CALIFORNIA. 



91 



tlie grasp of speculators, and sold for the public ben- 

 efit, special franchise legislation successfully checked 

 for the first time by Executive veto, laws enacted for 

 the revision of our civil and criminal code, the equali- 

 zation of assessments, and the refunding of the State 

 debt, and a successful opposition inaugurated to any 

 taxation of the people for the benefit of railway or 

 other private corporations, besides other useful re- 

 forms : therefore 



Resolved, That we heartily indorse the Democratic 

 State administration, and declare it eminently entitled 

 to the confidence and approval of the whole people. 



No organized Labor party took part in the 

 campaign, but the influence of the leaders of 

 the associations of working-men, especially 

 those of San Francisco, appears to have been 

 exerted against Governor Haight's reelection. 

 The following resolutions, adopted at a meet- 

 ing of the Executive Committee of the National 

 Labor Union, the Executive Committee of the 

 Settlers' League, and the officers of several 

 other labor organizations, held in San Francisco 

 in June, express in strong terms the grounds 

 of their hostility to Haight, and exhibit in 

 some measure the sentiments of the working- 

 men on several important subjects: 



Whereas, His Excellency Governor Haight, by his 

 past official record, has exhibited such a want of 

 moral courage, manliness, and character, as has left 

 us in doubt whether very many of his official acts 

 were influenced by ignorance and short-sightedness, 

 or corruption ; 



While he has sanctioned laws to authorize subsi- 

 dies to railroads, by taxation on the private property 

 of individuals, he has persistently declared such 

 legislation unconstitutional and wrong ; 



Having solemnly sworn to support the constitution 

 of this State, which specially prohibits lotteries, he 

 weakly or corruptly indorsed a law authorizing the 

 Mercantile Library lottery ; 



While preaching the gospel of economy, he has put 

 in. practice and encouraged the existence of the cor- 

 rupt measures of the Legislature of a " thousand 

 commissions " 



Thereby saddling on the people of San Francisco 

 millions of dollars of indebtedness, for the benefit of 

 political favorites 



While making loud protestations in favor of the 

 protection of white labor, and the elevation of the 

 laboring -men ? he has publicly and officially encour- 

 aged the immigration of Mongolian labor, a degraded, 

 and debased people, to compete with and depress the 

 American laborer : therefore 



Resolved, That Governor Haight, judged by his 

 official record, is unworthy of the confidence and 

 support of the working-men of this State ; he is too 

 short-sighted to perceive and weak-minded to prop- 

 erly discharge the duties of the office of Governor of 

 the State of California. 



Resolved., That there is good reason to believe, and 

 we do believe, that, while professing to be the anti- 

 subsidy candidate for Governor, to obtain the anti- 

 subsidy vote, he is silently carrying with him a sub- 

 sidy candidate for Lieutenant- Governor ; and that, 

 if he be elected, he will resign for the United States 

 senatorship, placing the subsidy Lieutenant-Govern- 

 or over an anti-subsidy people. 



Resolved, That the action of Governor Haight, in 

 vetoing the bill passed for the protection of Hutch- 

 ings and Lamon, settlers on the public lands under 

 the preemption laws of the United States, indicates 

 an utter disregard of the laws of pur country, and 

 the rights of working-men ; and his attempt to de- 

 prive those settlers of their rights, through the 

 courts, was a flagrant outrage on the rights of all 

 settlers on the public domain. 



Resolved, That for these, and other good reasons, 

 the working-men of San Francisco are opposed to the 

 nomination and election of H. H. Haight, Governor 

 of this State, and we hereby pledge ourselves to 

 work and vote against him, and thereby defeat his 

 election. 



Resolved, That we will not vote for any public 

 officer who employs or encourages the employment 

 or introduction among us of Chinese labor. 



Resolved, That whoever encourages Mongolian 

 labor is recreant to the rights and interests of the 

 American public ; and we call on every working-man 

 in the State to oppose the nomination and election 

 to office of any man who encourages Chinese or other 

 Mongolian labor on this continent. 



The Eepublican Convention met at Sacra- 

 mento, on the 28th of June. The candidates 

 nominated for the different State offices were 

 as follows : Governor, Newton Booth ; Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor, Komauldo Pacheco; Secre- 

 tary of State, Drury Malone ; Justices of the 

 Supreme Court, A. 0. Niles, A. L. Rhodes; 

 Comptroller, Jas. J. Green ; Treasurer, Ferdi- 

 nand Bauer; Surveyor, Robert Gardner; At- 

 torney-General, John L. Love ; Clerk of the 

 Supreme Court, Grant T. Taggart; Superin- 

 tendent of Instruction, Henry M. Bolander; 

 State Printer, Thos. H. Springer ; Harbor Com- 

 missioner, John A. McGlynn. The platform, 

 after pronouncing a lofty eulogy on the na- 

 tional Republican party and its past achieve- 

 ments, and giving a hearty indorsement to 

 President Grant and his Administration, pro- 

 ceeds as follows : 



Resolved, That the concentration of the landed 

 property of the country in the possession and owner- 

 ship of the few, to the exclusion of the many, is in 

 contravention of the theory of American govern- 

 ment, subversive of the rights, Iiberties 7> and happi- 

 ness of the masses of the people, and if permitted 

 would inevitably terminate in the speedy establish- 

 ment of an odious aristocracy upon the ruins of our 

 free institutions ; and we are in favor of such legis- 

 lation, both by the nation and the State, as shall 

 secure a just and equal distribution of the public 

 lands remaining to them respectively, to actual set- 

 tlers and proprietors in small quantities, at the low- 

 est reasonable prices, and for homestead purposes 

 only. 



Resolved^ That the safety and perpetuity of repub- 

 lican institutions depend mainly upon popular 

 education and intelligence. We therefore approve 

 and recommend a common-school system that shall 

 not only extend its benefits to all ; but which shall 

 be compulsory upon all, and we are inflexibly op- 

 posed to any application of the public school moneys 

 with any reference to distinctions in religious creeds. 



Resolved, That religious liberty in its _ broadest 

 sense is a fundamental principle of American gov- 

 ernment, and legislative enactments having in view 

 the establishment of a creed, the regulation of the 

 mode of worship, or the enforcement of religious ob- 

 servances of any kind, are inconsistent therewith, 

 and invasions of the rights of the citizens. 



Resolved, That the presence in our midst of large 

 numbers of Chinese, who are incapable of assimila- 

 tion with our own races, ignorant of the nature and 

 forms of our government, and who manifest no dis- 

 position to acquire a knowledge of the same or to 

 conform to our own habits, manners, and customs, is 

 a serious and continuing injury to the best interests 

 of the State ; that their employment under the plea 

 of cheap wages is offensive to the exalted American 

 idea of the dignity of labor, detrimental to the pros- 

 perity and happiness of our own laboring-classes, 



