MASSACHUSETTS. 



percentages, which may leave a vast surplus over all 

 taxes in the hands of one citizen, while another must 

 (jo hungry to pay a poll-tax, after having paid enor- 

 mous taxes ana duties upon liis consumption. 



Jtuolmd. That the coin n>umjiti"!i f tin- Republi- 

 can party is u shorn and a delusion, by making paper 

 l>niik-n.i. * redeemable in paper United States Hglair 

 tender notes, and those notes exchangeable for o'in 

 over only one counter in the United States in sums of 

 not less than $50. 



JttsolceJ, Tliat the liours of labor shall bo shortened, 

 and the employment of young children in exhausting 

 factory labor bo prevented ; that labor-saving machin- 

 ery N a l>t>ti oi' tiod to the sons and daughters of toil, 

 rather than an engine of torture to. wring out larger 

 profits for capital tty bringing the laborer into heart- 

 breaking competition with the muscles that never 

 tiro. The vast powers of nature arc not harnessed by 

 invention to secure oven six per cent, dividends, but 

 to relieve the human slaves ; not hours of toil, but the 

 product of the now partnership of man with natural 

 Forces, should bo the rule of compensation, and de- 

 mands a new system of dividing the profits of capital 

 and labor. 



Retained, That free school-books are an important 

 part of the system of free schools. To soond millions 

 in buildings and teachers, and refuse a tew dollars in 

 Bchool-booKs except by enforcing a humiliating con- 

 fession of poverty upon parent and child, is inconsis- 

 tent and unwise. 



Resolved, That the contract system of convict labor 

 should be abolished, and that the employment of such 

 labor shall be on tne account of the Commonwealth 

 alone, which shall be prohibited from selling the pro- 

 duction at a price that shall underbid honest labor. 



Resolved, That the National Greenback-Labor party 

 will support no candidate for the State Legislature 

 unless he be pledged to vote for a compulsory secret 

 ballot 



Resolved, That we cordially endorse tho amendment 

 to the homestead act presented to Congress by Hon- 

 drick B. Wright of Pennsylvania, and for his noble 

 devotion to the cause of labor we extend to him the 

 warm sympathies and hearty thanks of tho Greenback- 

 Labor party of Massachusetts. 



Resolved, That the shameless legislation of the poll- 

 tax bill, passed at the last session of the General Court, 

 impels us to reaffirm our protest against the outrage 

 on tho right of the ballot which that legislation at- 

 tempts to perpetuate ; and we demand that this relic 

 of a property qualification be wiped from tho organic 

 laws. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 at Worcester on September 16th. The nomina- 

 tions for State officers resulted as follows : For 

 Governor, John D. Long ; for Lieutenant-Gov- 

 ernor, Byron Weston ; for Secretary of State, 

 Henry B. Peirce ; for Treasurer and Receiver- 

 General, Charles Endicott ; for Auditor, Charles 

 R. Ladd ; for Attorney-General, George Mars- 

 ton. The following resolutions were adopted : 



The Republican party of Massachusetts, at tho close 

 of the first quarter of a century of its history, pledg- 

 ing itself anew to the continued performance of the 

 duties in which it originated, and to the defense and 

 maintenance of those principles upon which it was 

 founded, and which are still essential to the peace, 

 security : and prosperity of the republic, makes theso 

 declaration* : 



1. We atfirm the doctrine heretofore proclaimed 

 and maintained, that tho United States of America is a 

 nation ; that, while local self-government in all mat- 

 ters which belong to the States must be fully recog- 

 nized, tho national Government should secure to tho 

 citizens from whom it claims allegiance complete liber- 

 ty and exact equality in the exercise of their civil and 

 political rights ; that, whether assailed by political 

 persecution ut homo or menaced by tyranny abroad, 



all citizens of the United States, without distinction of 

 origin, race, creed, or color, must be protected by the 

 national Government in all the rights granted to them 

 by the Constitution and laws; that our institutions 

 rest upon the equality of all men before the law, and 

 that a free ballot, uninfluenced by fraud, intimidation, 

 or force, and honestly counted, w the right of every 

 qualified voter ; and we demand that elections shall bo 

 free from all interference by unlawful bodies of armed 

 men, and shall also be free from the interference of the 

 national or State military forces except when employed 

 as apart of & posse comitatut. We denounce that fierce 

 partisan intolerance which prevente a free ballot, de- 

 nies freedom of political opinion and action, and takes 

 from any of the people the right to choose their homes 

 and to control and enjoy the fruits of their labor. 



2. We deprecate the course of the members of the 

 Democratic party who have undertaken to revive sec- 

 tional animosity for the purpose of securing political 

 ascendancy in tne Southern States, and who nave re- 

 vived the memories of sectional strife by the defiant 

 declaration of the purpose to repeal laws made necessa- 

 ry by war and enacted to secure the results of the war ; 

 and we condemn their attempts to secure by legislation 

 what was not accomplished by arms, namely, the 

 establishment under the name of State sovereignty of 

 those pernicious doctrines which destroy national su- 

 premacy, and which in the past have led to secession 

 and civil war. 



8. The pledges of the Eepublican party to maintain 

 the national honor and to preserve the national credit 

 have been redeemed in the face of bitter opposition, 

 by the prompt resumption of specie payments and a 

 reduction both of the principal and the interest of the 

 public debt ; and wo congratulate our fellow citizens 

 upon the restoration of confidence and revival of busi- 

 ness which followed the honest, prudent, and wise 

 management of public affairs under a Republican ad- 

 ministration. We arc opposed to repudiation in all its 

 forms, either by a "scaling" of debts or a debase- 

 ment of the legal-tender circulation. We insist that 

 the paper and the coin circulation of the country shall 

 at all times be maintained at par with the gold stand- 

 ard of the commercial world. 



4. We applaud the firm and patriotic course ot 

 President Hayes in maintaining the constitutional pre- 

 rogatives of the Executive, and in courageously and 

 successfully resisting all efforts of a Democratic Con- 

 gress to cripple the functions of tho Government. We 

 recognize the earnestness and sincerity with which ho 

 has labored to restore harmony and {t good feeling'' 

 to all sections of the country, to secure purity, effi- 

 ciency, and frugality in evorv branch of the public 

 service, and to divorce the civil service from the man- 

 agement of partisan politics, to sustain the financial 

 credit of the Government, and to insist upon free and 

 honest elections ; and we will support the President 

 in tho responsibility of making nominations to office 

 without dictation from other departments of tho Gov- 

 ernment, and in persistently carrying out the princi- 

 ples relating to the civil service declared in the Cin- 

 cinnati platform and letter of acceptance. 



6. While the Republican partv is practically united 

 in demanding a suppression of intemperance by tho 

 wisest legislation, it recognizes an honest difference of 

 opinion among ita moinDers as to which form of law 

 will best accomplish that end; and the question 5s 

 therefore referred to the people, to be sertlea by them 

 in the Legislature organized for the protection of the 

 weak, the relief of the oppressed, and tho elevation 

 of all. The Republican party pledgees ifc<clf anew to 

 these primary object*, and, * believing an effectual 

 means of promoting them is the diffusion of full and 

 accurate Snforniation of the condition of the people, it 

 heartily sustains our State Bureau of Statistics of La- 

 bor, and endorses the establishment of a national bu- 

 reau of like character. We again demand that our 

 system of taxation shall be so modified that each per- 

 son shall contribute only in proportion to what he is 

 worth, to the end that there snail bo substantial relief 

 from the existing burdens of taxation. In our opinion, 



