NEW YORK. 



679 



services rendered; and all unnocssary offices abol- 

 ish,,!. 



9. That there shall bo proper legi.slation for the pur- 

 pose of collecting and preserving reliable statistics to 

 form a basis of intelligent notion on all labor questions, 

 to the end that labor may be fully and constantly em- 

 ployed and justly compensated. 



10. The establishment of just and equitable rates for 

 railroad tare and transportation. 



11. That the Legislature at the earliest moment 

 possible shall pass a law giving to mortgagees of real 

 estate a right ot redemption after five years of the sale. 



12. That reasonable land limitation laws shall be 

 enacted to prevent land monop< >!'.<>. 



18. The abolition of the State Prison contract system. 



14. That no political assessments of candidates for 

 office or officeholders shall be permitted in this party. 



15. A reduction of legal rates of interest. 



16. That debt due for labor performed shall take the 

 precedence of all other claims. 



17. That no more public lands shall bo voted to cor- 

 porations, but that they be held for actual settlers. 



18. That we favor a tariff which shall protect Amer- 

 ican industry and manufactures. 



19. That the Government should faithfully perform 

 its pledge made to the Union soldiers at the time of 

 enlistment, to wit : That they receive 160 acres of land 

 on being discharged. Fee simple and equitable pay- 

 ment per month of each soldier according to the value 

 of full legal-tender dollar. 



The Republican State Convention for the 

 nomination of State officers was held at Sara- 

 toga on September 3d. William A. Wheeler 

 was chosen President, and the following State 

 officers were nominated : For Governor, A. B. 

 Cornell ; for Lieutenant-Governor, George G. 

 lloskins ; for Comptroller, James W. Wads- 

 worth ; for Secretary of State, Joseph B. Carr ; 

 for State Treasurer, Nathan D. Wendell ; for 

 Attorney-General, Hamilton Ward; for State 

 Engineer, Howard Soule. The following plat- 

 form was adopted : 



The Republicans of New York, pledging ourselves 

 anew to national supremacy, equal rights, free elec- 

 tions.and honest money, declare these principles : 



1. The Republic of the United States is a nation and 

 not a league. The nation is supreme within its own 

 constitutional sphere. It is endowed with power to 

 guard its own life, to protect its own citizens, to reg- 

 ulate its own elections, and to execute its own laws. 

 The opposite doctrine of State sovereignty is the bale- 

 ful mother of nullification, secession, and anarchy. 

 Republicanism stands for national supremacy in na- 

 tional affairs and State rights in State concerns. De- 

 mocracy stands for State sovereignty, with its own 

 twin heresy that the Union is a mere confederacy of 

 States. 



2. To refuse necessary supplies for the Government 

 with the design of compelling the unwilling consent 

 of a coordinate and independent branch to odious 

 measures is revolution. To refuse appropriations for 

 the execution of existingand binding laws is nullifica- 

 tion. We arraign the Democratic Representatives in 

 Congress as guilty both of revolutionary attempts and 

 nullifying schemes, and we reprobate their action as 

 calculated to subvert the Constitution and to strike at 

 the existence of the Government itself. 



8. The safety of the republic demands free and pure 

 elections. The Democratic Congress has attempted 

 dictation by caucus, by threats of starving the Govern- 

 ment, and by months of disturbing agitation, to break 

 down the national election laws. Wo denounce this 

 effort as a conspiracy to overthrow the safeguards of 

 free suffrage and to open the ballot-box to the un- 

 checked domination of the rifle clubs of the South and 

 the repeaters of New York. We declare our uncom- 

 promising opposition to any repeal of these just pro- 



tective laws, and the Republican Senators and Repre- 

 sentatives in Congress, for their resistance to thU at- 

 tempt, and President Hayes for bis veto mo^agus, do- 

 serve and receive our hearty approval. 



4. The Republican party neither justifies nor toler- 

 ates military interference with elections. It seeks only 

 to protect the ballot-box from the interference of force 

 and fraud. It repels the false charges and denounces 

 the false pretenses of conspirators, who, while profess- 

 ing free elections everywhere, sustain mob law in the 

 South ; while inveighing against troops at the polls to 

 protect citizens, refuse to prohibit armed clubs from 

 surrounding the ballot-box to intimidate them ; and, 

 while affecting that the soldier's bayonet will overawe 

 free electors, remain silent when the assassin's bullet 

 seals the fate of political independence. 



5. We call upon the people to remember that the 

 Democratic party forced the extra session of Congress 

 without warrant or excuse ; that it prosecuted its par- 

 tisan purposes by revolutionary methods ; that it per- 

 sistently obstructed resumption and still constantly 

 presses disturbing measures ; that it reopens sectional 

 questions closed by the national triumph, and threatens 

 to repeal the war legislation ; that ite Southern ele- 

 ment answers conciliation only with violence ; that its 

 hope of success rests alone on a solid South, and that 

 its triumph would make the South the ruling force of 

 the nation. We recognize that the great body of the 

 people who defended the Union, of whatever party 

 name, are equally patriotic and equally interested in 

 good government : and we earnestly invoke them to 

 unite in resisting the dangerous designs of a party or- 

 ganization under the sway of those who were lately in 

 rebellion, and seek to regain in the halls of legislation 

 what they lost on the field of battle. 



6. The successful resumption of specie payments, 

 despite Democratic prediction and Hostility, is the 

 crowning element of the Republican financial policy. 

 Followed by returning national prosperity, improved 

 credit, a refunded debt, and reduced interest, it adds 

 another to the triumphs which prove that the Repub- 

 lican party is equal to the highest demands. Our 

 whole currency should be kept at par with the mone- 

 tary standard of the commercial world, and any at- 

 tempt to debase the standard, to depreciate the paper, 

 or deteriorate the coin, should be firmly resisted. 



7. The claims of the living and the memories of the 

 dead defenders of the nation conjure us to protest 

 against the partisan and unpatriotic greed which expels 

 old Union soldiers from their well-deserved rewards 

 and advances Confederate soldiers to their places. 



8. As the pledge and proof of its economy in State 

 administration, the Republican party, in spite of pro- 

 longed Democratic resistance, proposed and passed the 

 constitutional amendments which restrict the expenses 

 of the canals to their receipts, and reform the whole 

 system of canal and prison management, and, by ex- 

 tinguishing the public indebtedness and relieving the 

 people from any further tax, effected a great saving in 

 State taxation. These fruits of Republican measures 

 the Democrats have brazenly attempted to appropriate 

 as their own. Appealing to the records in support of 

 our declaration, we pronounce their claim? unfounded, 

 and hold up their authors as public impostors. 



9. The inequalities of taxation, which press most 

 upon those least able to bear them, should be remedied. 

 To this end the Republican Legislature created a com- 

 mission to revise the assessment and tax laws and to 

 reach a class of property which now largely escapes ; 

 and we remind the people that this salutary reform 

 was unwarrantably defeated by the present Democratic 

 Executive. 



10. Moneyed and transportation corporations are not 

 alone the works of private enterprise, but are created 

 for public use and with due regard to vested rights. 

 It is the clear province and the plain duty of the Stato 

 to supervise and regulate such corporations so as to 

 secure the just and impartial treatment of all interest- 

 ed ; to foster the industrial and agricultural welfare of 

 the people, and with a liberal policy favor the public 

 waterways and rnintftin the commercial supremacy of 



