MASSACHUSETTS. 



B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler, in the full confi- 

 dence that they are statesmen " whose character and 

 career give unquestionable assurance to the whole 

 country that they will be faithful and zealous to 

 maintain the equal rights of all citizens under the 

 law, to bring about the resumption of specie pay- 

 ments at a date not later than already fixed by law, 

 and to eifect a thorough and radical reform in the 

 civil service." 



We are in favor of a prompt return to specie pay- 

 ments and of taking no backward step. We hold that 

 the act of Congress, fixing a date for resumption, is 

 a help and not a hinderance to that end. 



We are in favor of putting the civil service on the 

 ground of merit and fitness, and of lifting it above the 

 instability of political fluctuations. We will sustain 

 the President in retaining and selecting with inde- 

 pendence and in the spirit of the Constitution the 

 agents of his Administration. 



FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON. 



We are in favor of a policy toward the States lately 

 in rebellion which shall make the nationality of the 

 United States so distinctly and universally felt that 

 national citizenship shall be to every human being 

 protection in life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, anS 

 the expression of opinion ; which shall encourage the 

 education of the people, and which with a firm but 

 wise hand shall restore the South to the blessings of 

 peace and to the enjoyment by all alike of liberty 

 under the law. 



The retiring President of the United States is en- 

 titled to the gratitude of the country for his achieve- 

 ments in its military service, for the firmness with 

 which, as its Chief Magistrate, he has so often main- 

 tained the national honor and credit ; and for the good 

 sense with which, upholding the prerogative of his 

 office against the encroachments of a Democratic 

 House of Representatives, he has reminded that branch 

 of the Government of the propriety of confining its 

 attention to its legitimate functions. 



The Democratic party has nothing in its record or 

 attitude to coinmand confidence. Having no settled 

 principles or policy, it has inaugurated no reform and 

 has added nothing to the beneficence of government. 

 It truckled to the demands of the slave-power during 

 its supremacy, and cannot be safely intrusted with the 

 fate of the freedmen in whose emancipation it had 

 no sympathy. It bitterly and persistently resisted the 

 adoption of those amendments to the Constitution 

 which have made it the great charter of right, and 

 its profession of acquiescent in them is a change of 

 policy and not of heart. Eemembering that, in de- 

 fiance of good faith, it wantonly repealed, the Mis- 



souri Compromise at the bidding of the South, arid 

 reopened in 1854 the issues it had solemnly declared 

 were settled forever by the Compromise of 1850, we 

 have no faith in its pretended acceptance of any 

 measures essential to the security of freedom and 

 the peace of the republic. It made haste to renew 

 its alliance with those who would have destroyed 

 the republic, and is repeating the perilous experi- 

 ment of a sectional organization in the South, found- 

 ed on antagonism of race and color. Its supremacy 

 would again illustrate the system, which it was guilty 

 of inaugurating, of making the civil service a reward 

 for the persistency of partisanship. It is guilty of 

 duplicity in its financial policy, and offers to 'the 

 prosperity of the country nothing except the prospect 

 of such an interruption in the work of reconstruction, 

 and such an unsettled and hopeless financial policy, 

 as would deprive business and labor of that stability 

 which is the first condition of their revival. Its 

 national candidates, one of them an inflationist, and 

 the other guilty of compromising his convictions to 

 conciliate a class whose heresies he knows would 

 lead to financial chaos, are also the disciples of that 

 ultra school which before the war admitted the right 

 of a State to secede, and since the war denies the 

 power of the nation to protect the lives and rights of 

 its citizens. 



We reiterate the declaration of a year ago that the 

 Republican party of Massachusetts will support no 

 man for office whose personal character is not an 

 absolute guarantee of fidelity to every public trust. 

 And while we stand pledged! to civil-service reform, 

 a return to a specie basis and the equal rights of all 

 American citizens, we demand as a matter of consist- 

 ency the nomination of only those candidates who 

 will be true to the fulfillment of that pledge. 



While the present depression of business and trade 

 is not wholly controllable by political agencies, we 

 recognize the necessity and pledge the endeavor of 

 every means for their revival especially the neces- 

 sity of a wise and not pretentious economy in all 

 national. State, and municipal expenditures. And to 

 this end it is the duty of every congressional, legis- 

 lative, and ward district to select for its Representa- 

 tives wise men, who will cooperate in the reduction 

 of expenses, the simplification of taxation, and the 

 prudent husbandry of the public moneys. 



We see with gratification in the community a pop- 

 ular moral movement, independent of politics, and 

 earnest in the cause of personal reformation. And 

 we are in favor of such legislation in this Common- 

 wealth as will promote all causes of education, re- 

 form, temperance, labor, and equal rights of American 

 citizens irrespective of sex. We frankly differ as to 

 methods, but we believe that these will be best left, 

 subject to constitutional limitations, to the Legisla- 

 ture which is fresh from the people and familiar with 

 their will. 



In view of the prudent and intelligent administra- 

 tion of the government of this Commonwealth during 

 the current year, we commend, with entire confi- 

 dence, to the suffrages of the people, the Hon. Alex' 

 ander H. Rice as again our candidate for Governor, 

 and with him the other nominees of this convention. 



An effort to secure the adoption of a res- 

 olution in favor of woman suffrage failed. A 

 State Central Committee, consisting of one 

 member from each senatorial district, was ap' 

 pointed. 



The Democratic Convention was held at 

 Worcester, on the day following that of the 

 Republicans, September 6th. Much interest 

 was excited by a preliminary contest between, 

 those who favored the nomination of William 

 Gaston for Governor, and those who urged 

 a " new departure " by nominating Charles 

 Francis Adams. The advocates of Mr. Adams 



