MASSACHUSETTS. 



613 



prevailed, and in the convention Mr. Gaston 

 withdrew his name. The ticket was as fol- 

 lows: For Governor, Charles Francis Adams, 

 ot ' (jiiiiu-y ; Lieutenant-Governor, William K. 

 I'liuiki'tf, of Pittstiold ; Svivt.-iry <>!' Mali-, 

 Kduin 11. Lothrop, of Spring&n; Auditor, 

 John K. Fitzgerald, of Boston; Treasurer, 

 Weston Howland, of Fairhaven; Attorney- 

 General, Richard Olney, of Boston. 

 The following platform was adopted: 



The Democrats of Massachusetts and their com- 

 patriots hull with satisfaction the auspicious action 

 of t lie recent national council at St. Louis. Its decla- 

 ration of principles, together with the letters of ae- 

 ceptanee .'t' its nominees, composes an harmonious 

 aiul beneficent body of political doctrine which, wise- 

 ly applied, by tlio statesmen happily chosen for that 

 g'reut trust, to die existing critical condition of the 

 country, would speedily result in a reinvigoration of 

 our ennobled industries, apurgation of the corrup- 

 tions that dishonor the public service, financial sound- 

 ness and good government, with tranquillity and 

 well-regulated liberty in all parts of the Union. 

 The national honor and credit demand exact justice 

 to all creditors of the Government, the pensioner, 

 the laborer, and the bondholder, and the payment in 

 coin of the debt represented by legal-tender notes, 

 held by the people at large, equally with the bonded 

 debt held by capitalists. After eleven years' experi- 

 ence of Republican neglect and incapacity to formu- 

 late and carry out a financial policy 1'or the resump- 

 tion of specie payments, the people of the country 

 should intrust to the party that never in the history 

 of its power gave sanction to the dishonest system of 

 an inconvertible paper currency the accomplishment 

 of this vital need of our commerce. 



To the national House of Representatives the grati- 

 tude of the country is especially due for its courageous 

 and largely successful efforts, in spite of the impla- 

 cable hostility of an improvident Administration and 

 its supportersj to reduce the expenses of Government 

 to a scale adjusted to the economic necessities of 

 a period of unexampled industrial distress, and the 

 requirements of republican simplicity and frugality. 

 Also, for its resolute inquests into official mal-admin- 

 istration, whereby gross corruptions have been ex- 

 posed to popular execration, unfaithful officers expelled 

 in disgrace from the exalted places of authority they 

 defiled, and the honest sentiment of the country 

 aroused to a knowledge of evils and the impera- 

 tive need of reform. The action of the Democratic 

 House, in the measures that met its sanction, conclu- 

 sively refutes the absurd charges of a malevolent 

 opposition, and that the Democratic party entertains 

 any feeling or purpose disloyal to the national spirit 

 or to the integrity of the republic, or to the letter or 

 spirit of the Federal Constitution in any of its parts. 



We rejoice in the social order, rapidly-reviving 

 prosperity, and established cordial relations between 

 the races, which have followed as the result of the 

 restoration of Democratic control of affairs in the 

 several lately disturbed State's. Wherever honest 

 government has gone, violence, disorders, and race- 

 conflicts, have disappeared, and the theatre of outrages 

 upon public order and private right that shock the 

 humane sense and blot our institutions is confined to 

 those narrow limits of the South where Republican 

 misrule still obtains and the ruffian elements of so- 

 ciety arc left free from the restraints of law enforced 

 by competent authority. 



That we hold the position so well expressed by the 

 late Governor Andrew in his valedictory address in 

 1866 : " There ought now to be a vigorous prosecution 

 of the peace just as vigorous as our recent prosecu- 

 tion of the war. We ought to extend our hands with 

 cordial good-will to meet the proffered hands of the 

 South ; demanding no attitude of humiliation from 

 any, inflicting no acts of humiliation upon any ; re- 

 VOL. xvi. 33 A 



specting the feelings of the conquered, notwithstand- 

 ing the question of right and wrong between th 

 parties belligerent. In this hour of triumph, honor 

 and religion alike forbid one act, one wr.nl, ot ven- 

 geanee or resentment. Patriotism and Christianity 

 unite the arguments of earthly welfare and t> 

 tive of heavenly inspiration to persuade us to put 

 off all jealousy and all fear, and to move forward OB 

 citi/ens and a.-- men in the work of social and wo- 

 nomic reorganization, each one doing with his might 

 whatever his hand findeth to do." 



That among the misdeeds of the Republican party 

 not the least conspicuous is the mismanagement of 

 the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company, char- 

 tered by a Republican Congress, without sufficient 

 safeguards to protect the interests of its depositors, 

 which has resulted in the robbery of many thousands 

 of confiding freedmen, and that it is therefore the 

 duty of Congress to take all legal measures to secure 

 to the sufferers full indemnity for their losses. 



That the prostration of * the industries of this 

 State, the depression in its trade and commerce, are 

 the natural results of the maladministration and mis- 

 government of the Republican party, and the con- 

 tinuance of that party in power will increase the 

 present deplorable wa'ste of the invested capital of 



heretofore been able to bear up against the hard 

 times under which this State now suffers. 



M AT.. HOUSE, BOSTON. 



We view with indignation the supincness of the 

 party in power in neglecting to take measures against 

 the causes of the decline of our commerce and manu- 

 factures. We look in vain in the platform of that 

 party for the indications of any comprehensive policy 

 of statesmant-hip tor the emergency. And 

 nothing in the qualifications of those nominated by 

 them to national and State leadership that indicates 

 any relief from the consequences of the feeble states- 

 manship, careless, do-nothing policy, and ring-contrul, 

 which now paralyze the energies of the country. 



That amid the depression of all business among 

 us there is an imperative demand for a reduction of 

 State, county, and municipal expenses in this Com- 

 monwealth;' the cutting down of salaries to a more 

 reasonable relation to the general profit of industry 

 among the tax-paying citizens, the dispensing vita 

 unnecessary offices, the abolishing of sinecures, the 

 suppression of all unnecessary appropriations, and 

 the return from extravagance to simplicity and econ- 

 omy. We view with alarm the rapid increase at 



