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UNITED STATES. 



Congresses, by which a reluctant Republican opposi- 

 tion was compelled to assent to legislation making 

 everywhere illegal the presence of troops at the polls, 

 as the conclusive proof that a Democratic Administra- 

 tion will preserve liberty with order. 



The selection of Federal officers for the Territories 

 should be restricted to citizens previously resident 

 therein. 



We oppose sumptuary laws which vex the citizen 

 and interfere with individual liberty. 



We favor honest civil-service reform and the com- 

 pensation of all United States officers by fixed salaries ; 

 the separation of church and state, and the diffusion 

 of free education by common schools, so that every 

 child in the land may be taught the rights and duties 

 of citizenship. 



While we favor all legislation which will tend to 

 the equitable distribution of property, to the preven- 

 tion of monopoly, and to the strict enforcement of in- 

 dividual rights against corporate abuses, we hold that 

 the welfare of society depends upon a scrupulous re- 

 gard for the rights of property as defined by law. We 

 believe that labor is best rewarded where it is freest 

 and most enlightened. It should therefore be fostered 

 and cherished. We favor the repeal of all laws re- 

 stricting the free action of labor, and the enactment of 

 laws by which labor organizations may be incorporated, 

 and of all such legislation as will tend to enlighten 

 the people as to the true relations of capital and labor. 



We believe that the public land ought, as far as 

 possible, to be kept as homesteads for actual settlers ; 

 that all unearned lands heretofore improvidently 

 granted to railroad corporations by the action of the 

 Republican party should be restored to the public do- 

 main, and that no more grants of land shall be made 

 to corporations, or be allowed to fall into the owner- 

 ship ot alien absentees. 



We are opposed to all propositions which upon any 

 pretext would convert the General Government into 

 a machine for collecting taxes to be distributed among 

 the States or the citizens thereof. 



In reaffirming the declaration of the Democratic 



Elatform of 1856, that the liberal principles embodied 

 y Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and 

 sanctioned in the Constitution, which make ours the 

 land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of 

 every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in 

 the Democratic faith, we nevertheless do not sanction 

 the importation of foreign labor or the admission of 

 servile races, unfitted by habits, training, religion, or 

 kindred, for absorption into the great body of our 

 people, or for the citizenship which our laws confer. 

 American civilization demands that against the immi- 

 gration or importation of Mongolians to these shores 

 our gates be closed. 



The Democratic party insists that it is the duty of 

 this Government to protect with equal fidelity and 

 vigilance the rights of its citizens, native and natural- 

 ized, at home and abroad, and, to the end that this 

 protection may be assured, United States papers of 

 naturalization issued by courts of competent jurisdic- 

 tion must be respected by the executive and legisla- 

 tive departments of our own Government and by all 

 foreign powers. It is an imperative duty of this Gov- 

 ernment to efficiently protect all the rights of persons 

 and property of every American citizen in foreign 

 landsj and demand and enforce full reparation for any 

 invasion thereof. An American citizen is only re- 

 sponsible to his own Government for any act done in 

 his own country or under her flag, and can only be 

 tried therefor on her own soil and according to her 

 laws ; and no power exists in this Government to ex- 

 patriate an American citizen to be tried in any foreign 

 land for any such act. 



This country has never had a well defined and 

 executed foreign policy save under Democratic admin- 

 istration. The policy has ever been in regard to for- 

 eign nations, so long as they do no act detrimental to 

 the interests of the country or hurtful to pur citizens, 

 to let them alone ; that as a result of this policy we 



recall the acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, California, 

 and of the adjacent Mexican territory by purchase 

 alone, and contrast these grand acquisitions of Demo- 

 cratic statesmanship with the purchase of Alaska, the 

 sole fruit of a Republican Administration of nearly a 

 quarter of a century. 



The Federal Government should care for and im- 

 prove the Mississippi river and other great water- ways 

 of the republic, so as to secure for the interior States 

 easy and cheap transportation to tide-water. 



Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy 

 our merchant marine was fast overtaking and on the 

 point of outstripping that of Great Britain ; under 

 twenty years of Kepublican rule and policy our com- 

 merce has been left to British bottoms and the Ameri- 

 can flag has almost been swept off the high seas. In- 

 stead of the Republican party's British policy, we de- 

 mand for the people of the United States an Ameri- 

 can policy. Under Democratic rule and policy our 

 merchants and sailors, flying the Stars and Stripes in 

 every port, successfully searched out a market for the 

 varied products of American industry : under a quar- 

 ter century of Republican rule and policy, despite our 

 manifest advantage over all other nations in high- paid 

 labor, favorable climates, and teeming soils ; despite 

 freedom of trade among all these United States ; de- 

 spite their population by the foremost races of men 

 and an annual immigration of the young, thrifty, and 

 adventurous of all nations ; despite our freedom here 

 from the inherited burdens of life and industry in Old 

 World monarchies, their costly war navies, their vast 

 tax-consuming, non-producing standing armies ; de- 

 spite twenty years of peace, that Republican rule and 

 policy have managed to surrender to Great Britain, 

 along with our commerce, the control of the markets 

 of the world. Instead of the Republican party's Brit- 

 ish policy, we demand, in behalf of the American 

 Democracy, an American policy. Instead of the Re- 

 publican party's discredited scheme and false pre- 

 tense of friendship for American labor, expressed by 

 imposing taxes, we demand, in behalf of the Democ- 

 racy, freedom for American labor by reducing taxes, 

 to the end that these United States may compete with 

 unhindered powers for the primacy among nations in 

 all the arts of peace and fruits of liberty. 



With profound regret we have been apprised by the 

 venerable statesman, through whose person was struck 

 that blow at the vital principle of republics, acquies- 

 cence in the will of the majority, that he can not per- 

 mit us again to place in his hands the leadership of 

 the Democratic hosts, for the reason that the achieve- 

 ment of reform in the administration of the Federal 

 Government is an undertaking now too heavy for his 

 age and failing strength. Rejoicing that his life has 

 been prolonged until the general judgment of our fel- 

 low-countrymen is united in the wish that that wrong 

 were righted in his person, for the Democracy of the 

 United"States we offer to him, in his withdrawal from 

 public cares, not only our respectful sympathy and 

 esteem, but also that best homage of freemen, the 

 pledge of our devotion to the principles and the cause 

 now inseparable in the history of tnis republic from 

 the labors and the name of Samuel J. Tilden. 



With this statement of the hopes, principles, and 

 purposes of the Democratic party, the great issue of 

 reform and change in administration is submitted to 

 the people in calm confidence that the popular voice 

 will pronounce in favor of new men and new and 

 more favorable conditions for the growth of industry, 

 the extension of trade, the employment and due re- 

 ward of labor and of capital, and the general welfare of 

 the whole country. 



Gen. Butler submitted a minority report, the 

 essential feature of which, was a formal and 

 explicit declaration in favor of a protective 

 tariff. On the question of substituting his 

 brief declarations for those in the platform as 

 reported, the vote was yeas 97i, nays 714. The 



