236 



DELAWARE. 



court, however, as an indication of their sense 

 of the necessity of such protection, sentenced 

 the criminal to all the penalties the statutes of 

 the Stats provide for manslaughter. 



The boundary question between the State 

 and New Jersey has been taken to the United 

 States Supremo Court for settlement. The 

 question involves the jurisdiction of the re- 

 spective States over that portion of the Dela- 

 ware River lying within the compass of a cir- 

 cle of twelve miles about the town of New 

 Castle, to low-water mark on the New Jersey 

 shore. It arose under the demand of the Dela- 

 ware authorities from all persons fishing with- 

 in the above limits to show a license. The suit 

 was commenced by New Jersey, and a pre- 

 liminary injunction issued. Delaware has not 

 yet replied. 



The Democratic State Convention assembled 

 at Dover on August 6th, and was organized 

 by the appointment of E. W. Cooper as Presi- 

 dent. The following platform was unanimous- 

 ly adopted : 



The Democratic party of the State of Delaware, as- 

 sembled in convention at Dover on Tuesday, August 

 6, 1878, do resolve : 



1. That afcer an unbroken administration of the 

 government for nearly thirty years we may fairly 

 and justly claim credit for the constant exercise of a 

 discretion, economy, and integrity which has kept 

 and to-day continues our State taxation as low or 

 lower and the financial credit of our State fully as 

 high and untarnished as any of her sisters in the Fed- 

 eral Union ; and that, during all this period, under 

 the State laws and tribunals, public justice has been 

 honestly and equally administered to all classts of 

 her people without favor, and all the rights of per- 

 sons an J property have been duly protected and pre- 

 served, while the Treasury of the State has never lost 

 one dollar by the dishonesty or defalcation of a Dem- 

 ocratic official. 



2. That the present business depression and wide- 

 spread distress throughout the Union is chiefly at- 

 tributable to unwise measures of finance for which 

 the Republican party is wholly responsible ; and that, 

 in accordance with the time-honored and constitu- 

 tional faith of the Democratic party, we hold that 

 the only honest and lawful money of the people of 

 the United States is gold and silver coin, or a paper 

 currency convertible into such coin at the will of the 

 holder. 



3. That ever since the foundation of the Govern- 

 ment, taxation upon imported merchandise has been 

 resorted to for the purpose of obtaining revenue ; and 

 that all tariff duties, being taxes which are paid by 

 the consumer, should be so laid as to yield the largest 

 revenue to the Treasury, and at the same time, as far 

 as consistent with that purpose, to discriminate in 

 favor of the productive interests of our own people. 



4. That the Treasury of the United States is sup- 

 plied by taxation levied upon the whole people, and 

 its funds should be administered with strict econo- 

 my and carefully applied to none but public uses ; 

 and that we are opposed to all grants and subsidies 

 to individual or corporate enterprises, as unjust in 

 principle^ corrupting in their tendencies, and waste- 

 ful in their results. 



Rtsvlved, That we denounce the conspiracy which, 

 through corruption and fraud, gave the electoral 

 votes of South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida to 

 Rutherford B. Hayes for President and William A. 

 Wheeler for Vice-President, against the clearly ex- 

 pressed will of the voters of those States ; and we 

 declare it as our firm conviction that the refusal of 

 the Republican members of the Electoral Commis- 



sion to investigate the charges of fraud, whereby 

 certificates of election were given to the Hayes elec- 

 tors in the said States, was a violation of public duty, 

 and a betrayal of the trust reposed in them ; and we 

 herebv endorse and approve the investigation insti- 

 tuted "by the House of Representatives tor the pur- 

 pose of exposing to the whole country the means by 

 which said frauds were perpetrated and the will of 

 the American people defeated in the choice of their 

 chief Executive. 



Resolved, That in the public course of our Senators 

 and Representatives in Congress we recognize evi- 

 dence of the integrity and ability which are properly 

 characteristic of faithful representatives of a sensible 

 and patriotic constituency. 



The following nominations for State and Con- 

 gress were made : For Governor, John W. Hall ; 

 for member of Congress, Edward L. Martin. 



The Republican party held no convention 

 and made no nomination for State officers. 



The National Greenback Labor party held 

 a State Convention at Dover, on October 17th. 

 The Convention was organized by the selection 

 of B. B. Cooper as President. The following 

 platform was unanimously adopted : 



1. As Congress has been intrusted with the ques- 

 tion, What shall be the nation's money? we demand 

 that this power shall be used for the benefit of all, 

 and never delegated to private individuals or corpo- 

 rations, but hereafter b*e exercised by the General 

 Government, in harmony with the American ideaa 

 and the spirit of her institutions, instead of conform- 

 ing to the financial systems of Europe, which have 

 built and perpetuated for centuries the monarchies 

 of the Old World to the physical and mental degra- 

 dation of the masses. 



2. That the national paper money greenbacks- 

 based upon the entire wealth and integrity of the 

 nation, will constitute the very best medium of ex- 

 change the people have ever used, and has already 

 proved by experience, under the unjust restrictions 

 placed upon it for the purpose of limiting its powers, 

 perfectly effective in supplying every want. 



3. We demand the immediate calling in of all 

 United States bonds, and the payment of their prin- 

 cipal and interest in greenbacks. 



4. We demand the immediate repeal of the Na- 

 tional Banking Act, and the retirement of its circu- 

 lating medium. 



5. The public lands belong to all the people, and 

 should be held in trust for homes of the worthy des- 

 titute ; and we advocate government aid to destitute 

 families who desire to settle thereon, and in^amount 

 sufficient to enable them to cultivate and improve 

 the same, secured by mortgage with long time for 

 payment. 



6. We demand a system of just taxation by which 

 the accumulated wealth of the nation instead of the 

 industry of the people shall bear the expenses of the 

 Government. No property except what belongs to 

 the Government should be exempt from bearing its 

 equitable share of the public burdens. 



7. We invite aid to secure such legislation as will 

 effectually check the dangerous power of corporations 

 and idle capital which is now being used to subvert 

 the liberties of the people. 



8. The elective franchise is not only a privilege, 

 but a right of American citizenship, and any attempt 

 to deny its exercise on account of its poverty, making 

 a property qualification the test of one's right to vote, 

 or limiting its action by the "tax-receipt" fraud, 

 which may be and is used unjustly in favor of the 

 party in power, will be resisted by every means in 

 our power. 



9. The office should seek the man, and not the man 

 the office. Political purity can only be maintained 

 by obtaining such principles of action. 



