578 



MISSOURI. 



potism ; to secure labor its just reward, and trade, 

 commerce, and credit solidity and security ; to re- 

 form all the abuses of all administrations of pub- 

 lic affairs; to remove burdens of excessive taxation, 

 licenses, and impositions; to inaugurate a system 

 of American absolute money; and to secure to the 

 people and their posterity the blessings of civil and 

 religious liberty for all generations. 



22. We demand the immediate tender to the bond- 

 holders of enough absolute paper money to pay the 

 entire national debt ; and if the bondholders refuse 

 to receive the same in payment, Congress to provide 

 by law to loan said money to the people at 2 per cent, 

 per annum and thus afford relief to the laboring man. 



The Democratic Convention met at Jefferson 

 City July 10th, and nominated Elijah H. Nor- 

 ton for Supreme Judge, A. M. Sevier for Rail- 

 road Commissioner, R. I). Shannon for Super- 

 intendent of Schools, and J. E. McHenry for 

 Register of Lands. The platform adopted 

 was as follows : 



The Democratic party of Missouri in Convention 

 assembled declares its confidence in and unshaken 

 adherence to the great Democratic principles of rep- 

 resentative government, its devotion to the national 

 Union and Constitution, with the amendments there- 

 to, and its unswerving maintenance of the following 

 principles, namely : ' 



Strict subordination of the military to the civil 

 power. 



Opposition to large standing armies in time of 

 peace. 



Purity of elections, and their absolute freedom 

 from all interference by the officers of the Federal 

 Government, civil or military. 



Profound respect for the popular will fairly and 

 legally expressed at the ballot-box. 



A fixed purpose to expose and punish all political 

 fraud and corruption. 



The political equality of all citizens. 



The largest right of individual liberty consistent 

 with the rights of others. 



Universal education and a general and active par- 

 ticipation by the body of the people in public aifairs. 



Resolved, Jh&\, we congratulate the country on the 

 fact that after nearly thirteen years from the cessa- 

 tion of hostilities a state of peace in accordance with 

 the Constitution and laws has been reached in our 

 Southern States. 



2. We solemnly arraign and condemn the high 

 Electoral Commission as faithless to the people of 

 the United States in refusing to investigate and ex- 

 pose the wicked and glaring frauds by which the 

 will of the people at the last Presidential election 

 was defeated. Its refusal to do so was in violation 

 of the spirit of the law underwhich it was organized, 

 and while the decision made by the Forty-fourth 

 Congress of the question as to who should be de- 

 clared President of the United States for the present 

 Presidential term was in our judgment final, that de- 

 cision ought not to preclude a full investigation and 

 exposure of all frauds connected with that election, 

 and the due accountability of all who were guiltily 

 concerned with them ; and we heartily commend the 

 action of a majority of the House of Representatives 

 in pursuing such investigation. 



3. We regard the national banking system as be- 

 ing oppressive and burdensome, and demand the 

 abolition and retirement from circulation of all na- 

 tional-bank notes and the issue of legal-tender notes 

 in lieu thereof, and in quantities from time to time 

 sufficient to supply the wholesome and necessary 

 business demands of the entire country, and that 

 all greenbacks so issued shall be used in the pur- 

 chase and retirement of the bonds of the United 

 States, BO that the interest-bearing debt of the 

 country may be lessened to the extent of the green- 



backs thus put in circulation. Legal-tender notes, 

 commonly called greenbacks, should be made a legal 

 tender in the payment of all debts, public and pri- 

 vate, except such obligations as are in the terms of 

 the original contract expressly made payable in 

 coin. 



4. That the right to coin money and regulate the 

 value thereof can be exercised under the Constitu- 

 tion by Congress alone, and that the possession of 

 the power imposes the duty of its exercise to the 

 extent of all gold and silver bullion offered for coin- 

 age at the mints of the United States ; and we regard 

 the limitations and restrictions imposed by Congress 

 upon the coinage of silver as impolitic and unjubt, 

 and they should at once be removed. 



5. That a return to specie payments is impossible 

 in the present financial condition of the country, and 

 we demand the immediate and unconditional repeal 

 of the act of Congress of January 14, 1875, known as 

 the resumption act, holding the same to be unwise 

 and ruinous to the interests of the people. 



6. The policy inaugurated and maintained by the 

 Republican party of contracting the active circula- 

 ting medium of the country, constituting as all admit 

 it does the standard of value of the property and 

 products of the country, and regulating as well the 

 prices paid for all labor, stands preeminent in the 

 long list of its oppressive measures as the most stu- 

 pid, inexcusable, and oppressive of them all. Being 

 opposed to all monopolies and all laws discriminating 

 in favor of one class of our people at the expense of 

 and to the prejudice of all others, we declare an 

 unqualified hostility to all protective tariffs, and de- 

 mand that there shall be a tariff for revenue only. 



7. The Democracy tenders to the debtor and labor- 

 ing classes of the country its warmest sympathy, and 

 pledges itself at the earliest moment to reverse the 

 cruel and destructive policy of the Eepublican party 

 which brought ruin upon them. We demand that 

 all legislation shall be so enacted and administered 

 as to secure to each man as nearly as practicable the 

 just rewards of his own labor. 



8. That in view of the large appropriations that 

 have been made by the Federal Government for 

 works of public improvement on the seaboard and 

 the lakes, justice to the people of the Mississippi 

 Valley demands that appropriations shall be made 

 for the improvement of the Mississippi Kiver and 

 its tributaries commensurate with the commercial 

 wantPand interests of this section of the country ; 

 and believing in the constitutional power of the Gov- 

 ernment to aid in the construction of national enter- 

 prises which serve to benefit large sections of the 

 country, and which can not be accomplished by in- 

 dividual enterprise or State action, we favor such 

 legislation in this behalf as will not increase the na- 

 tional indebtedness or impose any additional bur- 

 dens upon the people. Such a policy, in our opin- 

 ion, while it would cheapen the cost of transporta- 

 tion and add to our agricultural wealth, would afford 

 remunerative employment to the surplus labor of 

 the country. That there can be no legitimate em- 

 ployment of organized force in this country, except 

 to execute law and maintain the public peace. 



9. That reform must be made in national, State, 

 and municipal governments by the reduction of ex- 

 penditures and taxes, the dismissal of unnecessary 

 and incompetent officers and employees, and the 

 strict enforcement of official responsibility. 



10. In the language of the Indiana Democracy, we 

 declare that the jurisdiction claimed and exercised by 

 the circuit courts of the United States over questions 

 of corporate and individual rights arising under the 

 laws of the States tends to oppress and burden liti- 



ants to such an extent as to amount to a practical 

 enial of justice in many cases, and we consider the 

 legislation which has conferred such jurisdiction as 

 unwise and hurtful to the true interests of the peo- 

 ple ; and we demand such legislation as will restrict 

 and limit the jurisdiction of such courts to such mat- 



