804 



WEST VIRGINIA. 



fcions, the first urging harmony in the party, 

 and the last arraigning the Republicans. The 

 second was as follows : 



That the great principles which, in our 

 opinion, underlie ana must sustain the national 

 Democratic party, of which we are an integral part, 

 are: 1. Kestriction of the Federal Government to its 

 original sphere of action, and to the powers pre- 

 scribed and limited by the Constitution. 2. The in- 

 dependence of the Supreme Court of the United 

 States preserved against intimidation or undue in- 

 fluence on the part of the coordinate departments of 

 the General Government. 3. Subordination of the 

 military to the civil power. 4. The equality and 

 constitutional self-government of the States, leaving 

 to each of them respectively the solution of ques- 

 tions and difficulties arising therein, subject only to 

 the Constitution of the United States. 5. No occu- 

 pation of State territory by United States forces, ex- 

 cept in aid of civil authority, upon demand of the 

 Governor^ as in the Constitution prescribed. 6. Re- 

 form of civil service, in such manner that honesty 

 and competency shall again be regarded in the selec- 

 tion of Federal officers, and that such officers shall 

 not be permitted to interfere with the freedom of 

 elections, nor be subjected to contributions to fur- 

 ther the political aims or aspirations of the appoint- 

 ing power. 7. Complete and universal unconditional 

 amnesty for all those who participated in the civil 

 war upon a basis of mutual reconciliation, such as 

 the spirit of the age demands and the permanency 

 of our institutions requires. 8. A return to the old 

 landmarks of Anglo-Saxon liberty, viz. : no suspen- 

 sion of the writ of habeas corpus in times of peace ; 

 trial by a jury of the vicinage when the prisoner de- 

 mands it; freedom of the press, and no religious or 

 expurgatory political tests for suffrage or office-hold- 

 ing. 9. No interference by the General Government 

 with education and religion in the States, upon any 

 pretext whatever, however plausible. 10. Firm and 

 uncompromising resistance to the further infection 

 of the American mind with the spirit of peculation, 

 plunder, and universal corruption in office, inaugu- 

 rated by the Republican party, fostered by the war, 

 and culminating in the disgusting indecency prac- 

 tised by the present Administration. 



The third related to national finances, and 

 was the chief canse of division in the com- 

 mittee. It was as follows : 



2, That while we belong to a debtor 

 State, and believe that the Republican party has 

 treated such States unfairly and unjustly, by its 

 financial policy, and while we favor an immediate 

 repeal of the "specie resumption act," taxation of 

 United States bonds like other property, arid the 

 abolition of the present banking system, yet, at the 

 same time, we emphatically deprecate the effort to 

 divide the Democratic party upon issues involving 

 money only, and recommend that such issues be re- 

 mitted to the congressional districts, or otherwise 

 subordinated to those great moral and constitutional 

 questions which underlie the very existence of the 

 Union and its institutions. 



The corresponding declaration of the mi- 

 nority was as follows : 



Upon national questions, while counseling har- 

 mony and toleration on the part of our representa- 

 tives in the National Convention, we desire the un- 

 conditional repeal of the Republican measure for the 

 resumption of specie payments, the abolition of 

 special exemptions upon the property of wealthy 

 individuals and corporations, and such other finan- 

 cial reforms as should furnish the business and la- 

 bor of the country with a sound and ample currency 

 which, without forced contraction, without forced re- 

 sumption, will aid in restoring prosperity tc our land. 



There were also resolutions in favor of pre- 

 serving the public-school system " free from 

 sectarian influence or control," reducing tax- 

 ation, reforming the judiciary, and submitting 

 to a vote of the people the question of remov- 

 ing the capital. The vote on substituting the 

 financial resolution of the minority report for 

 that of the majority stood yeas 176^, nays 

 305 ; on substituting the whole minority re- 

 port for that of the majority yeas 226, nays 

 260. The majority report was then adopted 

 by a vote of 289 to 179f. The following was 

 adopted unanimously as an addition to the 

 platform : 



Jfesolved, That we pledge the Democratic and Con- 

 servative party to the preservation of our public- 

 school system, free from sectarian influence and con- 

 trol, and promise to its promotion and improvement 

 the earnest and active efforts of our party. 



The Republicans had met in convention in 

 May to select delegates to the national nomi- 

 nating body at Cincinnati, and held their con- 

 vention for the nomination of candidates for 

 State officers at Parkersburg, on the 27th of 

 July. General Nathan Goff, Jr., was nomi- 

 nated for Governor ; Moses Frankenberger for 

 Treasurer ; Charles M. Shinn for Auditor ; 

 John A. Hutchinson for Attorney-General ; 

 F. H. Crags for Superintendent of Schools ; 

 and W. H. H. Flick, R. L. Berkeshire, and R. 

 S. Brown, for Judges of the Supreme Court of 

 Appeals. The Committee on Resolutions made 

 a majority and a minority report. The follow- 

 ing is a synopsis of the former : 



Arraignment of the Democratic party for its non- 

 conformity with the pledges of six years ago, to 

 economize and reform ; on the contrary, increasing 

 taxes and expenditures ; multiplying the number of 

 officials, raising their salaries, imposing an unwise 

 constitution upon the people, inimical to their inter- 

 ests ; the vagueness and uncertainty of its language, 

 which has been a constant source of conflict between 

 the legislative, executive; and judicial departments, 

 changing the road-law, making it oppressive in its 

 unjust discriminations ; in reestablishing the old 

 county court system ; in the construction ot too large 

 and expensive a penitentiary, that it might be filled 

 with Federal convicts to cheapen the labor of our 

 mechanics ; in tampering with the school-laws ; in 

 providing a homestead-exemption law that permits 

 the landlord to strip the tenant of his- furniture and 

 clothing ; in covering up the frauds of its public of- 

 ficials ; in having, by excessive taxation, driven many 

 citizens to other States ; in destroying local self- 

 government, and concentrating the power in the 

 hands of cliques at court-houses ; in so arranging the 

 disbursements of the county funds as to create a class 

 of money-changers, shavers, sharpers, and Shylocks ; 

 appropriating moneys for bogus railroads, boom com- 



Eanies, etc. ; with unusual privilege for the excessive 

 enefit of bankrupt corporations, etc. ; demanding 

 puch amendments to the present constitution as will 

 relieve it from the odium of incongruities and ab- 

 surdities ; opposing the restoration of the test-oath ; 

 pledging a reduction of State taxation ; demanding the 

 abolition of the county court system ; the restoration 

 of township and local self-government ; the exclusion 

 of everything sectarian or partisan from the public 

 schools ; the selection of men for public positions 

 who are honest, capable, and sober ; the prompt and 

 vigorous punishment of public men guilty of fraud 

 or misconduct ; demanding a just homestead-law ; 

 indorsing the principles of the National Republican 



