188 



DELAWARE. 



their allowances to legislative attache's, attorneys, 

 printers, etc., by which they have created and main- 

 tained a Ring at the public expense ; they are opposed 

 to the education of the poor man's children, believing 

 that the ignorance of the many is necessary to the 

 maintenance of a few ; throwing every obstacle in the 

 way of immigration into this State, they have steadily 

 opposed public improvements ; they have neglected 

 to take advantage of the low rates of interest upon 

 which money can be borrowed, and by a system of 

 unwise and injurious taxation have crippled the ener- 

 gies of our people and failed to protect the abundant 

 supplies and advantages with which nature has blessed 

 us ; in short, they have illustrated the Bourbon who, 

 learning nothing new, ties us to the dead past, regard- 

 less of the magnificent energies and improvements 

 which everywhere surround us ; that while nature, 

 climate, situation, proximity to markets, are all favor- 

 in<y our State, we find the one impeding obstacle to 

 be Democratic control. To remedv these evils we 

 declare ourselves to be the Party of "Progress and Re- 

 form, and affirm our adherence to the following doc- 

 trines which we believe to be for the welfare of our 

 people : 



Representation on the basis of population is a funda- 

 mental principle of true republican government, and 

 ought to be established. 



The State should be divided into senatorial and 

 representative districts, and the Senators and Repre- 

 sentatives in the General Assembly should be elected 

 in such districts exclusively by the people thereof: 

 and the counties divided into levv court districts, and 

 the commissioners elected exclusively by the people 

 thereof; thus securing the right of the minority to be 

 represented in both these bodies. 



All county officers should be elected directly by 

 the people thereof, and their pay should not exceed a 

 reasonable compensation for the service rendered. 



Our present judicial system ought to be simplified, 

 so that justice in civil and criminal causes may be 

 more speedily, less expensively, and more conven- 

 iently administered. 



More liberal exemption laws should be enacted, ap- 

 plicable to all debts hereafter contracted, and in any 

 such enactments it should especially be provided that 

 wages for the current year should be wholly exempt 

 from attachment or execution process. 



Our present assessment and collection laws were 

 conceived in sin and born of iniquity ; the purposes 

 of their being was and is exclusively to perpetuate 

 the misrule of the Democratic party, and their admin- 

 istration by the levy courts of the several counties 

 has, in pursuance of that purpose, been in deroga- 

 tion of the rights of freemen, costly, unjust, partisan, 

 and dishonest. 



That to secure these objects and insure a wise econ- 

 omy in the expenditure of the people's money, and 

 the natural and legitimate growth of our State, the 

 time has come for such a general remodeling 01 our 

 laws and system of government as to demand a change 

 in the organic law ; and we therefore declare our- 

 selves in favor of a convention of the people to so 

 alter and amend the Constitution of the State as will 

 secure that retrenchment and reform so necessary to 

 its growth and prosperity. 



Albert H. Curry, of Sussex County, was nom- 

 inated for Governor, and Washington Hast- 

 ings, of Wilmington, for Congressman. 



The Democratic State Convention met in 

 Dover, on the 22d of August, and adopted the 

 following platform: 



Resolved, That the results of vise, honest, prudent, 

 and economical administration by the Democratic 

 party of the government of the State of Delaware for 

 many years, are attested by the admirable condition 

 of our finances, combining a State credit as high, with 

 taxation as low, as the richest and proudest of our sis- 

 ters of the Union. 



That with assets exceeding our liabilities our State 

 debt has been rapidly reduced and funded at the most 

 favorable rates of interest, and on terms that place its 

 speedy extinction within control. 



That the duty of popular education has been ful- 

 filled by a common-school system steadily improved 

 and liberally sustained. 



That strictly complying with public obligation, not 

 a dollar has been lost to the Treasury by the defalca- 

 tion of a Democratic official. 



That security to property and person has been care- 

 fully maintained, except in a single case, wherein the 

 rancorous fanaticism of our political opponents de- 

 feated the administration of Justice, and prevented a 

 shocking crime from being visited with condign pun- 

 ishment. 



Resolved, That we are in favor of such amendments 

 to the Constitution of the State either by a constitu- 

 tional convention or legislative enactments as may 

 be necessary to reform and improve our judicial sys- 

 tem, give to New Castle County a just and fair pro- 

 portion of the representatives in the Legislature, and 

 correct the many deficiencies of the present Constitu- 

 tion. 



Resolved, That despite the misrepresentation, false- 

 hood, and abuse poured upon them by the radical 

 press and orators, the laws of Delaware relating to 

 the assessment and payment of taxes afford just and 

 ample facilities for the qualification of every voter 

 far greater than the registration laws of Pennsylvania 

 and New York under the control of the Republican 

 party. 



Resolved, That we cherish the free-school system as 

 one of the corner-stones of a good and stable govern- 

 ment, and are in favor of its further improvement and 

 development as an educator of the poor as well as the 

 rich ; but we denounce, as an obstacle to education, the 

 policy of the Republican party, which looks toward 

 the gradual establishment of mixed schools. 



Resolved, That the interests of all classes and occu- 

 pations of the American people demand an early and 

 thorough revision and reform of the present unequal, 

 unjust, antiquated, and obstructive system of tariff 

 laws, and the substitution in lieu thereof of a judi- 

 cious and moderate arrangement of duties upon im- 

 ports which will check the growth of monopolies, in- 

 crease the public revenue, and thereby render other 

 taxes unnecessary, will benefit agriculture, encourage 

 commerce, and revive American shipping, and thus 

 open the markets of the world to our agricultural prod- 

 ucts and to our manufacturers, and enable them to 

 compete hi foreign markets, will secure steady wages 

 and a reduced cost of living to the laboring classes, 

 and tend to avoid the disastrous conflicts between cap- 

 ital and labor which result in large degree from a 

 glutted home market and consequent stoppage of labor 

 and production. 



Resolved, That the exposure at last of the long-con- 

 tinued and systematic frauds in the postal service ; 

 the admitted ruin of our once glorious navy and its 

 recommittal to the hands that destroyed it ; the gross 

 and profligate expenditure hi every branch of the pub- 

 lic service, which attained this year, in addition to 

 the interest upon the public debt, to the fearful sum 

 of $300,000,000, should warn the people of the neces- 

 sity of withdrawing the control of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment from the Republican party. 



Resolved, That the shameless and cruel exaction by 

 the Republican chairman, Jay Hubbell, of a percent- 

 age of the wages of every Federal employe", regardless 

 of age or sex, with his public assurance that such ac- 

 tion "is not objected to in any official quarter," in- 

 volves the entire Republican Administration in the 

 meanness and guilt of his conduct, which should be 

 visited by the condemnation of all honest men. 



Resolved, That in their retention in places of party 

 trust of Dorsey, the Star Route plunderer, and the 

 advancement of similar notorious and disreputable 

 characters to positions of party leadership in Dela- 

 ware and elsewhere, the Republican managers have 



