730 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



shall not be hastily supplemented by experiments. 

 The Administration of President Garneld has set the 

 right example in this direction, uiul, while firmly ad- 

 hering to the principles and better practices of the 

 great party which called it into existence, it yet insists 

 upon faithfulness and honesty in every branch of the 

 public service. The bullet o"f the assassin should not 

 interrupt this work. It should be pursued while its 

 author lives, and beyond his life, if through increas- 

 iuginisfortune it should be taken away. 



Ifaolccd, That the Republican party has ever been 

 progressive and reformatory, and while realizing that 

 nothing in government is wholly right, we desire to be 

 always brave to seek every avenue of approach to the 

 right, to the end that all our people may enjoy ever 

 the increasing blessings of good government. 



Resolved, That in any revision of our tariff legisla- 

 tion which may be made, care shall be taken to dis- 

 criminate in favor of our own industries, and thereby 

 promote the causes which are rapidly making Amer- 

 ica the controlling power in the hnances as it already 

 is the established leader in political thought. 



The Democratic State Convention convened 

 at Williamsport on the 28th of September, and 

 nominated Orange Noble, of Erie. The plat- 

 form adopted contained the following among 

 other resolutions : 



Resolved, That we, the Democratic party of Penn- 

 sylvania, in convention assembled declare : 

 ' 1. For the preservation of the Constitution of the 

 United States, home rule, freedom of elections, for 

 resistance to revolutionary changes tending to con- 

 solidation or empire ; against the election of any per- 

 son to the presidency a third time, and against the 

 presence of troops at the polls ; against the appropria- 

 tion of public money for any purpose but the sup- 

 port of Government, and against class legislation 

 which despoils labor to build up monopoly. 



2. That the Democratic party, as of old, favors a 

 constitutional currency of gold and silver in all forms, 

 and coalition with repudiators merits the condemna- 

 tion of honest people. The refusal of a Republican 

 Administration to accede to the Democratic demand 

 for a further reduction in the rate of interest on the 

 national debt subjects the Government to a needless 

 expense of millions of dollars annually. . . . 



7. That no monopoly or exclusive right in the 

 forces of nature, in grants of eminent domain, in the 

 diffusion of information among the people by telegraph 

 and associations for furnishing dispatches to the press, 

 or the grant of privileges affecting the daily business 

 of the citizen, can or ought rightfully to exist under 

 our form of government. These are at all times to 

 be subject to such legislative regulation and control 

 as the rights and interests of the people demand. 

 That the delegated power of Congress to regulate 

 commerce among the States and the reserved power 

 of the States to regulate the same within their borders 

 should be forthwith exercised to prevent unjust dis- 

 crimination by common carriers against individuals 

 and localities, and all the provisions of the Constitu- 

 tion of Pennsylvania relative to the exercise and abuse 

 of the corporate franchise and the duties of common 

 carriers to the public should be enforced without de- 

 lay by appropriate legislation. That all governmental 

 power snould be used in restraint of monopolies and 

 not in aid of them, and simple and speedy remedies 

 should be provided by legislative enactment by which 

 any citizen injured in his business may, in State and 

 Federal courts, by due process of law, have quick, 

 certain, and adequate redress for corporate wrongs ; 

 that vested rights must be protected and respected, 

 and great corporations warring between themselves 

 to the injury of the public interests and their own 

 shareholders must be regulated and controlled by 

 wise and effective laws ; that franchises, the property 

 of the people, shall be granted and exercised solely 

 for the public benefit, and subject to immediate and 

 absolute forfeiture by due process of law when used 



for oppression or extortion, or when otherwise abused. 

 No corporation should be above the people or the law. 

 We thus reaffirm the ancient doctrines of the Demo- 

 cratic party and most cordially invite our fellow- 

 citizens, of whatever party, to join with us in carry- 

 ing out the principles and policy we hereby an- 

 nounce, and to the advocacy ol which we pledge our- 

 selves until the right shall prevail. 



The Greenback State Convention was held 

 at Pottsville on the 15th of June. R. W. Jack- 

 son, of Mercer County, was nominated. The 

 platform which was adopted by this conven- 

 tion denounces the aggregation of real estate 

 by corporations, when not in actual use ; the 

 agents of money, commerce, and transporta- 

 tion ; and claims that the transmission of in- 

 telligence should be made subservient to the 

 Constitution, and that the voters should de- 

 mand the necessary statutes to keep these 

 agents under the control of the people ; de- 

 nounces monopolies ; censures the Legislature 

 for its failure to pass the anti-freight discrim- 

 ination bill ; demands protection to American 

 labor and produce ; denounces national banks 

 for their attempt to coerce Congress by with- 

 drawal of their circulation ; indignantly denies 

 the charge of the subsidized press that the 

 Greenback-Labor party favors an unlimited 

 issue of currency, and declares that only such 

 volume of currency as business requires shall 

 be issued; denounces the national- bank system 

 as legalized robbery ; and indorses Weaver aud 

 Chambers. 



After the Republican State Convention, 

 Charles S. Wolfe announced himself as an in- 

 dependent candidate for State Treasurer, and 

 appealed for support to those Republicans who 

 were dissatisfied with the party management. 

 The election resulted in the choice of General 

 Baily by a plurality of 6,824. The vote was 

 as follows: Baily, 265,295; Noble, 258,471; 

 Wolfe, 49,984; Jackson, 14,976; Wilson (Pro- 

 hibition), 4,507; scattering, 168. 



After the election the supporters of Mr. 

 Wolfe, organized as the Citizens' Republican 

 Association, announced their determination to 

 continue their efforts, and issued an address 

 which sets forth their objects thus : " It is the 

 purpose of the Citizens' Republican Association 

 of Pennsylvania to labor for the maintenance 

 of the following principles, and the attainment 

 of the following objects : The purification and 

 preservation of the Republican party ; the 

 overthrow of bossism ; the right of a fairly 

 chosen and unfettered majority to nominate ; 

 the reform of the civil service; the elevation 

 of the intellectual and moral standard of our 

 officials national, State, and municipal; and 

 a ceaseless warfare against the spoils system 

 that fruitful parent of the numberless political 

 evils which menace the perpetuation of our 

 republican form of government, and which 

 led to the cowardly assassination of the Chief 

 Magistrate of our nation." 



Following is the population of Pennsylvania 

 by counties, as finally returned by the census 

 of 1880, and as reported in 1870: 



