782 



TENNESSEE. 



of ballots, Albert S. Marks was nominated for 

 Governor. The platform adopted was as fol- 

 lows : 



In the name of the Democratic party of Tennes- 

 see, we, its delegates, in convention assembled, most 

 solemnly arraign: the Radical Republican party, na- 

 tional and State, before the bar of public opinion, as 

 the author of all the misfortunes which now oppress 

 and threaten the people. 



Protesting its friendship for the Federal Union, it 



SOU' ' 



pun 



claimed mission, it preached the gospel of hate, and 

 filled the land with blood, misrule, and anarchy. 

 Pretending to "provide for the common defense," 

 it fruitlessly squandered millions of the people's 

 money. Affecting to " promote the general wel- 

 fare," it betrayed the public weal. Affirming its de- 

 sign to " secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 

 and posterity," it forged for the people the chains of 

 perpetual slavery. Ostensibly the financial agent of 

 the people, it was in fact the pliant tool of the money 

 power. It betrayed its trust when it converted a 

 non-interest-bearing debt into an interest-bearing 

 debt, which is a blighting public curse. It betrayed 

 its trust when it repudiated a contract winch was 

 dischargeable in Treasury notes, and substituted a 

 coin contract in its stead to the prejudice of the peo- 

 ple. It betrayed its trust when it demonetized silver 

 and forbade payment to the public creditors in the 

 cheaper metal provided for in the contract. It be- 

 trayed its trust when it organized a privileged class 

 into a close banking corporation, and, usurping all 

 banking power, invested its creature with exclusive 

 corporate power to destroy the business and property 

 of the people. It betrayed its power when it fixed 

 an arbitrary period for resumption. It has squan- 

 dered the public wealth by donations to powerful 

 corporations. It has wrung enormous taxes from 

 the people, and applied them to unworthy partisan 

 purposes. 



Lnder the pretense of protection to home industry, 

 it has systematically robbed the many in the interest 

 of the few. 



By unfriendly legislation it has driven American 

 ships from the high, seas, and utterly destroyed our 

 foreign commerce. 



_ It made the army an instrument in the annihila- 

 tion of republican government in the South. By the 

 use of the army it put the people of the United 

 States in fear and robbed them of the Presidency. 

 It insults the laboring people of our country by de- 

 manding an increase of the army for the avowed 

 purpose of a standing menace to them. By the levy 

 of excessive excise duties upon tobacco and alcoholic 

 productions, it lias encouraged violations of the rev- 

 enue laws, and under the false pretense of protecting 

 the Revenue service, it has turned loose upon our 

 people irresponsible, bloodthirsty men, who kill 

 and maim our people and destroy their property at 

 will, and, confessing the want of jurisdiction in the 

 .Federal courts to punish them, yet it refuses to allow 

 these enemies to society to be challenged anywhere 

 for their crimes. 



Acquiring power by ascident, it has perpetuated 

 t by fraudulently deceiving the ignorant blacks of 



3 South, and misleading the credulous masses of 

 the North, and it has uniformly abused its power by 

 idrmmstering the government in the interest of the 

 creditor and against the debtor class ; in the interest 

 of the tax-consumer and against the tax-payer ; in 

 the interest of the rich and against the poor ; in the 

 mterept of the strong and against the weak ; in the 

 interest of the few and against the many. 



As the legitimate fruit of its maladministration, it 



as paralyzed all our industrial pursuits ; it has de- 

 stroyed the value of our property ; it has deprived 

 ot employment and reward; it has impover- 



ished and bankrupted the country ; it has denied 

 the poor an opportunity to earn bread ; it has filled 

 the land with unrest, discontent, and agitation, the 

 unmistakable precursors of revolutionary resistance 

 to oppression, injustice, and wrong. 



For these crimes against humanity and good gov- 

 ernment, we denounce the Radical Republican party 

 as unworthy the trust and confidence of an intelli- 

 gent and patriotic people. As the representatives of 

 the Democratic party, we congratulate the people 

 that our party has at last won a victory for them 

 over the Radical Republican party and its allies, 

 monopoly and the money power. Through the la- 

 bors and policies of the Democratic party, domestic 

 governments, republican in spirit as well as in form, 

 have been restored to the Southern States, and these 

 States have been replaced in the Federal circle with 

 functions and rights coequal with the other mem- 

 bers of the Union. For the accomplishment of this 

 great work this political organization deserves the 

 gratitude of the South and the respectful considera- 

 tion of the whole republic; the gratitude of the for- 

 mer is due because it was the direct recipient of the 

 blessings of restored political and civil liberty ; the 

 respectful consideration of the national republic is 

 due because by the success of Democratic policies 

 in this regard the sword was eliminated from its 

 internal administration, centralization arrested, and 

 the ancient forms and methods of the Federal sys- 

 tem reestablished. We pledge the people that our 

 grand old party will never lower its banner nor take 

 a step backward, until the prosperity of the whole 

 people shall be held to be the supreme law of politi- 

 cal administration. In the name of Democracy we 

 denounce an interest-bearing public debt a public 

 curse ; we denounce protection a public robbery ; 

 we denounce monopolies as hateful, and destructive 

 to public liberty, and demand that they be put away 

 from among the people. We demand the restoration 

 of the Federal Government to its constitutional lim- 

 its, and a return of its administration to its original 

 economy, simplicity, and impartiality. 



We demand that the military shall be subordinate 

 to the civil authority in fact as well as in theory ; the 

 repeal of the laws which have destroyed our com- 

 merce ; the repeal of the declaration that the cur- 

 rency bonds of the Government shall be paid in 

 coin, and the payment in Treasury notes of so much 

 of said bonds as may be found due after deducting 

 the difference between the value of the gold paid 

 and the currency due thereon according to the con- 

 tract ; the unconditional repeal of the resumption 

 act ; that the odious national banking act be repealed 

 and greenbacks be substituted for the circulation of 

 the national banks ; that Treasury notes be made re- 

 ceivable for all Government dues ; that no more in- 

 terest-bearing bonds be issued ; that all loans re- 

 quired by the Government be raised by the issuance 

 of non-interest-bearing Treasury notes; that the 

 coinage of silver be made unlimited, and while it is 

 the cheaper metal that it be paid to the public credit- 

 or exclusively upon all bonds justly payable in coin ; 

 that the value of all foreign silver coin's be regulated 

 and made receivable for all Government dues, to be 

 recoined by the Government and paid out to its cred- 

 itors ; the repeal of all laws which deny to the people 

 of the several States the right to determine for them- 

 selves whether they will authorize banks or not; 

 that capital in every form be required to bear the 

 burdens of government equally with labor and pro- 

 duction; that the present financial policy of the 

 Government to contract the circulation of Treasury 

 notes, disparage silver, magnify gold and national- 

 bank notes, be reversed, and every legitimate mode 

 adopted to swell the volume of our currency with 

 silver and Treasury notes. For five years the na- 

 tional Radical Republican party upheld and protected 

 an irresponsible minority in the usurpation of our 

 State government, and permitted it to waste the 

 substance of our unrepresented and impoverished 



