PENNSYLVANIA. 



635 



that tends to protect them from oppression, and to 

 improve their condition, and dignity their calling, 

 deserved and receives our sympathy and support ; 

 and that we cordially recommend the conservative 

 resolutions adopted at the recent National Labor 

 Congress at Cleveland, favoring arbitration and co- 

 operation. 



Resolved, That although alwaye a large majority 

 of the American people, the agriculturists have never 

 demanded of the Government, State or Federal, any 

 special privilege; have never infested the halls of 

 Congress or the Legislature with lobbyists and rings, 

 butj on the contrary, have suffered under discrimi- 

 nating and unjust laws until forbearance 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 exact justice. 



Rftohei, That the public lands should be sacredly 

 reserved for actual settlers, who dwell upon and cul- 

 tivate them, and that we will continue to denounce 

 and oppose, as we have always denounced and op- 

 posed, all gifts of such lands by the Government to 

 incorporated companies. 



Boohed, That the greatest danger to free institu- 

 tions is the wide-spreading corruption that threatens 

 the utter destruction of public virtue. When the 

 Credit Mobilier frauds pass unpunished ; when those 

 engaged in them are elevated to high official posi- 

 tion ; when seats in the Federal Senate are notori- 

 ously purchased; when vast sums of money are cor- 

 ruptly employed in popular elections ; when an army 

 of offioe-holdera, with the sanction of the Govern- 

 ment, use their official influence to control elections ; 

 when the bribery of custom-house officers is an estab- 

 lished usage; when rings of plunderers are the re- 

 cipient* of millions of money appropriated for pub- 

 lic use ; when official defalcations are of such frequent 

 occurrence as scarcely to excite attention ; when Pres- 

 idential pardons relieve defaulters from punishment, 

 and presidential appointments reward Credit Mobi- 

 lier and salary-grabbing Congressmen, and when 

 congressional investigation is generally a whitewash- 

 ing affair, it is not strangle that men begin to lose 

 confidence in free institutions, and that the fame of 

 the great republic is tarnished throughout the civil- 

 ized world. To remedy these evils, we insist that the 

 receipts and expenditures of the Government shall 

 be diminished ; that its patronage shall be curtailed, 

 and all useless offices abolished ; that it shall cease 

 to usurp functions to which it hns no title but official 

 misconduct and fraud ; corruptions in elections shall 

 be rigorously punished, and that public virtue shall 

 be upheld, and want of it condemned by the voice 

 of the people. 



Raolve4, That we condemn without reserve the 

 act of Congress, granting additional salaries and the 

 back-nay grabs, as unjust and unjustifiable, and de- 

 mand its immediate and unconditional repeal ; and 

 we denounce every member of Congress, whether 

 Republican or Democrat, who supported the law, or 

 .;d the money procured thereby, and we espe- 

 cially denounce the conduct of President Grant, in 

 using the influence of his high position for its pas- 

 sage, and whose official signature made it a law. 



Raolved, That we will no longer tamely submit 

 to the repetition of the election frauds by which the 

 will of the people, expressed at the ballot-box, has 

 been subverted for some years past, and that the 

 Democratic State Central Committee be directed to 

 use all their efforts to prevent a repetition of these 

 outrages on the franchises of the people; and if, in 

 spite of their efforts to secure an honest election, the 

 popular will is again fraudulently overborne, to adopt 

 such measures as will result in the certain vindica- 

 tion of the rights of the legal voters of this Common- 

 wealth. 



Jhtoletd, That the act of the President in setting 

 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 

 right* under the Federal Constitution. 



Besolved, That evsry department of the Govern- 

 ment being in the hands of the Republican party, 

 they are justly responsible lor the evils and wrongs 

 in legislation and administration of which the coun- 

 try complains. 



Besolved } That under the time-honored Democratic 

 banner, with this declaration of principles inscribed 

 ou its folds, we engage in the conflict, and we ear- 

 nestly appeal to patriotic men of every class, without 

 regard to party names or past differences, to unite 

 with us on terms of perfect equality in the struggle 

 to rescue the Government from the hands of dishon- 

 est men, and redeem it from the flood of corruption 

 which threatens its ruin. 



The State election was held on October 14th, 

 at which the total vote for State Treasurer was 

 464,294, of which Hutchiuson received 219,471, 

 and Mackey 244,823 ; majority for Mackey, 

 25,352. The total vote for Judge of the Su- 

 premo Court was 466,178; of which Lndlow 

 received 225,946, and Gordon 240,232; Gor- 

 don's majority, 14,286. The Legislature was 

 divided as follows : 



Senate 20 



House 57 



12 

 43 



1 Liberal Republican in the Senate. 



Under the amended constitution the State 

 election will be held biennially, on the Tuesday 

 after the first Monday in November, and the 

 Legislature will meet on the first Tuesday in 

 January of every second year. 



On March 24th an election was held on the 

 question of granting licenses to sell intoxicat- 

 ing liquors. Under an act of the Legislature 

 of the previous year such an election was pro- 

 vided for in every city and county of the State, 



It was also further provided that at the 

 expiration of every subsequent period of three 

 years a similar election should bo held. The 

 act further provided that " whenever, by the 

 returns of elections in any city or county afore- 

 said, it shall appear that there is a majority 

 against license, it shall not be lawful for any 

 court or board of license commissioners to 

 issue any license for the sale of spirituous vi- 

 nous, malt, or other intoxicating liquors, or any 

 admixture thereof, in said city or county, at 

 any time thereafter, until, at nn election as 

 above provided, n majority shall vote in favor 

 of license : Provided, That nothing contained 

 in the provisions of this act shall prevent the 

 issuing of licenses to druggists for the sale of 

 liqnors for medicinal and manufacturing pur- 

 poses." 



The question of the constitutionality of this 

 law was brought before the Supreme Court. 

 A majority of the court decided it to be con- 

 stitutional. They held that the Legislature 

 passed a law prohibiting the sale of intoxicat- 

 ing liqnors. and provided penalties for a breach 

 of its requirements. Thus it was a perfect law 

 when it left the Governor's hands ; the vote of 

 the people did not make the law, did not give 

 force to any prohibition, did not create a pen- 

 alty, but simply expressed an opinion upon the 

 law, their sentiments and wishes in regard to 

 it. Such a vote might be very useful in ascer- 

 taining the utility or advisability of a particu- 



