OHIO. 



667 



George Paul, of Summit County. The platform 

 adopted was as follows : 



The principles of the Republican party as written 

 in the history of the country, as specifically declared 

 in the national platform of the party, as made sacred 

 by the blood of patriots shed in defense of the Union 

 and freedom, we hereby reaffirm. 



To the soldiers who sacrificed so much in defense 

 of our common country there is a debt of gratitude 

 due, which can never be fully discharged. The 

 pledges made by the Republican party and by pur 

 patriotic people is a binding and sacred obligation 

 never to be forgotten, never to be impaired, but to 

 the fullest extent to be fulfilled. We therefore de- 

 nounce as impatriotic, heartless, and infamous this 

 act of the Ohio Legislature, introduced by a deserter, 

 bounty-jumper, and convict, intended and calculated 

 to drive from the Soldiers' Orphans' Home the or- 

 phans and children of deceased or disabled soldiers, 

 or to rob the widows and families of such patriots of 

 the pittance paid to them by the Government of the 

 United States, and demand its unconditional repeal. 



The financial question having been disposed of by 

 Congress, and the country at present needing repose 

 in order that capital may seek employment and that 

 industries may revive, thus increasing the demand 

 for labor, the situation ought to be accepted, and we 

 oppose the further agitation of the question at this 

 time as injurious to business and devoid of other than 

 evil results. 



The disposition exhibited by the conservative men 

 in the South to oppose the revolutionary method on 

 the part of Northern Democrats, as shown first in 

 their refusal to oppose the consummation of the elec- 

 toral count, and more lately in the expression of sen- 

 timents in disapprobation of the proposed attack 

 upon the President's title, is received as a promising 

 omen, and the Republicans of Ohio cordially greet 

 such citizens of the South as adhere in good faith to 

 the terms upon which the issues of the war were set- 

 tled, including the constitutional amendments guar- 

 anteeing equal civil and political rights, free speech, 

 a free press, and an untrammeled ballot to all citi- 

 zens. Upon these conditions alone can sectional 

 strife by allayed and the sectional lines which now 

 separate in a great measure the South from the North 

 be obliterated. 



A tariff for revenue should be maintained and so 

 adjusted as to secure incidental protection to home 

 industry. 



True economy requires that the Government should 

 make sufficient appropriations to carry forward the 

 work on all public buildings without delay, and this 

 should especially be the aim when the supply of 

 labor is in excess of the demand. 



The mining interests of Ohio require an inspection 

 law, intelligently administered, and we condemn the 

 action of the Governor in prostituting that depart- 

 ment (the objects of which should be to protect life 

 and promote the comfort of the miners) to a mere 

 partisan purpose. 



The revolutionary movement inaugurated under 

 cover of investigations, but really as an attack upon 

 the President's title, calculated as it is to Mexican- 

 ize the aifairs of this country, to cause general dis- 

 trust, to prostrate our industries, and aggravate and 

 prolong the distress of the laboring and industrial 

 classes, we unqualifiedly condemn. President Hayes 

 having been duly elected and his title subsequently 

 settled under the Constitution by the highest tribu- 

 nal, and by the act of both political parties, it can 

 not be questioned, and we recognize in his Adminis- 

 tration the highest integrity and patriotism ; the 

 most sincere effort to promote political purity and 

 harmony and secure general business prosperity 

 throughout the whole country. 



The present Legislature is a warning to the people 

 of the State and a proof of the dangerous character 

 of the Democratic party. The majority of that body, 



in an unusually long session, passed no law for the 

 benefit of the people of the State, but they revolu- 

 tionized every State institution to make places for 

 Democratic partisans. They subordinated the wel- 

 fare of the insane, the blind, the mute, and orphans 

 to the interest of the Democratic party. The Con- 

 stitution having never contemplated more than one 

 Congressional districting of the State during a term 

 often years between the taking of the censuses, we 

 condemn the recent outrageous and unjust redistrict- 

 ing of the State by the Legislature, in violation of 

 usage and at the dictation of Speaker Randall, by 

 which, on tho basis of the vote of the last Presi- 

 dential election, when a majority of the votes cast 

 were Republican, the Democrats would be enabled 

 to carry fourteen out of twenty Congressional dis- 

 tricts. 



The Democratic State Convention was held 

 at Columbus, June 26th. The following ticket 

 was put in nomination : For Secretary of 

 State, David R. Paige, of Summit County ; for 

 Judge of Supreme Court, Alexander S. Hume, 

 of Butler County; for Member of the Board 

 of Public Works, Rush R. Field, of Richland 

 County. The following platform was adopted : 



The Democratic party of Ohio, in Convention as- 

 sembled, hereby reaffirms the following clauses in 

 the platform of the Convention of July 25, 1877, en- 

 dorsed by a majority of more than 22,000 last fall by 

 the people of Ohio : We renew its pledges of devo- 

 tion to the Union, and the Constitution with its 

 amendments. It declares as essential to the preser- 

 vation of the Government a faithful adherence to the 

 following principles : A strict construction of home 



vexed by sumptuary laws ; absolute acquiescence in 

 the lawfully expressed will of the majority; opposi- 

 tion to all subsidies ; the preservation of the public 

 lands for the use of actual settlers, and the mainte- 

 nance and protection of the common school system. 

 As pertinent to the issue now pending before the 

 people, 



.Resolved, That an investigation of the frauds com- 

 mitted at the last Presidential election in Florida 

 and Louisiana ought to have been made by the Elec- 

 toral Commission. Its refusal to do so was a viola- 

 tion of the spirit of the law under which it was or- 

 ganized and a gross outrage upon the people of tho 

 United States ; and while the decision as made by 

 the Forty-fourth Congress of the question as to who 

 should be declared President of tlie United States 

 for the present Presidential term was in our judg- 

 ment final, that decision ought not to preclude an 

 authentic investigation and exposure of all the frauds 

 connected with that election and the due accounta- 

 bility of all who were guiltily connected with them. 



Resolved, That the commercial and industrial stag- 

 nation that has so long prevailed throughout the 

 country, and the consequent wide-spread want and 

 suffering, is due directly to the pernicious financial 

 legislation of the Republican party, which we here- 

 by arraign for its acts, and charge : 



1. That at a time when the country was weighed 

 down with debt created on the basis of a full volume 

 of paper added to both tho precious metals as money, 

 it enacted a sweeping change in the measure of value 

 wholly in the interest of moneyed capital by demon* 

 etizing silver and decreeing the destruction of legal* 

 tender paper, and thereby wrongfully added in ef- 

 fect hundreds of millions to the burden of debt and 

 taxes upon the people. 



2. By pursuing its merciless policy of contracting 

 the paper currency and hoarding gold it has increased 

 continuously the value of money and securities that 

 partake of the enhancement of money, and decreased 



