460 



MAINE. 



that tends to protect them from oppression, and to 

 improve their condition, and dignify their calling, 

 deserves and receives our support. 



JtanlrtJ, That although always constituting a 

 large majority of the American people, the agricult- 

 urists have never demanded of the Govcrnm. -nt. 

 State or Federal, any special privilege; have never 

 infested the halls of Congress or the Legislature with 

 lobbies and rings, but on the contrary have aunVml 

 under discriminating and unjust laws until "for- 

 bearance has ceased to be a virtue." We hereby 

 pledge our sincere and honest efforts to obtain for 

 them a redress of their grievances, and equal and ex- 

 act justice. 



Atolee.1, That the public lands should be sacredly 

 reserved for actual settlers, who will dwell upon and 

 cultivate them; and for the payment of the public 

 debt; and that we will continue to denounce and op- 

 pose all further donations of them. 



Jiefihnl, That the greatest danger to free institu- 

 tions is the wide-spreading corruption that threatens 

 the utter destruction of public virtue. When Credit 

 Mobilier frauds pass unpunished, when those in 

 them are elevated to high official position, when seats 

 in the Federal Senate are purchased, when vast sums 

 of money are corruptly employed in party elections, 

 when an' army of omce-holders, with the sanction of 

 the Government, use their official influence to con- 

 trol elections, when the bribery of custom-house 

 officers is the established usage, when rings of plun- 

 derers are the receivers of money appropriated for 

 public uses, when official defalcations are of such fre- 

 quent occurrence as to excite attention, when presi- 

 dential patrons are saved from punishment, when 

 Credit ^Mobilierand salary-grabbing Congressmen re- 

 ceive appointments, and when congressional inves- 

 tigations are generally whitewashing affairs, it is 

 not strange that men begin to lose confidence in free 

 institutions, and that the fall of the great republic is 

 looked for throughout the civilized world. 



To remedy these evils we insist that the receipts 

 and expenditures of the Government shall be dimin- 

 ished; that its patronage shall be curtailed, and all 

 useless offices abolished ; that it shall cease to usurp 

 functions to which it has no title ; that official mis- 

 conduct, fraud, and corruption in elections, shall be 

 rigorously punished, and that public virtue shall be 

 upheld, and the want of it condemned, by the united 

 voice of the people. 



Betolced, That we condemn without reserve the 

 late action of Congress in granting additional salary 

 as unjust and unjustifiable, and demand its immedi- 

 ate and unconditional repeal ; and we denounce every 

 member of Congress, whether Republican or Demo- 

 crat, who supported the law, or received and retained 

 money procured thereby, and we especially denounce 

 the conduct of President Grant in using the influence 

 of his high position for its passage, and whose offi- 

 cial signature made it a law- ana also unqualifiedly 

 condemn the action of the Republican party of our 

 State in paying for political party-work, and onrieh- 

 Ing party-leaders, by raising the salary of public 

 officers, and especially in raising that of the pres- 

 ent Warden of our State-prison to $-4,<XX>, more than 

 three times the salary of any former warden, and more 

 than the salary of any other warden of any prison in 

 New England, and more than that of the Chief Jus- 

 tice of the Supreme Judicial Court of our State. ' 



Rttohtd, That the act of the President in 

 up, by the bayonet, a government in Louisiana not 

 chosen by her people, and having no title whatever 

 to rule over them, was a flagrant violation of her 

 rights, and of the Federal Constitution, and a union 

 of the purse and sword in the hands of the same 

 man. revolting to the spirit of our republic, and 

 daii'/orous alike to public and individual liberty. 



lb*>Ud, That all attempts made to introduce into 

 our American system of schools for the muses, the 

 Prussian system of compulsory education, should 

 command the serious investigation of our people, 

 and the careful vigilance of our Legislature. 



Raohtd, That every part of the Government, be- 

 ing in the hands of the Republican party, they are 

 j"-tly responsible for the evils and wrongs in legis- 

 lation ami administration of which the country com- 

 iiluin, including the seduction of I ,i. m- 



bcrs of Congress to the corm ! the Re- 



publican partv to rob the people of their i 



Kttotrttl. That under the time-hoi .-ratio 



banner, with this declaration of principles on its 

 folds, we engage in the conflict, and we ean 

 appeal to the patriotic n n of , \ cry class, without 

 regard to party names or r..-t ilitt'ercnccs, to unite 

 with us on terms of perfect equality, in t 

 to rescue the Government from the hands of di 

 e.-t men, and redeem it from the flood of corruption 

 which threatens its ruin. 



The Rcpnlican State Convention, corn prising 

 1,241; (loiepites. met in IJunpor on the 19th of 

 Juno, and iit'U-r nominating Nelson Dinirloy, .Ir., 

 for tiic, otfio.o of (iovernor, adopted the follow- 

 ing platform of principles: 



Rttvletd, As the principles of the Republican par- 

 ty, heretofore expressed in its convention, in regard 

 to State and national attairs, it is declared that events 

 have proved that their practical enforcement is es- 

 sential to the welfare of the State and nation, and 

 the maiiittnance of the interests, rights, and liberties 

 of the people. 



Itetohtd, That in view of the fact that the Repub- 

 lican party has so met the vital issues of the past 

 twelve years as to secure the support of a vast pre- 

 ponderance of the patriotism and intelligence of the 

 nation, it has fairly won of itself the right to the title 

 of being the true reform party of the country. 



Jiaolnetl, That the Republicans of Maine demand 

 at the hands of those they have chosen t > conduct 

 the affairs of the nation and State rigid economy, to 

 the end that taxes may be reduced as rapidly as is 

 consistent with good government. 



Raolrt I, That this convention protests against the 

 granting or another acre of the public domain to rail- 

 road or other corporations, and we further declare 

 against any grant of the national credit for a national 

 participation in the building of canals or railroads, 

 believing that the direct tendency of that policy ia 

 toward prodigality and corruption. 



Refolded That we heartily applaud the active 

 measure of the late Congress in ferreting out and ex- 

 posing corruption and we have seen with profound 

 regret in the disclosures made thereby evidence of 

 political and official corruption, and the abuse of re- 

 sponsible positions by men of all political parties, 

 and wo demand pure official conduct and the punish- 

 ment of unfaithful men. who, having betrayed the 

 confidence freely extended to tlmm, shall not be 

 shielded from the disgrace of their acts by any parti- 

 sanship of ours, and we denounce all Credit Mouilier 

 transactions, whatever be their powrr. 



Retolvtd, That the Republicans of Maine denounce 

 the recent action of Congress known as the salary 

 grab, Increasing the salaries of its members-, and 

 especially its retroaetirt feature, by which nearly 

 $5,000 were voted to each member for services al- 

 ready paid, us a gross violation of the pledges of the 

 last national Convention, and demand the imme- 

 diate and unconditional repeal of an act so disgrace- 

 ful to Congress and odious to the people. 



Xetotrt'l, That the practice of loading the appro- 

 priation bills essential t vorn- 

 inent with objectionable legislation in the chape of 

 amendments toward the close of the session, is a 

 prolific source of abuse, and a fraud upon the ] 

 and its reform is urgently demanded. 



Retolrtd, That we recognize as a growing evil that 

 should bo uprooted the increase of private legisla- 

 tion, both in the Legislatures of the States and in 

 the nationnl Congress, consuming the time that 

 should lie given to purely public ir tiding 



up thereby overgrown corporations and monopolies, 



