618 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



investigation by an able and experienced commis- 

 sion, to be formed under proper authority, of the 

 whole subject. 



Resolved, That we arraign the Democratic party 

 of Pennsylvania for its utter failure to redeem the 

 promises upon which it partially attained to power 

 in this State. It pledged itself to reform, to legis- 

 lative purity, to greater economy, and to a higher 

 aim in legislation ; while it has reformed nothing, 

 has economized in nothing, and has dishonored the 

 State by an unseemly and arbitrary exercise of legis- 

 lative powers. 



Resolved, That the efforts now being made by the 

 national Administration to ferret out and bring to 

 punishment those who have been defrauding the 

 Government of its lawful revenues, should enlist 

 the sympathy and hearty support of honest men of 

 all parties. 



The Democrats held their State Convention 

 in Erie, on the 8th of September, when Cyrus 

 L. Pershing Avas nominated for Governor and 

 Victor E. Piollet for State Treasurer. The 

 resolutions adopted were as follows: 



Resolved, 1. That we hereby declare our unfalter- 

 ing devotion to the fundamental principles of Dem- 

 ocratic government as enunciated by Thomas Jeffer- 

 son in his first inaugural address ; to equal and exact 

 justice to all men, of whatsoever state or persuasion, 

 religious or political ; the support of the State gov- 

 ernments in all their rights, as the most competent 

 administration for our domestic concerns, and the 

 surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies ; 

 the supremacy of the civil over the military au- 

 thority ; economy in the public expense, that labor 

 may be lightly burdened ; the honest payment of 

 our just debts ? and the sacred preservation of the 

 public faith, freedom of religion, freedom of the 

 press, freedom of person under the protection of the 

 great writ of habeas corpus, and trial by juries im- 

 partially selected. 



2. That the wide-spread depression and suffering 

 which affect every business and employment that is 

 capable of being touched by legislation, show beyond 

 a doubt the ignorance, inefficiency, and wickedness 

 of the leaders of the party that has ruled the State 

 and nation for a period of years, and call for their 

 immediate and permanent removal from the places 

 they have so long dishonored and disgraced. 



3. That the un due multiplication of public officers, 

 and the inordinate increase of salaries and emolu- 

 ments of offices, are among the many evils which 

 radical rule has forced upon the country, and favor- 

 ing an economical administration of the Federal and 

 State governments so that the people may be as 

 speedily as possible relieved from the burden of tax- 

 ation with which they are now seriously oppressed, 

 we call upon our Federal and State represent 

 atives to strive by all proper means to reduce these 

 evils to the very lowest practicable number and 

 amount. 



4. That the conduct of the present State Treasurer 

 in the management of the Commonwealth's finances, 

 in his neglecting to appropriate the moneys in the 

 sinking-fund in payment of the public debt as rap- 

 idly as required by law, in non-accounting for the 

 interest received by him on the people's money de- 

 posited with the several banks and banking institu- 

 tions throughout the State, and his insolent refusal 

 to submit the archives of the Treasury Department 

 to a legally constituted committee of the House of 

 Eepresentatives, appointed to investigate the same, 

 is cause for grave suspicion, and is deserving of the 

 severest condemnation at the hands of an outraged 

 and already overtaxed people. 



5. That the condition of our State Treasury de- 

 mands the most searching and thorough investiga- 

 tion .and we call upon the committee appointed by 

 the House of Eepresentatives to investigate the state 



of the same, and to resolutely pursue the duty which 

 has been confided to it. 



6. That the nominees of this convention are here- 

 by pledged to apply all moneys in the sinking-fund 

 as required by law, in the reduction of the public 

 debt, and thereby save the interest on the same to 

 the amount so reduced, and that moneys due the 

 Commonwealth from corporations and individuals 

 shall be promptly collected and paid into the Treas- 

 ury, and not in any manner, directly or indirectly, to 

 employ public moneys for their own profit or pur- 

 poses. 



7. As the contraction of the money currency and 

 circulating medium, heretofore made by the Eepub- 

 lican party, and the further contraction proposed by 

 it, with a view to forced resumption of specie pay- 

 ments, have already brought disaster to the business 

 of the country, and threaten general bankruptcy, 

 while we expressly enunciate the principle that a 

 sound currency should be gold and silver, or re- 

 deemable therein, we are opposed to either a con- 

 traction or inflation of the present currency, and, 

 would leave the restoration of legal tenders to par in 

 gold to be brought about by promoting the indus- 

 tries of the people and not by destroying them. 



8. That the policy initiated by the Eepublican 

 party of abolishing legal tenders, and giving the na- 

 tional banks the power to .furnish all the currency, 

 will increase the power of an already dangerous 

 monopoly, and the enormous burdens now oppress- 

 ing the people, without compensating advantage, 

 and all the national - bank circulation should be 

 promptly and permanently retired and full legal ten- 

 ders be issued in their place. 



9. That the public interest demands that the Gov- 

 ernment should cease to discredit its own money, 

 and should make its legal tenders receivable for all 

 public dues, except where respect for the obligations 

 of contracts requires payment in coin. 



10. Demands the extinction of the present national 

 banks and the establishment in their stead of a sys- 

 tem of free banks of discount and deposit, under 

 such regulations as the States respectively may pre- 

 scribe, and no paper-money except such as may be 

 issued directly by and upon the faith of the Federal 

 Government, affording practically a currency based 

 on the gold and silver and other property of the 

 whole people of the country. 



11. That with this declaration of principle of pol- 

 icy we arraign the leaders of the Eepublican party 

 for their extravagant expenditures and profligate 

 waste of the people's money, for their corruption, for 

 their peculation, for their contempt of constitutional 

 obligations, for their extortionate increase of the 

 salaries of our public officers, for their oppressive, 

 unjust, and defective system of taxation, finance, and 

 currency, for their continuance of incompetent and 

 corrupt men in office ; and, further, general misman- 

 agement of both the State and Federal governments, 

 and we cordially invite the Liberal Eepublicans and 

 all other men, without regard to past party affilia- 

 tion, to cooperate with us in expelling them from 

 power, and securing such an administration of our 

 public offices as characterized the purer and better 

 days of the republic. 



The election resulted in the success of the 

 .Republican candidates. The total vote was as . 

 follows : 



FOR GOVERNOR. 



HartranftHRep.)... 804,175 



Pershing (Dem.) 292,145 



Browne (Prohibition) 13,244 



Hartranft's plurality 12,080 



FOR STATE TREASURER. 



Eawle (Kep.) 302,875 



Piollet (Dem.) 293,150 



Pennypacker (Prohibition) 12,468 



The present State government is as follows : 



