564 



NEW YORK. 



tance, we declare the Republican party the only hop* 

 of thorough reform and frugal government, and ar- 

 raign the Democratic party for false pretenses, for 

 perpetuating existing abuses, and for slavish sub- 

 servience to the most corrupt and dangerous influ- 

 ences. In support of this declaration we appeal to 

 these facts : That Republican rule, by extinguishing 

 the public indebtedness, insured the large reduc- 

 tion which has been effected in State taxation ; that 

 the Constitutional Amendments, carried by the Re- 

 publicans, enforced and secured a large decrease of 

 expenditures ; that the recent unparalleled delin- 

 quencies, frauds, and robberies in State : city, and 

 public judiciary trusts, have imposed high duties 

 upon the prosecuting authorities of the State, and 

 the most thorough and adequate laws have armed 

 them with full powers. Yet the official report of the 

 present Attorney-General, made in obedience to the 

 call of the last Legislature, shows that his office, 

 besides its regular costs, has expended nearly $40,- 

 000 in extra fees on prosecutions in which not one 

 offender has been punished, not one dollar recov- 

 ered, and no return of any kind made to the State, a 

 record which merits public rebuke, and demands 

 that the trust shall be placed in more capable and 

 successful hands ; that because the present Execu- 

 tive found his will unable to place a conspicuous 

 resident of another State in the nigh public trust of 

 Superintendent of Public Works in defiance equally 

 of the law which contemplates that all officers shall 

 be chosen from among our own citizens, and of the 

 Constitution which devolves the appointment upon 

 the coordinate branches, he has assumed to dis- 

 regard and still nullifies the great Constitutional 

 reform in the canal management which the people 

 adopted a year ago by an overwhelming vote ; that in 

 the last Legislature the Republican majority passed 

 two Constitutional Amendments, and other impor- 

 tant measures of municipal retrenchment and reform, 

 reducing salaries, abolishing sinecures, simplifying 

 the administration, and effecting an annual saving 

 of hundreds of thousands of dollars, every one of 

 which measures of law was resisted by the Demo- 

 cratic minority, and vetoed by the Democratic Exe- 

 cutive at the behest of Tammany Hall, thus willfully 

 continuing oppressive abuses of local administra- 

 tion; that the Tammany government of New York 

 has increased the debt of that city four-fold, until it 

 exceeds the enormous sum of $130,000,000, and is 

 three times as much for every citizen under its bur- 

 den as the National Debt: and the same grasping 

 ring plots, through the control of Legislatures and 

 Governors, to extend over the State the baleful rule 

 which imposes these glaring abominations on the 

 metropolis. With these decisive truths attesting 

 the high purpose and fidelity of the Republican par- 

 ty, and proving the Democratic party unworthy of 

 confidence, we meet the questions which address 

 themselves to the people of this State. 



We favor an equitable apportionment just to all 

 parts of the State, and giving undue preponderance 

 to none and with the Executive belonging to one 

 party, it is important to an impartial adjustment that 

 the Legislature should be in the hands of the other. 



We pledge ourselves to renewed and unyielding 

 efforts for the correction of municipal abuses and 

 for economy and reform in every branch of adminis- 

 tration; and 



We summon all good citizens to unite with us in 

 achieving these high objects. 



On the second day of the Convention, the 

 following nominations were made : for Secre- 

 tary of State, John C. Churchill, of Oswego; 

 Controller, Francis Sylvester, of Columbia 

 County; Treasurer, William F. Bostwick, of 

 Ithaca ; Attorney - General, Grenville Tre- 

 maine, of Albany; State Engineer, Howard 

 Soule, of Onondaga County. 



The Democratic Convention assembled in 

 Albany on October 3d, and nominated the 

 following ticket : for Secretary of State, Allen 

 C. Beach; Controller, Frederic P. Olcott; 

 Treasurer, James Mackin; Attorney-General, 

 Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr. ; State Engineer 

 and Surveyor, Horatio Seymour, Jr. 



The following resolutions were adopted : 



The people having, in the last Presidential con- 

 test, elected by an overwhelming popular and a 

 clear electoral majority the Democratic candidates 

 for President and V ice-President, and the will of the 

 nation, thus constitutionally declared, having been 

 wickedly and boldly nullified by means of the gross- 

 est usurpation and frauds of Returning Boards, pro- 

 tected and adopted, if not instigated, by the party in 

 possession of the Government, and rendered prac- 

 ticable by a threatening array of military force: 



Resolved, That at this, the first Convention of the 

 Democrats of this State held since the consummation 

 of this great crime, it is not only just and fit, but it 

 is the plain duty in the interest of constitutional 

 government, and in the vindication aud preservation 

 of the sacred right of the majority to choose their 

 rulers, to denounce with the warmest indignation 

 this stupendous wrong, and we do hereby denounce, 

 condemn, and hold it up to universal execration. 



Resolved, That this duty of setting a mark of in- 

 famy upon this transaction, and preventing any quick 

 forgetfulness or easy condonation of it from raising 

 a tempting precedent for future outrages, rests es- 

 pecially and peculiarly upon the Democratic party of 

 this State, one of whose most illustrious leaders "was 

 the President actually chosen by the nation. 



Resolved, That the late House of Representatives 

 deserve the thanks of all patriots and lovers of lib- 

 erty for their just refusal, in the exercise of the most 

 ancient and valuable privilege belonging to repre- 

 sentatives of the people in all constitutional gov- 

 ernments, to appropriate money for the support of 

 soldiers to be used in the illegal and despotic op- 

 pression of citizens in any portion of the Republic. 



Resolved, That the present National Administra- 

 tion, by its withdrawal of the troops from the South, 

 and its cessation from the mischievous, unconstitu- 

 tional, and oppressive interference with the internal 

 affairs of States, has, in that respect, reversed the 

 vicious precedents of the Republican party, followed 

 the course marked out by the Federal Constitution, 

 aud to which the Democrats stand pledged, and it is 

 therefore entitled, in that particular, to the approval 

 of all good citizens. 



Resolved, That the Democratic party of New York 

 reaffirm the following principles set forth in their 

 platform adopted in 1874, now thrice indorsed by 

 large majorities of the voters of this State : Gold and 

 silver the only legal tender ; no currency inconverti- 

 ble with coin ; steady steps toward specie payments, 

 no step backward ; the honest payment of the pub- 

 lic debt in coin ; a sacred preservation of the public 

 faith ; revenue reform, a tariff for revenue only ; no 

 Government partnership with protected monopolies ; 

 home rule to limit and localize most jealously the 

 few powers intrusted to public servants, municipal, 

 State, and Federal ; no centralization ; equal and ex- 

 act justice to all men ; no partial legislation ; no par- 

 tial taxation ; official accountability enforced by bet- 

 ter civil and criminal remedies ; no private use of 

 public funds by public officers; corporations char- 

 tered by the State always supervisable by the State 

 in the interest of the people ; the party in power re- 

 sponsible for all legislation while in power ; economy 

 in the public expense, that labor may be lightly bur- 

 dened. 



Resolved, That we are opposed to the granting of 

 subsidies by the Government to corporations or in- 

 dividuals for the construction of railroads or other 

 internal improvements, as unnecessary, beyond the 



