especially since their opponents were in position to profit most by it. They did not hesitate to denounce the war, narrow the powers of the General Government and enlarge upon the rights of the States, any more than the Republicans had hesitated to violate the principles which they had pronounced with the utmost emphasis at the time when the Government was in the hands of the Federalists.

Though the Federalist party was dead and its membership had been absorbed into the allpowerful Republican party, the most of the main principles for which it had stood in the days of power, were still alive. It was impossible that the Republican party should long remain undivided. Henry Clay with his ideas of loose construction of the Constitution was sure to break away from the party which was the legitimate child of Thomas Jefferson. He had either headed or advocated, to use the words of Prof. Johnston, "every attempt to increase the army and navy, to make the tariff protective, to begin a system of general public improvements at national expense, or to make the Federal Government prominent in foreign affairs, as the guardian of the infant republics of South America." The strict constructionists, of course, objected to the principles which Clay advocated, and the breach widened until the election of John Quincy Adams as President. Clay was appointed Secretary of State by Adams, and their respective followings soon united and became known as National Republicans. The followers of Andrew Jackson (who, though receiving a larger number of votes than Adams, was defeated in the House of Representatives) about the same time assumed the name of "Jackson Men," but soon laid this aside and adopted the name of Democrats, by which the members of that party have been known ever since.

ANTI-MASONIC RESOLUTIONS

1830.

The Anti-Masonic party agreed with the National Republicans on most points, but as Clay was a Free Mason, it was opposed to him personally, and in return was opposed by him and his followers. In September, 1830, the Anti

Masons having secured a considerable membership in several States, the leaders held a convention in Philadelphia and adopted a resolution recommending "to the people of the United. States, opposed to secret societies," to meet in national convention one year later at Baltimore to make suitable nominations for President and Vice-President and to transact such other business as the cause of Anti-Masonry may require.

1832.

In the national campaign of 1832, the National Republicans adopted no platform. The Democrats, however, at a ratification meeting in Washington, May 11, adopted the following:

National Democratic Platform. Resolved, That an adequate protection to American industry is indispensable to the prosperity of the country, and that an abandonment of the policy at this period would be attended with consequences ruinous to the best interests of the nation.

Resolved, That a uniform system of internal improvements, sustained and supported by the General Government, is calculated to secure, in the highest degree, the harmony, the strength and permanency of the republic.

Resolved, That the indiscriminate removal of public officers for a mere difference of political doctrine lately boldly preached in the United opinion is a gross abuse of power, and that the States Senate, that "to the victors belong the spoils of the vanquished," is detrimental to the interests, corrupting to the morals and dangerous to the liberties of the country.

THE PARTIES IN 1836.

Preparatory to the Presidential campaign of 1836 the Democrats met in delegate convention at Baltimore, May, 1835, but adopted no platform. In January, 1836, the radical faction, however, in convention at New York, adopted what is known as the "loco-foco" platform. The National Republicans by this time had adopted the name of "Whigs," and in their convention at Albany, February 3, adopted a platform.

"Loco-Foco" Platform.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created free and equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and

the pursuit of happiness; that the true foundation of republican government is the equal rights of every citizen in his person and property, and in their management; that the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up our natural rights; that the rightful power of all legislation is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties and to take none of them from us; that no man has the natural right to commit aggressions on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the law ought to restrain him; that every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society, and this is all the law should enforce on him; that when the laws have declared and enforced all this they have fulfilled their functions.

We declare unqualified hostility to bank notes and paper money as a circulating medium, because gold and silver is the only safe and Constitutional currency; hostility to any and all monopolies by legislation, because they are violations of equal rights of the people; hostility to the dangerous and unconstitutional creation of vested rights or prerogatives by legislation, because they are usurpations of the people's sovereign rights; no legislative or other authority in the body politic can rightfully by charter or otherwise exempt any man or body of men in any case whatever from trial by jury and the jurisdiction or operation of the laws which govern the community.

We hold that each and every law or act of incorporation passed by preceding legislatures can be rightfully altered and repealed by their successors, and that they should be altered or repealed when necessary for the public good or when required by a majority of the people.

Whig Platform.

Resolved, That in support of our cause we invite all citizens opposed to Martin Van Buren and the Baltimore nominees.

Resolved, That Martin Van Buren, by intriguing with the executive to obtain his influence to elect him to the Presidency, has set an example dangerous to our freedom and corrupting to our free institutions.

Resolved, That the support we render to William H. Harrison is by no means given to him solely on account of his brilliant and successful services as leader of our armies during the last war, but that in him we view also the man of high intellect, the stern patriot, uncontaminated by the machinery of hackneyed politicians-a man of the school of Washington.

Resolved, That in Francis Granger we recognize one of our most distinguished fellow-citizens, whose talents we admire, whose patriotism we trust and whose principles we sanction.

PARTIES IN 1840.

The Abolitionists met in national convention at Warsaw, N. Y., Nov. 13, 1839; nominated a Presidential ticket and adopted a resolution that in their judgment "every consideration of duty and expediency which ought to control the action of Christian freemen, requires of the Abolitionists of the United States to organize a distinct and independent political party, embracing all the necessary means for nominating candidates for office and sustaining them by public suffrage." The nominations made by this convention were confirmed by the convention at Albany, N. Y., April 1, 1840. At the latter convention a platform was adopted favoring abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and the Territories, of the inter-State slave trade, and, in general, opposition to human slavery to the full extent of Constitutional power. The Whig national convention met at Harrisburg, Pa., December 4, 1839, but adopted no platform. The national convention of Democrats, which met at Baltimore May 5, 1840, on the other hand, adopted a strict constructionist platform.

Democratic Platform.

1. Resolved, That the Federal Government is one of limited powers, derived solely from the Constitution, and the grants of power shown therein ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the Government, and that it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful Constitutional powers.

2. Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the power to commence and carry on a general system of international improvements.

3. Resolved, That the Constitution does not confer authority upon the Federal Government, directly or indirectly, to assume the debts of the several States, contracted for local internal improvements or other State purposes; nor would such assumption be just or expedient.

4. Resolved, That justice and sound policy forbid the Federal Government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion to the injury of another portion of our common country -that every citizen and every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon an equality of rights and privileges and to complete and ample protection of persons and property from domestic violence or foreign aggression.

5. Resolved, That it is the duty of every branch of the Government to enforce and practice the most rigid economy in conducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the Government.

6. Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter a United States bank; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the control of a concentrated money power and above the laws and the will of the people.

7. Resolved, That Congress has no power under the Constitution to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States; and that such States are the sole and proper judges of everything pertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts by Abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanence of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our political institutions.

8. Resolved, That the separation of the moneys of the Government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people.

9. Resolved, That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and sanctioned in the Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith; and every attempt to abridge the present privilege of becoming citizens and the owners of soil among us ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the Alien and Sedition Laws from our statute books.

WHEREAS, Several of the States which have nominated Martin Van Buren as a candidate for the Presidency, have put in nomination different individuals as candidates for Vice-President, thus indicating a diversity of opinion as to the person best entitled to the nomination; and, WHEREAS, Some of the said States are not represented in this convention: Therefore,

Resolved, That the convention deem it expedient at the present time not to choose between the individuals in nomination, but to leave the decision to their Republican fellow-citizens in the several States, trusting that before the election shall take place their opinions will become so concentrated as to secure the choice of a VicePresident by the electoral college.

PARTY PLATFORMS IN 1844. The Abolitionists, or Liberty Party, as they were now called, were the first in the field for the national contest of 1844, having held their convention at Buffalo, August 30, 1843, more than a year before the Presidential election, and adopted a platform consistent with their beliefs. The Whig national convention met in Baltimore, May 1, 1844, and adopted a loose constructionist platform. The Democratic national convention, which met in Baltimore, May 27, adopted a strict constructionist platform.

Liberty Platform.

1. Resolved, That human brotherhood is a cardinal principle of true democracy, as well as pure Christianity, which spurns all inconsistent limitations; and neither the political party which repudiates it, nor the political system which is not based upon it, can be truly democratic or permanent.

2. Resolved, That the Liberty party, placing itself upon this broad principle, will demand the absolute and unqualified divorce of the General Government from slavery, and also the restoration of equality of rights among men, in every State where the party exists, or may exist.

3. Resolved, That the Liberty party has not been organized for any temporary purpose by interested politicians, but has arisen from among the people in consequence of a conviction, hourly gaining ground, that no other party in the country represents the true principles of American liberty, or the true spirit of the Constitution of the United States.

4. Resolved, That the Liberty party has not been organized merely for the overthrow of slavery; its first decided effort must, indeed, be directed against slave-holding as the grossest and most revolting manifestation of despotism, but it will also carry out the principle of equal rights into all its practical consequences and applications, and support every just measure conducive to individual and social freedom.

5. Resolved, That the Liberty party is not a sectional party but a national party; was not originated in a desire to accomplish a single object, but in a comprehensive regard to the great interests of the whole country; is not a new party, nor a third party, but is the party of 1776, reviving the principles of that memorable era, and striving to carry them into practical application.

6. Resolved, That it was understood in the times of the Declaration and the Constitution, that the existence of slavery in some of the States was in derogation of the principles of American liberty, and a deep stain upon the

character of the country, and the implied faith of the States and the Nation was pledged that slavery should never be extended beyond its then existing limits, but should be gradually, and yet, at no distant day, wholly abolished by State authority.

7. Resolved, That the faith of the States and the Nation thus pledged, was most nobly redeemed by the voluntary abolition of slavery in several of the States; and by the adoption of the ordinance of 1787, for the government of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, then the only territory in the United States, and consequently the only territory subject in this respect to the control of Congress, by which ordinance slavery was forever excluded from the vast regions which now compose the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and the Territory of Wisconsin, and an incapacity to bear up any other than freemen was impressed on the soil itself.

8. Resolved, That the faith of the States and the Nation thus pledged, has been shamefully violated by the omission, on the part of many of the States, to take any measures whatever for the abolition of slavery within their respective limits; by the continuance of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the Territories of Louisiana and Florida; by the legislation of Congress; by the protection afforded by national legislation and negotiation to slaveholding in American vessels, on the high seas, employed in the coastwise slave traffic; and by the extension of slavery far beyond its original limits, by acts of Congress admitting new slave States into the Union.

9. Resolved, That the fundamental truths of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, was made the fundamental law of our National Government, by that amendment of the Constitution which declares that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

10. Resolved, That we recognize as sound the doctrine maintained by slaveholding jurists, that slavery is against natural rights, and strictly local, and that its existence and continuance rest on no other support than State legislation, and not on any authority of Congress.

11. Resolved, That the General Government has under the Constitution no power to establish or continue slavery anywhere, and therefore that all treaties and acts of Congress establishing, continuing or favoring slavery in the District of Columbia, in the Territory of Florida, or on the high seas, are unconstitutional, and all attempts to hold men as property within the limits of exclusive national jurisdiction ought to be prohibited by law.

12. Resolved, That the provision of the Constitution of the United States which confers extraordinary political powers on the owners of slaves, and thereby constituting the two hundred and fifty thousand slaveholders in the slave States a privileged aristocracy; and the provisions for the reclamation of fugitive slaves from service, are anti-republican in their character, dangerous to the liberties of the people and ought to be abrogated.

13. Resolved, That the practical operation of the second of these provisions is seen in the enactment of the act of Congress respecting persons escaping from their masters, which act, if the construction given to it by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvania be correct, nullifies the habeas corpus acts of all the States, takes away the whole legal security of personal freedom and ought, therefore, to be immediately repealed.

14. Resolved, That the peculiar patronage and support hitherto extended to slavery and slaveholding by the General Government ought to be immediately withdrawn, and the example and influence of national authority ought to be arrayed on the side of liberty and free labor.

15. Resolved, That the practice of the General Government, which prevails in the slave States, of employing slaves upon the public works instead of free laborers and paying aristocratic masters, with a view to secure or reward political services, is utterly indefensible and ought to be abandoned.

16. Resolved, That freedom of speech and of the press and the right of petition and the right of trial by jury are sacred and inviolable, and that all rules, regulations and laws in derogation of either are oppressive, unconstitutional and not to be endured by a free people.

17. Resolved, That we regard voting in an eminent degree as a moral and religious duty, which, when exercised, should be by voting for those who will do all in their power for immediate emancipation.

18. Resolved, That this convention recommend to the friends of liberty in all those free States where any inequality of rights and privileges exists on account of color, to employ their utmost energies to remove all such remnants and effects of the slave system.

WHEREAS, The Constitution of the United States is a series of agreements, covenants or contracts between the people of the United States, each with all and all with each; and,

WHEREAS, It is a principle of universal morality, that the moral laws of the Creator are paramount to all human laws; or, in the language of an Apostle, that "we ought to obey God rather than men;" and,

WHEREAS, The principle of common lawthat any contract, covenant or agreement to do

an act derogatory to natural right is vitiated and annulled by its inherent immorality-has been recognized by one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, who, in a recent case, expressly holds that " any contract that rests upon such a basis is void," and,

WHEREAS, The third clause of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of

the United States, when construed as providing for the surrender of a fugitive slave, docs "rest upon such a basis," in that it is a contract to rob a man of a natural right-namely, his natural right to his own liberty-and is therefore absolutely void: Therefore,

19. Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood by this Nation and the world that, as Abolitionists, considering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hope for it, in our conformity to the laws of God and our respect for the rights of man, we owe it to the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether as private citizens or public functionaries sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, to regard and to treat the third clause of the fourth article of that instrument, whenever applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitution of the United States whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it.

20. Resolved, That the power given to Congress by the Constitution to provide for calling out the militia to suppress insurrection does not make it the duty of the Government to maintain slavery by military force, much less does it make it the duty of the citizens to form a part of such military force; when freemen unsheathe the sword it should be to strike for liberty, not for despotism.

21. Resolved, That to preserve the peace of the citizens and secure the blessings of freedom, the Legislature of each of the free States ought to keep in force suitable statutes, rendering it penal for any of its inhabitants to transport or aid in transporting from such State any person sought to be thus transported, merely because subject to the slave laws of any other State; this remnant of independence being accorded to the free States by the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Prigg vs. The State of Pennsylvania.

Whig Platform.

1. Resolved, That these principles may be summed as comprising a well-regulated national currency; a tariff for revenue to defray the necessary expenses of the Government and discriminating with special reference to the protection of the domestic labor of the country; the distribution of the proceeds from the sales of the public lands; a single term for the Presidency;

a reform of executive usurpations; and generally such an administration of the affairs of the country as shall impart to every branch of the public service the greatest practical efficiency, controlled by a well-regulated and wise economy.

Democratic Platform.

Resolutions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the platform of 1840 were reaffirmed, to which were added the following:

10. Resolved, That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be sacredly applied to the national objects specified in the Constitution, and that we are opposed to the laws lately adopted, and to any law for the distribution of such proceeds among the States, as alike inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the Constitution.

11. Resolved, That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the qualified veto power by which he is enabled, under restrictions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interest, to suspend the passage of a bill whose merits cannot secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has thrice saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical domination of the Bank of the United States.

12. Resolved, That our title to the whole of the Territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power, and that the reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period are great American measures, which this convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of the Union.

ATTITUDE OF PARTIES IN 1848.

The Democrats opened the battle of 1848 by their convention at Baltimore, May 22, of that year, in which they renewed in their platform their adherence to the strict constructionist idea. The Whigs held their convention in Philadelphia June 7, but adopted no platform. On June 9, however, the resolutions given below were adopted at a Whig ratification meeting in Philadelphia. The Free Soilers, a branch of the Democratic party, who were opposed to any further extension of slavery into the Territories, met in convention at Buffalo August 9 and adopted the so-called "Buffalo platform.' The Free Soilers were joined by the members of the old Liberty party.