610 



OHIO. 



delegated to it, and to that extent and no more to 

 have abridged the reserved rights of the States ; and 

 that, as thus construed according to these ancient 

 and well-established rules, the Democratic party 

 pledges itself to the full, faithful, and absolute ex- 

 ecution and enforcement of the Constitution as it 

 now iSj so as to secure equal rights to all persons 

 under it, without distinction of race, color, or con- 

 dition. 



4. That the absolute equality of each and every 

 State within the Union is a fundamental principle of 

 the Federal Government, and that no department of 

 that Government has power to expel a State from the 

 Union, or to deprive it, under any pretext whatever, 

 of its equal rights therein, including especially the 

 right of the fuU and complete representation in Con- 

 gress and in the electoral college. 



5. That we will always cherish and uphold the 

 American system of State and local self-government 

 for State and local purposes, and a General Govern- 

 ment for general purposes only, and are unalterably 

 opposed to all attempts at centralization and con- 

 solidation of power in the hands of the General Gov- 

 ernment, and more especially when such attempts 

 are in the form of usurpation by any department of 

 the Government; and, further, that we adhere 

 firmly to the principle of maintaining a perfect in- 

 dependence between the coordinate departments of 

 that Government the legislative, the executive, 

 and judicial condemning all encroachments by one 

 upon the functions of the other. 



6. That, outside of fundamental law, all legisla- 

 tion is in its nature and purposes temporary, and 

 subject to change, modification, or repeal, at the will 

 of a majority of the people, expressed through the 

 law-making power, and that the pretence that any 

 act of Congress, not executed and spent, or -any 

 legislative policy of a party, is an absolute finality, 

 is totally inconsistent with the whole theory of 

 republican government, and that it is the unques- 

 tionable riglit of the people, of themselves and 

 through their representatives, at each successive 

 election, and in each successive Congress, to judge 

 of what legislation is necessary and proper or ap- 

 propriate to carry into execution or enforce the con- 

 stitutional powers, rights, and duties, of the Federal 

 Government. 



7. That, as an instance of eminently appropriate 

 legislation under the fourteenth amendment, in the 

 name of wisdom, justice, and republican govern- 

 ment, and to secure universal political rights and 

 equality among both the white and colored of the 

 United States, to the end that we may have peace 

 at last, we call now, as well on behalf of the North 

 as of the South, upon Congress for a universal am- 

 nesty. 



8. That we are in favor of the payment of the 

 public debt at the earliest practicable moment con- 

 sistent with moderate taxation. More effectually to 

 secure and hasten payment, we demand the strictest 

 honesty and economy in every part of the admin- 

 istration of the Government. 



9. That we are in favor of such revenue reform as 

 will greatly simplify the manner of and reduce the 

 number of officers engaged in collecting and dis- 

 bursing the revenue, and largely diminish, the now 

 enormous expense to the Government, and the an- 

 noyance and vexation to the people attending the 

 same ; and, further, will make the burdens of taxa- 

 tion equal, uniform, and just, and no greater than 

 the necessities of the Government, economically ad- 

 ministered, shall require. 



10. That we are in favor of a searching and ade- 

 quate reform in the civil service of the Government, 

 so as to secure faithfulness, honesty, and efficiency, 

 in all its branches, and in every officer and appointee 

 connected with it. 



11. That we are in favor of a strictly revenue tariff, 

 conformed to the theory and practice of all other 

 just and wise tax laws. 



12. That all taxation ought to be based on wealth 

 instead of population, and every person should be 

 required to contribute to the support of the Govern- 



and that true policy requires as speedy a return to 

 that basis as is practicable, without distress to the 

 debtor class of the people. 



14. There is no necessary or irrepressible conflict 

 between labor and capital; that without capital or 

 consolidated wealth no country can flourish j that 

 capital is entitled to the just and equal protection of 

 the laws ; and that all men, whether acting individ- 

 ually or in a corporate capacity, are entitled to the 

 right by fair and honest means, and not for purposes 

 of wrong or oppression, to so use their property as 

 to increase and consolidate it to the utmost extent 

 within their power. But conceding all this, we de- 

 clare our cordial sympathy and cooperation with the 

 producers and working-men of the country, who 

 make and move all capital, and who onlv seek by 

 just and necessary means to protect themselves 

 against the oppressive vexations of capital, and to 

 ameliorate their condition and dignify their calling. 



15. That we are totally and resolutely opposed to 

 the grant of any more of the public lands, the com- 

 mon property of the people or the States, to corpora- 

 tions for railroads or other purposes, holding that 

 these lands ought to be devoted as homesteads to 

 actual settlers or sold in small quantities to individ- 

 uals at a price so low as to induce speedy occupation 

 and settlement. 



16. That, holding still to the good old Democratic 

 doctrine of annexation or acquisition of territory, we 

 are yet totally opposed to the scheme of President 

 Grant to acquire San Domingo as a "job," and by 

 such means and for such purposes evidently intended, 

 and accept the issue he has tendered in his late mes- 

 sage submitting the subject to the decision of the 

 people. 



17. That the act commonly called the "Bayonet 

 Bill," recently passed by Congress, amendatory to 

 the act of May 31, 1870, and supplementary to the 

 act of July 14, 1870, each and all intended and so 

 contrived as to interfere with and practically subvert 

 free popular elections in all the States, subjecting 

 them to the absolute control through military power, 

 whensoever called forth, of the President and com- 

 mander-in-chief for the time being of the land and 

 naval forces of the United States, and the more 

 recent act of Congress commonly called the "Ku- 

 klux Bill," extending by its terms to every State, 

 intermeddling with the exclusively local concerns of 

 every State, authorizing the President, upon the ex- 

 istence of a condition of things, to be ascertained and 

 determined by himself and in the exercise of his 

 sole judgment, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus 

 in time of peace, and to march a standing army into 

 any State and declare martial law therein at his own 

 mere will and pleasure, thus subverting the entire 

 civil power, legislative, executive, and judicial, of 

 such State, destroying freedom of speech and of the 

 press, and the peaceable assembling of the people, 

 and subjecting every person therein to military 

 arrest, trial, and execution, were enacted for no other 

 purpose than to complete the centralization of all 

 power in the hands or the General Government, es- 

 tablish military despotism, and thus perpetuate the 

 present Administration without regard to the will of 

 the people, and are not only inconsistent with the 

 whole theory and character of the Federal Govern- 

 ment, and revolutionary and dangerous in nature, 

 but in direct conflict with the spirit and letter of the 

 Constitution, including the amendments which they 

 pretend to enforce. 



18. That the radical party of 1871, as now con- 

 stituted, is not the Republican party of the period 



Srevious to the war, nor the so-called Union party 

 uring the war, and is in no respect entitled to the 



