UNITED STATES. 



78fl 



may reasonably hope that the second century of our 

 existence us a nation will, by the blessing t !, 

 be prrrin'm.-nt u> an erupt' good fueling, uud a pe- 

 rioa of progreMM, j>n>M.ftitv, ami liappinuas. 

 Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 



Mtui) K. li. IIAY'ES. 



The iMnorratio National Convention as- 

 sembled ut St. Louis, Mo., on Juno 28tli, and 

 was organized by the appointment of John 

 A. McOleruund us president, uud oilier of- 

 ficers. 



When nominations were called for, Mr. 

 Whitely nominated Thomas F. Bayard, of 

 Delaware; Mr. Williams nominated 'llionias 

 A. llfiidricks, of Indiana; Mr. Abbott nomi- 

 nated Joel Parker, of New Jersey; Mr. K.-r- 

 nan nominated Samuel J. Tilden, of N-\v 

 York; Mr. Ewing nominated William Allen, 

 of < Miio ; Mr. (Jlymer nominated General 

 Wintield S. Hancock, of Pennsylvania. The 

 results of the ballotiugs were as follows: 



First ballot: Tilden, 404^; Allen, 54; Thur- 

 man, 3; Hendricks, 140A; Bayard, 83; Par- 

 ker, 18; Hancock, 75; Broadhead, 16. Sec- 

 ond ballot : Tilden, 535 ; Allen, 54 ; Thurman, 

 2; Hendricks, 85; Bayard, 4; Hancock, 58. 

 Necessary to a choice, 492. 



Before the result was declared, the nomina- 

 tion of Mr. Tilden was made unanimous. 

 Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, was nomi- 

 nated as the candidate for Vice-President. 

 The platform adopted was as follows: 

 We, the delegates of the Democratic party of the 

 United States, in National Convention assembled, do 

 hereby declare the administration of the Federal 

 Government to be in urgent need of immediate re- 

 form ; do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of this 

 convention, ana of the Democratic party in each 

 State, a zealous effort and cooperation to this end; 

 and <!. hereby appeal to our fellow-citizens of every 

 former political connection to undertake with us this 

 first and most pressing patriotic duty. 



For the Democracy of the whole country, we do 

 here reaffirm our faith in the permanence of the 

 Federal Union, our devotion to the Constitution of 

 the United States, with its amendments universally 

 accepted as a final settlement of the controversies 

 which engendered civil war, and do here record our 

 steadfast confidence in the perpetuity of republican 

 self-government. 



In absolute acquiescence in the will of the major- 

 itythe vital principle of republics ; in the suprem- 

 acy of the civil over the military authority ; in the 

 total separation of church and state, for the sake 

 alike of civil and religious freedom ; in the equality 

 of all citizens before just laws of their own enact- 

 ment ; in the liberty of individual conduct, unvexed 

 by sumptuary laws ; in the faithful education of the 

 rising generation, that they may preserve, enjoy, 

 and transmit these best conditions of human liaj.jii- 

 ness and hope, we behold the noblest products of a 

 hundred years of changeful historv : but, while up- 

 holding tlie bond of our Union and great charter of 

 these our rights, it behooves a free people to prac- 

 tise also that eternal vigilance which is the price ot 

 liberty. 



Reform is necessary to rebuild and establish, in 

 the hearts of the whole people, the Union, eleven 

 years ago happily rescued from the danger of a se- 

 cession of States, but now to be saved from a cor- 

 rupt centralism^ which, after inflicting upon ten 

 States the rapacity of carpet-basr tyrannies, has hon- 

 ey-combed the offices of the Federal Government 

 itself with incapacity, waste, and fraud, infected 

 VOL. xvi. 50 A 



States and municipalities with the contagion of mis- 

 rule, und locked nut the procpi-ritv <>i an iudumtri- 

 ou people in the paralysis of hard tin. 



Keforin is necessary to establish a sound currency, 

 restore the public credit, and maintain the national 

 honor. 



We denounce the failure, for all these eleven yeara 

 of peace, to make good the promise of the Jegal- 

 tender notuH, which are a changing standard of 

 value in the hands of the people, and the nonpay- 

 ment of which is a disregard of the plighted laith 

 of the nation. 



We denounce the improvidence which, in eleven 

 years of peace, has taken from the people, in Federal 

 taxes, thirteen times the whole amount ot the legal- 

 tender notes, and squandered four times their sum 

 in useless expense, without accumulating any reserve 

 for their redemption. 



We denounce the financial imbecility und immo- 

 rality of that party which, during eleven years of 

 peace, has made no advance toward resumption, no 

 preparation for resumption, but, instead, has ob- 

 structed resumption, by wasting our resources and 

 exhausting all our surplus inccme; and, while an- 

 nually professing to intend a speedy return to specie 

 payments, has annually enacted fresh hindcrancea 

 thereto. As such hinderance, we detounce the Re- 

 sumption clause of the Act of 1875, and we here de- 

 mand its repeal. 



We demand a judicious system of preparation by 

 public economies, by official retrenchments, and by 

 wise finance, which shall enable the nation soon to 

 assure the whole world of its perfect ability and its 

 perfect readiness to meet any of its promises at the 

 call of the creditor entitled to payment. 



We believe such a system, well devised, and, 

 above nil, intrusted to competent hands for execu- 

 tion, creating at no time an artificial scarcity of cur- 

 rency, and at no time alarming the public mind into 

 a withdrawal of that vaster machinery of credit by 

 which ninety-five per cent, of all business tranc- 

 tious are performed a system open, public, tnd 

 inspiring general confidence wr uld, from the day of 

 its adoption, bring healing on its wings to all our 

 harassed industries, set in motion the wheels of 

 commerce, manufactures, anl the mechanic arts, re- 

 store employment to labor, and renew in all its nat- 

 ural sources the prosperity of the people. 



Reform is necessary in the sum and modes of 

 Federal taxation, to the end that capital may be set 

 free from distrust and labor lightly burdened. 



We denounce the present tariff, levied upon near- 

 ly four thousand articles, as a masterpiece of injus- 

 tice, inequality, and false pretense. It yields a 

 dwindling, not a yearly rising revenue. It has im- 

 poverished many industries to subsidire a few. It 

 prohibits imports that might purchase the products 

 of American labor. It has degraded American com- 

 merce from the first to an inferior rank on the high 

 seas. It has cut down the sales of American manu- 

 facture at home and abroad, and depleted the return? 

 of American agriculture an industry followed by 

 half our people. It costs the people five times more 

 than it produces to the Treasury, obstructs the 

 processes of production, and wastes the fruits of 

 labor. It promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, en- 

 riches dishonest officials, and bankrupts honest 

 merchants. We demand that all custom-house tax- 

 ation shall be only for revenue. 



Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense 

 Federal, State, and municipal. Our Federal taxa- 

 tion has swollen from $60,000,000 gold in 1860 to 

 $460,000,000 currency in 1870 ; our aggregate taxa- 

 tion from $164,000,000 gold in I860 to $780,000.000 

 currency in 1870 : or in one decade from less than 

 $6 per head to more than $18 per head. Since the 

 peace, the people have paid to their tax-gatherer* 

 more than thrice the sum of the national debt, and 

 more than twice that sum for the Federal Govern- 

 ment alone. We demand a rigorous frugality in 



