566 



MINNESOTA. 



The Democratic State Convention met at 

 St. Paul September 5th, and made the follow- 

 ing nominations : For Associate Judge of the 

 Supreme Court, William Mitchell ; for Clerk 

 of the Supreme Court, Dillon O'Brien; for 

 Auditor, Mahlon M. Black. The resolutions 

 adopted were as follows : 



The Democratic party of Minnesota, in Conven- 

 tion assembled, renews its pledges of devotion to 

 the Union and the Constitution with the amend- 

 ments. It declares as essential to the preservation 

 of the Government a faithful adherence to the fol- 

 lowing principles : Strict construction of home rule ; 

 supremacy of the civil over the military power ; sepa- 

 ration of Church and State; equality of all citizens 

 before the law ; liberty of individual action unvexed 

 by sumptuary laws; absolute acquiescence in the 

 lawful!}' expressed will of the people ; and the main- 

 tenance and protection of the school system. 



As pertinent to the issues now before the people, 

 it is 



Resolved, That the investigation of frauds commit- 

 ted at the last Presidential election in Florida and 

 Louisiana ought to have been made by the Electoral 

 Commission. The refusal to do so was a violation 

 of the spirit of the law under which it was organized 

 and a gross insult to the people of the United States ; 

 and while the decision, as made by the Forty-fourth 

 Congress, of the question as to who should be de- 

 clared President of the United States for the Presi- 

 dential term, was in our judgment final, that decision 

 ought not to preclude authentic investigation and ex- 

 posure of all frauds connected with that election, and 

 the due accountability of all who were guiltily con- 

 nected with them. 



Resolved, That the commercial and industrial stag- 

 nation that has so long prevailed throughout the 

 country, and the consequent widespread want and 

 suffering, is due directly to the pernicious financial 

 legislation of the Republican party, which we here- 

 by arraign for the act, and charge, first, that at a time 

 when the country was weighted with debt created 

 on a^basis of a full value of paper added to both the 

 precious metals money, it enacted a sweeping change 

 in the measures of value wholly in the interest of 

 moneyed capital by demonetizing silver and decreas- 

 ing the distribution of legal-tender paper, and there- 

 by adding wrongfully, in effect, hundreds of millions 

 to the burden of debt and taxes on the people ; sec- 

 ond, by pursuing its merciless policy of contracting 

 the paper currency and hoarding gold, it has in- 

 creased continuously the value of money and secu- 

 rities that partake of the enhancement of money, 

 and decreased the value of all other property, espe- 

 cially the capital designed for productive use re- 

 quired for the employment of labor, thus repressing 

 instead of fostering industry, compelling idleness 

 instead of sustaining trade and commerce. We con- 

 gratulate the country that the downward course of 

 bankruptcies and ruin involved in the Republican 

 policy has been partially averted by the Democratic 

 measures passed at the late session of Congress re- 

 storing the debt-paying power to the silver dollar. 



Rmlved. That we are opposed to any further con- 

 traction of the currency, to a tariff for protection, to 

 Class legislation and sumptuary laws, to monopolies 

 of all kinds, to any increase of the bonded debt, to 

 the sale of bonds for the purpose of obtaining coin 

 tor redemption purposes ; and therefore 



Resolved, That we are in favor of the gradual sub- 

 titution of national Treasury notes for national-bank 

 notes, and making such Treasury notes the sole pa- 

 per currency of the country, and placed on such ba- 

 sis as that the same shall be equal in value with coin, 

 and as a legal tender the same as coin. We are in 

 favor of the free coinage of silver, a tariff for revenue 

 >nly, reduction of expenses in all departments of the 

 Government, and legislation in favor of the develop- 



ment of the industries of the country, as distin- 

 guished from the moneyed monopolists of the land. 



Resolved, That the interest of industrial wealth is 

 the paramount interest of the people of the United 

 States. Those whose labor and enterprise produce 

 wealth should be secui'e in its employment. Our 

 warmest sympathy is extended to the laboring class- 

 es who have been thrown out of employment by the 

 ruinous financial policy and unjust legislation of the 

 Republican party, and all pledges of the Democratic 

 party are to the reversal of that policy and a resto- 

 ration of all rights they are entitled to on its ascen- 

 dancy to power. 



Resolved, That there can be no legitimate employ- 

 ment of organized force in the country except to 

 execute the law and to maintain the public peace ; 

 that no violence should be countenanced to obtain 

 redress for any alleged grievance, but should be re- 

 pressed at every cost, until relief can be secured by 

 legal methods. We congratulate the country on the 

 adoption of the constitutional and pacific policy of 

 local self-government in the States of the South so 

 long advocated by the Democratic party, and which 

 has brought peace and harmony to that section of 

 the Union. 



Resolved, That the course of the Republican party 

 in the State for the past fifteen years has been char- 

 acterized by a reckless extravagance in the use of 

 the public money and the squandering of the pub- 

 lic revenue by wasteful appropriations made by the 

 Legislature. We therefore invite the people of the 

 State to reform their own affairs by uniting with us 

 in the election of officers, State and local, who are 

 in favor of honesty, economy, and reform in all the 

 branches of the public service. 



Resolutions were also adopted nrging upon 

 the party and the country the improvement of 

 the Mississippi River. 



The Republicans held their State Conven- 

 tion at St. Paul September 4th, and nominated 

 John M. Berry for Judge of the Supreme 

 Court, Samuel H. Nichols for Clerk of the Su- 

 preme Court, and O. P. Whitcomb for Audi- 

 tor. The following platform was adopted : 



It is customary for political parties in Convention 

 assembled to restate the principles upon which they 

 were founded, by which they have been preserved, 

 and for which they deem themselves entitled to fu- 

 ture confidence. 



The Republicans of the State of Minnesota reaffirm 

 their devotion to the great principles of equal rights, 

 personal freedom, and national unity, to defend and 

 preserve which the Republican party throughout 

 the Union was called into being by an act of the pop- 

 ular conscience acting upon the will of the people. 



In fulfillment of its calling, it has preserved the 

 nation, which under the administration of the Dem- 

 ocratic party had become involved in civil war. 



It has reconstructed the nation by ridding its Con- 

 stitution of the elements of dissolution, thereby form- 

 ing a more perfect union, establishing justice, insur- 

 ing domestic tranquillity, providing for the common 

 defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing 

 the blessings of liberty. 



It has kept and caused to be kept the pledged faith 

 of the nation to its creditors, whose faith in its in- 

 tegrity made its existence possible, and to its sol- 

 diers and sailors, whose arms preserved it. 



It has, by a judicious system of government aid to 

 great works of internal improvement, made ready 

 for settlement areas which eighteen years ago were 

 beyond the frontier, but which are now great and 

 prosperous States, thereby furnishing land to the 

 landless and homes to the homeless, not in a wilder- 

 ness, but in the midst of civilization and refinement, 

 which under that system accompanied settlements 

 instead of lagging behind them. 



