570 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



The Republicans of New Hampshire as- 

 sembled in State Convention at Concord, on 

 January 3, 1872, there being 662 delegates 

 present. For Governor, Ezekiel A. Straw, of 

 Manchester, was nominated. For Railroad 

 Commissioner, Albert S. Twichell, of Gorham, 

 was nominated. 



The following platform was adopted by the 

 convention : 



I, That the Kcpublican party is still, as it 

 ever has been, the party of freedom, improvement, 

 retrenchment, and reform , that, having during its 

 past short but eventful career secured and estab- 

 lished the right of every man to his own limbs and 

 sinews and earnings, the equality of all men before 

 the law ; the inability of a State to enslave any por- 

 tion of its people, and the duty of the Union to 

 guarantee to every citizen the full enjoyment of his 

 liberty and rights until he forfeits them by crime- 

 its mission henceforth is one of peaceful but actual 



Erogrese to protect the weak and humble from vio- 

 mce and oppression, to extend the boundaries and 

 diffuse the blessings of civilization, to promote uni- 

 versal education and the general diffusion of knowl- 

 edge; to see that all laws are faithfully executed, 

 and justice impartially administered, to stimulate in- 

 genuity in the discovery of new inventions of econ- 

 omizing labor and thus enlarging production, the 

 only real source of individual or national wealth, to 

 encourage agriculture as well as manufactures, min- 

 ing, and the mechanic arts, thereby bringing nearer 

 together the producers of food and fabrics, and fur- 

 nishing both with a home market, thus exchanging 

 the gains of industry and the wages of labor by re- 

 ducing the cost of transportation and diminishing 

 the expense of exchanges between farmers and citi- 

 zens ; retrench unnecessary expenditures, reduce 

 taxation to the lowest point consistent with the 

 maintenance of the national credit, abolisb all un- 

 necessary offices, rebuke venality and expose and 

 punish corruption and robbery ; to wrest power from 

 the hands of mere politicians by trade and confide it 

 to those most worthy and best qualified to wield it, 

 by electing and appointing to office only honest and 

 faithful men, so to administer every department of 

 the Government with the most rigid economy and 

 the strictest fidelity, that its burdens may bear as 

 lightly and its benefits be as generally diffused as 

 possible, and thus make a happier and brighter future 

 for the toiling masses and contribute to the welfare, 

 enlightenment, and happiness of the whole people. 



Resolved, That the success of the present national 

 Administration in reducing the public debt, dimin- 

 ishing and equalizing taxation, administering every 

 branch of public affairs with economy and efficiency, 

 forming and improving the civil service, enforcing 

 the laws without fear or favor, protecting the na- 

 tion's wards with paternal care against the cruel 

 avarice of speculation and fraud, and maintaining 

 friendly relations with foreign powers, has been 

 such as to command the approbation of the great 

 majority of the American people and justly entitle 

 it to the confidence and commendation of every true 

 [Republican. 



Resolved^ That, while not unwilling to let the dead 

 past bury its dead, we cannot forget, and the Ameri- 

 can people can never forget that to the so-called 

 Democratic party and its leaders, South and North, 

 we owe all the calamities of the late slaveholders' 

 rebellion and the burden of debt now resting upon 

 the industry of our State and nation. 



Resolved, That so long as a single soldier, disabled 

 in the war for the Union, romains to bo provided 

 for ; so^ long as one dollar of the National debt in- 

 curred in the prosecution of the war remains unpaid ; 

 so long as loving hands do not cease to garland with 

 flowers the graves of our heroes fallen in the defence 

 of liberty and country so long should not the gov- 



ernment of that country be surrendered to the con- 

 trol of those who sought or would have permitted 

 its destruction. 



Resolved, That the Eepublican party, while justly 

 proud of its past history, is not unmindful of its 

 duties to the present, or of its obligations to the 

 future. In its name, therefore, and the name of the 

 people of New Hampshire, we inscribe upon our 

 banners, "Honesty, economy, retrenchment, and re- 

 formhonesty in the public service, economy in the 

 public expenditures, retrenchment of all unneces- 

 sary offices, and reform, moral, social, and political, 

 everywhere." 



Resolved, That, one of the primary objects of civil 

 government being the protection of property, the 

 wealth of the country should bear its full proportion 

 of the expenses of the Government, and all taxation 

 to be just must be equal. 



Resolved, That we call upon Congress to abolish 

 the franking privilege, give the people the cheapest 

 practicable postage, make no more grants of the pub- 

 lic lands except as free homesteads to actual settlers, 

 reduce the expenses of the army and navy, en- 

 courage every department of honest industry, secure 

 to labor everywhere its just reward, and promote 

 universal education. 



Resolved, That the Democratic party, in the course 

 of its brief and accidental control of our State gov- 

 ernment, by its wanton expenditure of the public 

 money and consequent increase of the State debt, by 

 its greed for office and recklessly partisan legisla- 

 tion, by its complete subserviency to demagogues, 

 and the appointment of incapable and inefficient 

 men to office, has shown itself to be signally un- 

 worthy of the confidence and support of the people, 

 and that particularly the course of the leaders of 

 that party in attempting to gerrymander senatorial 

 districts and ward lines, thus outraging the most 

 sacred rights of the people, and in prolonging the 

 session of the Legislature for weeks after the public 

 business was completed, for no other purpose than 

 to secure the offices of the State for its adherents by 

 a resort to bribery, fraud, intimidation, and revolu- 

 tion, has merited the rebuke and should receive the 

 condemnation of every honest man in New Hamp- 

 shire. 



Resolved, That President Grant, by the wisdom, 

 prudence, skill, honesty, sagacity, and abundant 

 success with which he has administered the affairs 

 of the nation as its executive head, has fully justi- 

 fied the confidence reposed in his integrity and 

 ability as a statesman by the Eepublican party, and 

 richly merits a renomination and reelection at their 

 hands, and we confidently propose him as the Ee- 

 publican standard-bearer in the presidential cam- 

 paign of 1872. 



The election was held on March 12, 1872. 

 The entire number of votes polled was 70,340, 

 which is 735 less than in 1868. Straw (Repub- 

 lican) received 38,621 ; Weston (Democratic), 

 36,585 ; Cooper (Labor Reform), 540 ; Black- 

 mer (Temperance), 478; scattering, 16. The 

 majority of the Republican candidate over the 

 Democratic was 2,036 ; over all his competitors 

 together, 1,002. In the Council, there were 4 

 Republicans to 1 Democrat; in the Senate, 8 

 Republicans to 4 Democrats; and in thellonse 

 of Representatives, the Republican majority 

 was 56. 



The members returned to the Lower House 

 were 365, which was the largest number ever 

 elected to it .in New Hampshire. There were 

 five vacancies, a full House consisting of 370 

 members. The large increase in the number 

 returned was the effect of a law enacted at tl 

 previous session, which declared that u every 



