MASSACHUSETTS. 



535 



tials, etc., was appointed, etc., et6. Mr. Rich- 

 ard S. Spofford, of Newburyport, was elected 

 permanent President. The following nomina- 

 tions were made : for Governor, Benjamin F. 

 Butler ; Lieutenant-Govern or, John F. Arnold ; 

 Secretary of State, Charles M. Strauss ; At- 

 torney-General, Caleb Cashing; Auditor, John 

 Boyle O'Reilly; Treasurer, D. N. Shillings. 

 Caleb Cashing and John Boyle O'Reilly sub- 

 sequently declined. 



The following platform was adopted: 



The Democrats of the Commonwealth, by their 

 duly appointed delegates in Convention assembled, 

 hereby reaffirm and reiterate their adherence to the 

 time-honored principles of the Democracy, enun- 

 ciated and acted upon by Jefferson, Madison, and 

 Jackson, and pledge their best exertions to make 

 them effective in the guidance and government of 

 the nation, so that all the people of the States may 

 be maintained in their just rights, subordinated only 

 to the rights and powers of the Federal Government, 

 as denned and limited by the Constitution framed 

 by our fathers and the amendments thereto which 

 subsequent experience has found necessary. 



Besolved, That we condemn and will strenuously 

 try to reform the extravagance in State expenditures, 

 the unnecessary increase of officers, the waste of the 

 public domain which should not have been given 

 away in large portions as endowments, either to in- 

 dividuals or corporations, but reserved for the use of 

 actual settlers only, so that homes could easily have 

 been obtainable by the industrial classes upon the 

 failure of profitable employment in other enterprises 

 whose production is the only source of wealth to tho 

 country. 



Rssolved, That with exceeding shame and sorrow 

 we have seen a President elected by the votes of a 

 majority of the people, at an election held in accord- 

 ance with the provisionsof theConstitution,set aside, 

 and the people deprived of his services in that high 

 office by a series of the most astounding forgeries 

 and perjuries, the possibility of a successful exist- 

 ence of 'which weakens the very foundations of the 

 republic. Our grief has not lessened because this 

 monstrous wrong was done by the aid of an uncon- 

 stitutional commission, which found it necessary by 

 a party majority to refuse to receive the evidence of 

 the pot3nt frauds in the electoral votes in order to 

 consummate the act. We therefore unhesitatingly 

 declare that no man ought to be permitted to hold 

 an office which is tainted with fraud and corruption ; 

 and if it can be done without rebuke by the people, 

 then indeed we fear for the perpetuity of republican 

 institutions. 



JReioloed. That the longer continuance of one party 

 in power in the nation, ande specially in the Com- 

 monwealth, tends to corruption affording opportu- 

 nity and temptation in the maladministration and 

 peculation and the multiplication of salaried officers, 

 many of them unknown to the Constitution, thus 

 removing the responsibility for misgovernment from 

 the officers elected directly by the votes of the peo- 

 ple, giving in fact the administration of the Com- 

 monwealth into the hands of officers unconstitution- 

 ally appointed by the Executive, so as to interpose a 

 commission between it and the people for the just 

 accountability of executive officers for extravagance 

 and wasteful expenditure of money. The accumula- 

 tion of unproductive property in the hands of the 

 State, the purchase and care of which has been paid 

 for by the bonded debt of many millions, purposely 

 placed in foreign countries so that it might be held 

 as an investment free from taxation, which have so 

 burdened the people with debt, State and municipal, 

 to be paid for by a constant increase of taxation and 

 exactions upon the people in a time when all enter- 

 prises are hindered, when industries in business have 



no adequate return, and labor gets no just equiva- 

 lent tor its toil, make it of paramount necessity that 

 the administration of State and municipal affairs 

 shall be thoroughly and efficiently reformed. \Ve 

 therefore reproduce the platform for the State _ gov- 

 ernment as set forth by the Democratic party in its 

 Convention in 1875, a more extended reference to 

 which is found in the address of our candidate for 

 Governor to the citizens who asked him to be a can- 

 didate, and in which he pledged himself to under- 

 take to reform all such abuses. 



Re&olved, That we deprecate the tendency of legis- 

 lation, growing year by year, to place impediments 

 in the way of the free exercise of the rights of suf- 

 frage by poor and laboring men. The Democracy 

 hold the ballot as an inborn and inalienable right of 

 free citizens. All legislation, therefore, should tend 

 to give them the full enjoyment of this right ; all 

 acts passed to restrict or hinder its exercise under 

 any pretense whatever are unconstitutional and void 

 and should be repealed. By the Constitution of the 

 United States the fact that a citizen is a man gives 

 him aprima facie right to vote, and he should have 

 the right to have his name registered and be a voter 

 wherever the laws require registration; that no law 

 ought to be passed requiring the citizen earning his 

 daily bread by his daily toil to spend his time in 

 proving his right to vote, before any tribunal what- 

 ever. On the contrary, whosoever denies that right 

 sliould be held to make good that denial. 



Resolved, That we call upon all citizens of whatev- 

 er political views to unite with the Democracy in the 

 election of legislative and executive officers who will 

 faithfully carry out these great measures of so much 

 needed reform ; but by so doing, we do not hold them 

 pledged to any further cooperation with the Demo- 

 cratic party or bound to it, save as they recognize in 

 all things the justice and wisdom of their principles. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 at Worcester on September 18th, and was or- 

 ganized by the appointment of William Claflin 

 as President. The following nominations were 

 made : for Governor, Thomas Talbot ; Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor, John D. Long; Secretary of 

 State, Henry B. Pierce; Treasurer and Receiv- 

 er-General, Charles Endicott ; Auditor, Julius 

 L. Clarke ; Attorney-General, George Marston. 



The following platform was adopted : 



We, the Eepublicans of the Commonwealth of Mas- 

 sachusetts, in Convention assembled, resolve : 



1. That the Eepublican party, inspired by its past, 

 gathers increased courage for the work which re- 

 mains to be done; renews its allegiance to the high 

 principles which have guided it thus far; and, hav- 

 ing preserved the nation's existence, pledges itself to 

 preserve the nation's honor. 



2. That as the Eepublican party is committed to 

 the maintenance of the national credit and the keep- 

 ing of the public faith with all creditors of the na- 

 tion, we rejoice that the resumption of specie pay- 

 ments has been so nearly accomplished. We insist 

 that all lawful means shall be taken to insure such 

 resumption within the time fixed by law ; that all pa- 

 per currency shall be redeemable in coin at the will of 

 the holder, and that both coin and currency shall be 

 kept at all times at par with gold, the standard of 

 the commercial world. We believe that the Ameri- 

 can people are too honest wantonly to violate their 

 pledges ; are too intelligent to attempt to give us as 

 money anything which has neither value itself nor 

 represents value ; and have too much regard for their 

 honor and prosperity to prefer unredeemed and irre- 

 deemable promises, instead of money which shall 

 pass current at its full face value in every market of 

 the world. 



3. That the refunding of the national debt at a 



