240 



CONNECTICUT. 



of the Senate were concurred in, two-thirds 

 voting in favor thereof. 

 The bill, as passed, was as follows : 



" An act conferring jurisdiction upon the Criminal 

 Court of the TJistrict of Columbia, and for other pur- 

 poses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 

 Representatives of the United States of America in 

 Congress assembled, That the Criminal Court of the 

 District of Columbia shall have jurisdiction of all 

 crimes and misdemeanors committed in said Dis- 

 trict, not lawfully triable in any other court, and 

 which are required by law to be prosecuted by in- 

 dictment or information. 



" SECTION 2. That the provisions of the thirty- 

 third section of the judiciary act of 1789 shall apply 

 to courts created by act of Congress in the District 

 of Columbia." 



The question of "transportation" was a 

 prominent subject at this session of Congress. 

 It related to increased facilities and reduced 

 prices for the transportation of agricultural 

 products from the fertile fields of the Western 

 States to the seaports on the Atlantic coasts. 

 Vast quantities of these products were prac- 

 tically without a market, owing to the cost of 

 transportation. In the Senate the subject was 

 referred to a special committee, of which Mr. 

 Windom, of Minnesota, was chairman. The 

 committee made a very lengthy report, of 

 which the substance is stated in a speech of 

 Mr. Windom, delivered in the Senate on April 

 24th. It presents such a complete view of 

 the whole question, with such a variety of im- 

 portant facts, that it has been inserted in this 

 volume under the title of PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, 

 to which the reader is referred. 



This session of Congress was closed, by ad- 

 journment, on June 23d. 



CONNECTICUT. The Democratic party 

 of this State assembled in convention at New 

 Haven on the 3d of February, 1874, for the 

 purpose of nominating their candidates for 

 Governor and the other State officers, at the 

 general election in April. A considerable pro- 

 portion of the delegates were Liberal Republi- 

 cans, who made common cause with the Dem- 

 ocrats. Charles E. Ingersoll was nominated 

 for Governor, and the incumbents of the other 

 State offices were renominated. 



The following platform was unanimously 

 adopted by the convention : 



Resolved, That this convention does hereby declare 

 and make known the following to be its principles 

 of action ; and to the support of them it invites the 

 hearty cooperation of all honest men : 



1. We declare our unfaltering devotion to the Con- 

 stitution of the United States and to the Union of 

 the States thereby established ; and we affirm that 

 the people of the several States have the sole and ex- 

 clusive rig^ht of governing themselves as free, sover- 

 eign, and independent States, subject only to the lim- 

 itations of the Constitution ; and all the powers not 

 therein expressly granted to the national Govern- 

 ment are reserved to the States respectively. 



2. We affirm that the greatest danger witli which 

 we are now threatened is the corruption and extrav- 

 agance which exist in high official places ; and we do 

 declare as the 'cardinal principle of our future politi- 

 cal action, that retrenchment, economy, and reform 

 are imperatively demanded in all the governments 



of the people Federal as well as State and munici- 

 pal and we here proclaim ourselves the uncompro- 

 mising foes of all salary-grabbers, ring-politicians, 

 and land-monopolists, whoever they may be, and 

 wherever they may be found, whether they are in 

 office or out ; and we appeal to honest men every- 

 where, without regard to past political affiliations, to 

 join us in branding as they deserve these corrupt 

 leeches on the body politic, and in assisting us to 

 purge official stations of their unwholesome and bane- 

 ful presence. 



8. The present Federal Administration by its ut- 

 ter inability to comprehend the dignity or responsi- 

 bilities of the duties with which it is charged ; by its 

 devotion to personal and partisan interests ; by its 

 weak and incompetent management of the national 

 finances ; by its unwarranted interference with the 

 local self-government of the people, by its support 

 of the corrupt governments which it has imposed, by 

 its power, upon several of the States of the Uuion ; 

 by its complicity with corrupt practices and scan- 

 dals in various quarters ; and by its appointment of 

 notoriously incompetent men to high official posi- 

 tions has justly brought upon itself the condemna- 

 tion of the American people. 



4. The procuring or money from a notoriously cor- 

 rupt "ring" of Washington politicians, for use in 

 this State, in controlling our elections, is so marked 

 an evidence of political corruption, that it deserves 

 the severest rebuke ; and we call upon the people of 

 Connecticut in the coming election to enter such a 

 protest against so gross an abuse of official trust as 

 will secure punishment for the present, and aiford 

 adequate protection for the future. 



5. We recognize in the present stringency of the 

 money-markets the panic which led thereto the 

 general prostration of business, and the consequent 

 suffering of the working-classes, the direct fruits of 

 that policy which, while it pretends to advance the 

 interests of the country, is in reality plunging us 

 into national and individual bankruptcy and ruin. 

 And as an offset to this policy, we demand, and we 

 call upon the people to inaugurate, a speedy return 

 to specie payments, as called for alike by the highest 

 considerations of commercial morality and honest 

 and economical government. 



6. While we are in favor of all just and equal tax- 

 ation necessary to sustain our Government and our 

 public institutions, we are opposed to all unjust and 

 unequal systems of taxation which tend to favor one 

 class at the expense of other classes of the people. 



7. The public domain of the United States is the 

 property of the people, and as such should be pre- 

 served for the people ; and we condemn the policy 

 of wholesale grants to speculative corporations for 

 the benefit of the few to the exclusion of the many. 



8. We are opposed to all monopolies, which oper- 

 ate for the especial benefit of privileged persons or 

 classes, and to all combinations or corporations made 

 to effect purposes hostile to the best interests of the 

 people. 



9. That we recognize the grievances of which the 

 industrial classes c'omplain, and we favor a govern- 

 mental policy that shall impose such restraints and 

 prohibitions upon grasping corporations and stock- 

 gamblers as will prevent those financial fluctuations 

 which have ever resulted in a debased currency, offi- 

 cial defalcations, bankrupt employers, and starving 

 working men and women. 



10. That we are in favor of such action by the 

 Legislature of our State as will bring the question of 

 calling a Constitutional Convention directly before 

 the sovereign people of this State, for their adoption 

 or rejection, as they shall deem best. 



11. We point with pride to the manner in which 

 the affairs of this Stace have been administered dur- 

 ing the past year ; to the watchful economy with 

 which all departments of the State government have 

 been conducted ; to the dignity and impartiality with 

 which the Executive duties have been performed; 



