558 



MICHIGAN. 



as it has done in the past, and still does, in the ad- 

 vancement of good work, in the investigation of 

 grievances, and in the redress of wrongs, we can 

 discover no reason for surrendering the reins of 

 power into the hands of a party whose last public 

 service was to drag the country into civil war, to 

 disgrace its financial credit, and to leave the Gov- 

 ernment on the very brink of dissolution, and which 

 made its last effort to regain the confidence of the 

 people under the lead of its life-long enemy in the 

 most brazen, barefaced, and shameless coalition ever 

 known in the history of parties, formed solely and 

 avowedly on the basis of " spoils" alone. 



Upon the financial record of the Eepublican party 

 alike in the nation and in the State, we confidently 

 challenge comparison with any other party which 

 ever held power in either, pointing with j'ust pride 

 to the great and steadily increasing reduction of the 

 national debt, and the improvement of the national 

 credit, accompanied by an equally remarkable reduc- 

 tion of taxation and of expenditure in administering 

 the Government. With all this our national interests 

 and general prosperity have enormously increased, 

 and our citizens are better clothed, better fed, and 

 better paid for their labor than any other people in 

 the world. In this State the State Eepublican man- 

 agement has secured the same blessings of light tax- 

 ation, economical administration, and rapidly-dimin- 

 ishing debt, while our State institutions have been 

 literally built up until they have become the pride 

 of the people-; education, public morals, and the va- 

 rious branches of industry, have been fostered, crime 

 has been repressed, suffering alleviated, and the 

 unfortunate provided for ; large and important im- 

 provements have been projected and are in process 

 of completion, and every State interest has been 

 generously yet economically cared for, with such 

 scrupulous honesty in every department of the State 

 government, that even partisan calumny dare not 

 bring a specific accusation against any. 



We fully appreciate the extraordinary character 

 of the financial difficulties through which the coun- 

 try has recently* passed, and regard it as inevitable 

 that able and patriotic representatives should have 

 differed, like their constituencies, as to what were 

 proper remedies in circumstances wherein they were 

 without specific precedents for guidance. We in- 

 dorse as wise and timely the measure finally agreed 

 upon by Congress between conflicting interests and 

 opposing theories. 



While we recognize in the greenbacks and national- 

 bank notes a circulating^ medium far superior to any 

 paper currency heretofore existing in the United 

 States, saving as it does to the people, directly and 

 indirectly, many millions of dollars annually over 

 the old State-bank system in exchange and discount, 

 we demand that in all financial legislation Congress 

 shall keep steadily in view the resumption of specie 

 payment, to the end that at the earliest day practi- 

 cable the promises to pay of the Government may 

 be equivalent to coin in like amounts throughout 

 the commercial world. 



We believe that banking^ under a well-guarded 

 national system, should be tree, the volume and lo- 

 cality of issue being regulated by the business law 

 of demand ; and we denounce repudiation in every 

 form or degree; holding the pledged faith of the 

 Government sacred and inviolable in both letter and 

 spirit. 



We would not forget the claims of the colored peo- 

 ple of the South to the nation?s fostering care and 

 .protection. Wrested from their masters' control, 

 with freedom conferred upon them by the Govern- 

 ment as a war-measure and in aid of the Union 

 cause, given the elective franchise as means not 

 alone of protection to themselves, but of protection 

 to the nation, it is now the high duty of the Govern- 

 ment, from which it cannot shrink without incurring 

 and deserving the execration of mankind for all 

 time, to protect them in the rights and privileges of 



their enforced citizenship. Their ignorance is not 

 their fault. Errors of theory and mistakes in con- 

 duct are but the legitimate fruits of their former en- 

 slaved condition. The Government assumed the re- 

 sponsibility for evils resulting from these when it 

 clothed them with the full rignts and privileges of 

 citizens. 



We appeal to the national Government, as the 

 good name and fair fame of the nation are dear to it, 

 to protect these people in their civil and political 

 rights, and in their persons, property, and homes, 

 and to provide and secure them in the enjoyment of 

 all educational advantages and privileges. 



Democratic adopted by a convention of 400 

 delegates, held at Kalamazoo on the 10th of 

 September : 



Resolved, That we arraign the party in power for 

 its unexampled extravagance and corruption, and 

 for its unconstitutional and dangerous usurpation of 

 power not delegated to the Federal Government, 

 and we demand an honest, and economical, and just 

 administration of the national offices. 



We demand an immediate abandonment of all 

 efforts to rule the States for corrupt party purposes 

 by an infamous alliance of carpet-baggers, scalawags, 

 and bayonets. We demand the adequate punish- 

 ment of all men guilty of corruption and embezzle- 

 ment in office. We demand an immediate repeal of 

 the law increasing salaries, and. of the infamous 

 "gag law," by which the party in power seeks to 

 muzzle a free press. 



Denouncing its wholesale appropriation of the 

 public domain, the Credit Mobilier, and other cor- 

 rupt corporations, we demand of the Government a 

 careful reservation of the remaining public lands for 

 the use and benefit of the Union soldier and sailor, 

 and of the actual settler. 



We demand a repeal of the legal-tender act, to 

 take effect not later than July 4, 1876, a specie basis, 

 and free banks with a secured currency. 



We demand a tariff for revenue only ? free from 

 the unjust discriminations that raise little or no 

 revenue, create monopolies, unnecessarily increase 

 the cost of living, and encourage corrupt legislation, 

 and we demand the payment of all forms of the na- 

 tional debt, in coin or its equivalent, when due, and 

 an equal and just distribution of the taxes and im- 

 posts required to raise the needed revenue. 



Resolved, That in the management of our State 

 affairs we demand prudence in the creation of taxes, 

 honesty and economy in the expenditures of money ; 

 that we condemn the management of our State 

 finances, for the reasons : first, that with a large 

 balance in the Treasury, tax-payers in these times 

 should be, but are not, relieved of any of their an- 

 nual burden ; second, that this large balance is 

 loaned to the pets of a political ring, for which no ad- 

 equate security is required, while ? if it should be lost, 

 the bond of the State Treasurer is quite too small to 

 protect the State ; third, that., the books and ac- 

 counts of the State Treasurer being public, the Legis- 

 lature has refused to permit them to be thoroughly 

 examined by the representatives of the people ; the 

 State Treasurer has refused to report to the Legis- 

 lature the location and' condition of the million of 

 money in his hands, but above all that the political 

 majority of the Legislature has tolerated this re- 

 fusal, all which are facts well calculated to excite 

 serious fears for the safety^ of our money. 



Resolved, That we are in favor of amending our 

 State constitution at the earliest time possible, so 

 that the Legislature may have power to regulate the 

 liquor-traffic. 



Resolved, That, when the State, impelled by a pub- 

 lic necessity, confers corporate powers to secure a 

 public benefit, such powers must be held subject to 

 just laws judicially interpreted, a sound public pol- 

 icy that protects alike the rights and interests of 

 the State, the people, and the corporation. 



