518 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



ment, and of the legitimate exercise of local govern- 

 ment in the several States of the Union by which we 

 form a sovereign nation of inviolate and inviolable 

 States. 



2. Equal rights, equal powers, equal burdens, equal 

 privileges, and equal protection by law under the 

 government for every citizen of the republic, without 

 limitation of race, or sex, or property qualification, 

 whether it be by a tax on property or a poll-tax on 

 persons. 



3. Impartial freedom of the ballot North as well as 

 South, East as well as West and the abolition of all 

 laws, whether on the statute-books of Massachusetts 

 or of Mississippi, aimed at the unequal limitation of 

 the right of suffrage and the partial withholding of the 

 sacred and fundamental right of representation. 



4. Honest and economic expenditures of the public 

 money in State and nation, and in such ways and for 

 such purposes only as are manifestly essential to the 

 public welfare, demanded by_ public necessity and 

 clearly sanctioned by constitutional authority. . . . 



7. A thorough and immediate reform of the tariff". 

 The Constitution of the United States sanctions tax- 

 ation, whether by excise, impost, or customs, to the 

 amount of the necessary expenditures of the Govern- 

 ment, whether in war or peace, to which all its reve- 

 nues must be limited. The national expenditures are 

 now so great that all proper protection can be given 

 to American interests, American industries, and 

 American labor within those limits. Therefore, we 

 call upon Congress so to reform the present war taxes 

 that hundreds of millions may not be, as now, need- 

 lessly extracted from the earnings of our people, to 

 lie in the Treasury as a temptation to wicked and reck- 

 less appropriations for extravagant public buildings 

 and useless and wasteful river and harbor bills. That 

 no taxes shall be levied upon the necessaries of life or 

 upon the raw material which is not found or produced 

 in our country. That the tariff shall be so judiciously- 

 adjusted that American commerce shall be fostered, 

 and, above all, American labor elevated and amply re- 

 warded. We affirm that all these results can be fully 

 realized under a tariff limited in amount to a sum ne- 

 cessary and adequate for revenue. 



8. Reduction of extravagant State expenditures 

 with the direct taxation necessary to sustain them 

 which, under the continuous rule of one party in 

 power for more than seventeen years since the war, has 

 steadily increased year by year, until in the year 1881, 

 by direct taxation, the enormous sum of five millions 

 three hundred and forty-three thousand eight hundred 

 and eighty-four dollars and twenty-five cents ($5,343,- 

 884.25) has been drawn from the earnings of tne people 

 of the State, in addition to a State tax of one million 

 and five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) ; and 

 in the year 1882, by the addition of a half million 

 ($500,000) to one of the direct State taxes, the vast 

 sum of seven millions three hundred and forty-three 

 thousand eight hundred and eighty-four dollars and 

 twenty-five cents ($7,343,884.25) is imposed upon the 

 people of this State, or more than four dollars to each 

 man, woman, and child in the Commonwealth. We 

 require, therefore, amendments of the laws by which 

 this immense burden shall be reduced ; and, further, 

 that all taxation shall be so levied that a large portion 

 of the property of the Commonwealth shall not escape 

 taxation for the benefit of the few and the wrong of 

 the many ; and that all taxation shall be an equal 

 burden upon all men. 



9. No sumptuary laws, infringing sacred rights of 

 personal liberty. No double nor any unequal taxa- 

 tion. No partial enforcement of the laws. No class 

 legislation. These are axioms of Democracy, domi- 

 nant always in its faith and practice. In this day of 

 giant monopolies, powerful corporations, and concen- 

 trated wealth seeking to subsidize every function of 

 Government to their own exclusive benefit, the Dem- 

 ocrats of Massachusetts proclaim their principles 

 anew, in behalf of labor and all its interests, in behalf 

 of the laboring masses and all their rights, to the end 



that this Government may be and may continue to 

 be the " people's government," as the fathers of the 

 republic designed and intended. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 in Worcester on the 20th of September, 21 

 cities and 328 towns being represented by 

 1,287 delegates. Only three towns were un- 

 represented. The following is the ticket 

 nominated : For Governor, Robert R. Bishop, 

 of Newton; for Lieuten ant-Governor, Oliver 

 Ames, of Easton; for Secretary, Henry B. 

 Peirce, of Abington ; for Treasurer, Daniel A. 

 Gleason, of Medford ; for Auditor, Charles R. 

 Ladd, of Springfield; for Attorney- General, 

 Edgar J. Sherman, of Lawrence. 



The following resolutions with others were 

 adopted as the platform of the Republican 

 party of the State : 



We congratulate the country that a sound business 

 and financial policy in national legislation has secured 

 an extension of the present excellent banking system, 

 giving to the people a currency convenient, uniform, 

 elastic in volume, of equal value in all the States, and 

 absolutely safe from loss in the hands of the holder. 



We unqualifiedly condemn all dishonesty and fraud 

 in the conduct of elections, and demand that in every 

 locality in the United States a free ballot and a fair 

 count shall be absolutely secured to every qualified 

 voter. The work of the Republican party can not 

 cease till that result is accomplished, and to no other 

 party can so high a duty be safely intrusted. We, 

 therefore, express our admiration of the resolute 

 action of the Republicans of the national House of 

 Representatives in the decision of election cases, de- 

 spite the factious and indefensible resistance of the 

 Democratic party in its not unusual encouragement of 

 tissue-ballot and other frauds. 



By the rapid payment of the national debt and the 

 great reduction in annual interest charges, made by 

 honest and able management of the finances (results 

 unprecedented in the history of the world), and by 

 reason of the consequent restoration of confidence and 

 revival of business, a large surplus is accumulating in 

 the Treasury, above all possible requirements for the 

 defrayal of ordinary expenses, for discharge of the 

 matured debt and interest, and for the liberal dis- 

 bursements to pensioners. It is clearly the duty _of 

 Congress to act speedily to reduce taxation in all its 

 forms, and so to lighten the burdens of the people. 

 More revenue than is needed for the public uses the 

 Government should not take. An overflowing Treas- 

 ury offers tempting inducement and plausible excuse 

 for inordinate expenditure. To accomplish such re- 

 duction we believe in a prompt revision of the tariff, 

 but we insist that in that revision the principle of dis- 

 crimination for the protection and encouragement of 

 American industries and labor shall be adhered to,_ 

 and such an adjustment of details made that relief 

 shall come where most needed, and the important 

 interests involved be not recklessly disturbed. 



We urge upon the favorable^ consideration of Con- 

 gress such measures as shall be 'necessary to keep coin 

 and currency at par with gold, the standard of the 

 commercial world, and to bring the silver dollar to_an 

 equivalency in value with the gold coinage ; to^ in- 

 crease American commerce and encourage American 

 shipping and ship-building, and to secure a more ex- 

 tended market for the products of pur industries ; to 

 provide, and within proper limitations, in support of 

 the common-school system throughout the country ; 

 to inaugurate and continue a wise, just, and humane 

 policy toward the Indians ; to vindicate the rights of 

 American citizenship in all parts of the Union. 



The work of reforming the civil service which was 

 commenced by the Republican party, and in favor of 

 which it alone stands committed in declaration and m 



