108 



COLOEADO. 



COLORADO. The State election occurred 

 on the first Tuesday in October. It was for 

 the choice of a member of Congress and State 

 officers. The Democratic Convention for the 

 nomination of candidates was held at Pueblo 

 on July 17th, and was permanently organized 

 by the choice of M. B. Gerry as chairman. 

 The following platform was adopted : 



The Democracy of Colorado, in presenting their 

 candidates to the people for their suffrages, solemnly 

 renew their devotion to the Constitution and the 

 Union, and affirm the following as the cardinal prin- 

 ciples of the Democratic faith : 



A strict construction of the Constitution with all 

 its amendments; the supremacy of the civil over the 

 military power ; a complete severance of Church and 

 State; the equality ot all citizens before the law; 

 opposition to all subsidies, monopolies, and class leg- 

 islation ; the preservation of the public lands for the 

 bona fide settler; the maintenance and protection of 

 the common- school system; and unrestricted home 

 rule under the Constitution to the citizens of every 

 State in the American Union. 



Resolved^, That every honest voter should approve 

 the investigation and thorough exposure of the mon- 

 strous frauds by which the will of the American 

 people, as expressed at the ballot-box, was set aside, 

 and their choice for President and Vice-President 

 'deprived of the high offices to which they were 

 elected ; and while we disclaim any purpose of in- 

 terfering with the title of the fraudulent President 

 (made valid by the order of Congress), to the end 

 that such grave crimes against the Constitution and 

 laws of the land may be rendered impossible in the 

 future and their perpetrators made infamous for 

 ever, we demand that such investigation be fair and 

 searching, and the authors of the crimes be held to 

 a full accountability under the law for their criminal 

 action. 



Resolved. That the commercial and industrial dis- 

 tress that has so long prevailed throughout the coun- 

 try is the legitimate result of the vicious financial 

 legislation of the moneyed power, effected through 

 the agency of the Republican party in Congress ; 

 that by the demonetization of silver, the enactment 

 of the resumption law, the retirement and destruc- 

 tion of legal-tender notes, the exchange of bonds 

 originally redeemable in greenbacks for those which 

 (under the law) are to be redeemed in coin, and the 

 maintenance of the national banking system, this 

 same moneyed power have prostrated labor, bank- 

 rupted merchants, robbed widows and orphans, filled 

 our poor-houses with paupers, transformed industri- 

 ous men into tramps and outcasts, and filched from 

 real estate and personal property (all over the land) 

 more than one half of what ought to be the minimum 



f Rexolved, That unequal taxation is a plain viola- 

 tion of the fundamental law of right, and no repub- 

 lican form of government can long endure under 

 which the property of one class is entirely exempt 

 from taxation, while that of others must bear all the 

 burdens ; and we denounce as tyrannical and unjust 

 in the extreme the action of the Eepublican party, 

 {>y which hundreds of millions of dollars in national 

 bonds have been exempt from taxation, while every 

 other species of property must be taxed for their 

 protection. 



Resolved That before trade and business enter- 

 prises can be checked in their downward course, an 

 increase in the volume of the currency is imperatively 

 required ; that, as one measure for the end sought, 

 we demnnd the free and unlimited coinage of silver 

 so that the owners of bullion may at pleasure have 



t coined into standard silver dollars at the mints of 

 the United States, and, without further interference 

 upon tbf part of the Government, circulate the 

 same in the channels of trade and commerce and 



also that the Government shall issue to the deposit- 

 ors of silver bullion coin certificates for circulation 

 as money ; and we denounce as a cheat and fraud the 

 Senate amendments to the silver bill passed by Con- 

 gress, because they have enabled the Secretary of 

 the Treasury to entirely control the coinage of silver 

 and to hoard the same 'in the Treasury vaults, to the 

 detriment of the business of the country. 



Resolved, That, as further measures of relief and 

 as acts of justice to the business and laboring classes, 

 we demand : 



1. The repeal of the resumption act, and the 

 lawful liberation of the coin hoarded in the Trea- 

 sury. 



2. The substitution of United States legal-tender 

 paper for national-bank notes, and its permanent 

 reestablishment as the sole paper money of the coun- 

 try, to be made receivable for all dues to the Gov- 

 ernment and of legal tender with coin, the amount 

 of such issues to be so regulated by legislation or or- 

 ganic law as to give the people assurance of stability, 

 in the volume of the currency and consequent stabil- 

 ity of value. 



3. It is the exclusive right and duty of Congress 

 to furnish to the people of the country their circu- 

 lating medium, whether the same be gold, silver, or 

 paper ; and it should always maintain the value of 

 euch currency so as to meet the demands of trade. 

 The full faith and credit of the Government should 

 be pledged to maintain whatever currency it may 

 furnish, of equal value and of equal power. 



4. No further increase in the bonded debt, and no 

 further sale of bonds for the purchase of coin for re- 

 sumption purposes. 



5. A gradual extinction of the public debt by the 

 redemption of the interest-bearing portion thereof 

 in such currency as the law will permit in United 

 States notes where coin is not demanded by the let- 

 ter of the law, and in silver equally with gold wher- 

 ever coin is required. 



6.^ A rigid economy in the management of our own 

 affairs, both State and national, and a reduction of 

 expenditures in every branch of the public service 

 consistent with efficacy. 



Resolved^ That the employment of the army of the 

 United States, except to execute the laws and main- 

 tain the public peace, is contrary to and destructive 

 of the principles of free government, and we express 

 our gratitude to the present Congress for the law 

 making it illegal and punishable by fine and impris- 

 onment to use the army as a posse comitatus without 

 the express authority of statute or of the Constitu- 

 tion. 



Resolved^ That we condemn the extravagance and 

 incompetence of the late Republican Legislature, as 

 exhibited in the unnecessary and extraordinary 

 length of its session, and the bungling and incom- 

 prehensible laws which it enacted. And we further 

 condemn the Republican State officials for their at- 

 tempt, under the guise of equalizing taxes, to add 

 millions of dollars to the assessed value of property 

 owned by our citizens, which was the subject of taxa- 

 tion. 



Resolved^ That a mint for coining gold and silver 

 should at once be established in Colorado; and we 

 most heartily commend the energetic and unremit- 

 ting efforts of Hon. Thomas M. Patterson, our mem- 

 ber of Congress, to procure the establishment of such 

 mint in our State. 



Thomas M. Patterson was renominated for 

 Congress, and W. A. H. Loveland was nomi- 

 nated for Governor; for Lieutenant-Governor, 

 Thomas M. Field ; for Secretary of State, J. S. 

 Wheeler ; for State Treasurer, Nelson Hallock ; 

 for State Auditor, John H. Harrison; for At- 

 torney-General, Caldwell Yeaman. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 at Denver on August 7th, and was organized 



