been reduced from $1.13 to 86 

 cents on each $100 of property, and the State debt 

 reduced more than $1,000,000, at the same time that 

 the school fund has been increased, and large sums 

 of money have been judiciously expended upon pub- 

 lic buildings, a State university organized and put in 

 operation, the tide-lands of the State rescued from 



