NEW YORK. 



655 



of the New York County Democracy that Tammany 

 Hall did not. when invited to do so by the Committee 

 of One Hundred in January last, co-operate with that 

 committee in the creation of a popular organization of 

 the party now representing it in the various districts 

 throughout the city, and to express the hope that, 

 when the Assembly district committees are next 

 elected, Taminany Hall will show its desire for union 

 and harmony in th3 party by urging all Democrats to 

 go in together at the primaries, where union can alone 

 be effected, and, not as before, refuse to participate in 

 the creation of a united party organization. 



A final report of the sub-Committee of 

 Twenty-One, of which Abrani S. Hewitt was 

 chairman, was made on the 7th of October. It 

 gave an account of the different steps taken, 

 from the holding of the mass-meeting in De- 

 cember, 1880, until the final completion of the 

 organizationintheseveral Assembly districts and 

 in the county of New York as a whole. When 

 the convention met in Albany, on the llth of 

 October, the first day was occupied with the 

 temporary organization and the appointment 

 of committees. There were contesting dele- 

 gations from all the New York districts, but 

 those representing the County Democracy were 

 placed on the preliminary rolls, and the com- 

 mittee on credentials, after a protracted hear- 

 ing, reported in their favor on the second day 

 of the convention. The chairman of the com- 

 mittee, in submitting the report, said : " After 

 the hearing, the committee, by a unanimous 

 vote, find that the gentlemen now occupying 

 saats in this convention on the preliminary roll 

 were entitled to permanent seats, by virtue of 

 their regularity as delegates from the county 

 of New York." This being adopted, both the 

 Tammany and Irving Hall Associations were 

 excluded from representation in the conven- 

 tion, and debarred from all claims to regularity 

 as part of the Democratic organization of the 

 State. 



Erastus Brooks, of Richmond County, was 

 chosen permanent chairman of the convention. 

 The platform adopted was as follows: 



The Democratic party of New York again declares 

 its fidelity to the principles set forth by the New 

 York State Democratic Conventions of 1874, 1875, and 

 1876. which were thrice approved at the ballot-boxes 

 by the people of the Empire State, and were vindi- 

 cated by the wise administrations of the Democratic 

 State Executives then chosen, and to the principles 

 set forth by the National Democratic Convention at 

 St. Louis, which were approved by decisive popular 

 and electoral majorities in the presidential election ot 

 1878. The victories then won in this State and in the 

 United States were in the name and for the sake ot 

 reform. 



The people were defrauded of the fruits of victory 

 in the Federal election by the false count of the elect- 

 oral votes in 1876, and the flagrant corruption in the 

 election of 1880. Reform throughout the Federal Ad- 

 ministration is still a necessity. The continuing dis- 

 closures of now and hitherto concealed plundering of 

 the people's funds bv inner rings in the Treasury, tho 

 Post-0mce,and the Interior Departments, demonstrate 

 that reform is now more than ever a necessity. 



It remains for the National Democratic party to re- 

 store tho Federal Government to tho fraternal spirit, 

 the constitutional principles, the frugal expenditure, 

 and the administrative purity of tho fathers of the re- 

 public. 



It remains likewise for the Democracy of the State 

 of New York, and is their first political duty, to re- 

 sume and carry on to a successful completion in all 

 departments ot its government the great measures 

 and policy of administrative reform which, between 

 1S74 and 1876, reduced by one half the burden of 

 our State taxation, and which then, and during the 

 three succeeding years, established throughout its ex- 

 ecutive departments vigor, economy, and fidelity to 

 public trusts. 



To that immediate duty this convention pledges 

 the united efforts of the Democracy of New York, and 

 the loyal devotion of the nominees whom it shall 

 commend to the choice of their fellow-citizens. 



The assassination of the late President of the United 

 States was a crime against authority, against free in- 

 stitutions, and against humanity. Wo deplore and 

 denounce the crime in all its public and private as- 

 pects. We extend, as citizens, our most profound 

 condolence to the family of the murdered Chief Mag- 

 istrate, and regard with great gratification tho univer- 

 sal expressions of sympathy extended by all nations 

 and peoples. 



We renew the expression of our demand for the re- 

 funding of tho national debt at the lowest possible 

 rate of interest. 



The New York Democracy, as always, stands by 

 gold and silver as the legal tender of the Constitution, 

 and by the doctrine that all paper mediums of money 

 must be based on those metals as the standard values 

 of the world. 



We demand the payment, principal and interest, of 

 every dollar of public indebtedness. 



" Readjustment " is repudiation. The act of tho 

 Northern Eepublican leauerSj in giving the support 

 of that party to repudiation in Virginia, Mississippi, 

 Minnesota, and other States, is a national disgrace, 

 dangerous as a precedent and destructive of the pub- 

 lic credit. 



We call upon the Democrats in Congress to main- 

 tain the standard of retrenchment by which their 

 Democratic predecessors reduced the Federal expenses 

 140.000,000 in a year. 



We demand a thorough and immediate investiga- 

 tion into the Star Route and other frauds upon the 

 Federal Treasury, and a vigorous prosecution, already 

 too long delayed, of all the participants, both high 

 and low, hi these grave crimes, whereby the moneys 

 of tho people were stolen from the Treasury and tne 

 plunderers were made to provide a corruption fund, 

 which was used to carry the last presidential election 

 for the Republican party. 



We indorse and applaud the united and honest 

 action, for Democratic principles and candidates, of 

 tho fifty-four Democratic members of the last Legis- 

 lature. They honored their State, their party, and 

 themselves. We denounce the Republican majority, 

 because that majority defeated every measure of trans- 

 portation reform, at the bidding of its masters, the 

 corporations. It enacted jobs directly increasing tho 

 public burdens by millions. It failed to meet the 

 urgent question of assessment and taxation reform. 

 It refused the demand of the State for a feasible and 

 enforcible excise law. It left the fanners of NV\v 

 York, where tho action of tho Governor placed them, 

 at tho mercy of tho oleomargarine ring. It struck 

 hands, for political greed, with the abettors of di -:i-c 

 and death in tho metropolis. It prolonged the se>--i. 'ii 

 of the Legislature far into tho summer, at an aggre- 

 gate expense of $300,000 to tho people. It bcc-am .', 

 in a factional struggle of placemen, tuc participant in 

 scandals and crimes which brought dishonor and dis- 

 grace upon tho good name of our State. When tho 

 Republican Legislature adjourned the people rejoiced, 

 as if delivered from a pestilence, and the officers of 

 the law were obliged to begin tho work of prosecut- 

 in_'tln> briberies and jxTJurios committed by corrupt 

 leaders of that purty while plying their vocation in 

 the capital of the State. 



We are in favor of such a reform by legislative 



