alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate has disposed of less than a sixth directly to tillers of the soil. "Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republican Congress and the errors of our treaties and our diplomacy, which have stripped our fellow-citizens of foreign birth and kindred race, recrossing the Atlantic, from the shield of American citizenship, and have exposed our brethren of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a race not sprung from the same great parent stock, and in fact now by law denied citizenship through naturalization as being neither accustomed to the traditions of a progressive civilization nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy which thus discards the liberty-loving German and tolerates a revival of the coolie trade in Mongolian women imported for immoral purposes and Mongolian men held to perform servile labor contracts, and demand such modification of the treaty with the Chinese empire, or such legislation within constitutional limitations, as shall prevent further importation or immigration of the Mongolian race. "Reform is necessary, and can never be effected but by making it the controlling issue of the election, and lifting it above the two false issues with which the office-holding class and the party in power seek to smother it: "1. The false issue with which they would enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the public schools, of which the establishment and support belong exclusively to the several States, and which the Democratic party has cherished from their foundation and is resolved to maintain without partiality or preference for any class, sect, or creed, and without contributions from the treasury to any. "2. The false issue by which they seek to light anew the dying embers of sectional hate between kindred people once estranged, but now reunited in one indivisible republic and a common destiny. "Reform is necessary in the civil service. Experience proves that efficient, economical conduct of the government is not possible if its civil service be subject to change at every election, be a prize fought for at the ballot-box, be an approved reward of party zeal instead of posts of honor assigned for proved competency and held for fidelity in the public employ; that the dispensing of patronage should HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK neither be a tax upon the time of all our public men nor the instrument of their ambition. Here again professions falsified in the performance attest that the party in power can work out no practical or salutary reform. "Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the public service. President, Vice-President, Judges, Senators, Representatives, cabinet officers,-these and all others in authority are the people's servants. These offices are not a private perquisite; they are a public trust. "When the annals of this republic show the disgrace and censure of a Vice-President; a late Speaker of the House of Representatives marketing his rulings as a presiding officer; three Senators profiting secretly by their votes as law-makers; five chairmen of the leading committees of the late House of Representatives exposed in jobbery; a late Secretary of the Treasury forcing balances in the public accounts; a late Attorney-General misappropriating public funds; a Secretary of the Navy enriched and enriching friends by percentages levied off the profits of contractors with his department; an Ambassador to England censured in a dishonorable speculation; the President's private secretary barely escaping conviction upon trial for guilty complicity in frauds upon the revenue; a Secretary of War impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors—the demonstration is complete that the first step in reform must be the people's choice of honest men from another party, lest the disease of one political organization infect the body politic, and lest by making no change of men or parties we get no change of measures and no real reform. "All these abuses, wrongs, and crimes, the product of sixteen years' ascendancy of the Republican party, create a necessity for reform confessed by Republicans themselves; but their reformers are voted down in convention and displaced from the cabinet. The party's mass of honest voters is powerless to resist the 80,000 officeholders, its leaders and guides. "Reform can only be had by a peaceful civic revolution. We demand a change of system, a change of administration, a change of party, that we may have a change of measures and of men. "Resolved, That this convention, representing the Democratic party of the States, do cordially endorse the action of the present House of Representatives in reducing and curtailing the expenses of the Federal government, in cutting down enormous salaries, extravagant appropriations, and in abolishing useless offices and places not required by the public necessities; and we shall trust to the firmness of the Democratic members of the House that no committee of conference and no misinterpretation of the rules will be allowed to defeat these wholesome measures of economy demanded by the country. "Resolved, That the soldiers and sailors of the republic, and the widows and orphans of those who have fallen in battle, have a just claim upon the care, protection, and gratitude of their fellowcitizens." The platform declaration on the subject of resumption of specie payments which, while objecting to the stipulation made in the act of 1875 that resumption should occur on January 1, 1879, favored preparation for resumption, was strongly opposed by the "soft money" delegates under the leadership of General Thomas Ewing, of Ohio. A minority report opposing the whole program of resumption was submitted to the convention; defeated by 515 to 219. Other Parties Independent Party, popularly known as Greenback Party. Convention held at Indianapolis, May 17-18, 1876. For President, Peter Cooper, of New York; for Vice-President, Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio. The platform demanded repeal of the Resumption act and the issuance of full legal-tender government notes (greenbacks), convertible on demand into "United States obligations" bearing interest at 3.65 per cent. HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Prohibition Party.-Convention held in Cleveland, May 17, 1876. For President, Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky; for Vice-President, Gideon T. Stewart, of Ohio. American Party, known as the American Alliance. -For President, James B. Walker, of Illinois; for Vice-President, Donald Kirkpatrick, of New York. The platform advocated the observance of religious ideas in government, the Bible in the schools, prohibition, woman suffrage, refusal of charters to secret societies, etc. The Election Electoral vote for President and Vice-President, as determined by the Electoral commission: Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler, Republicans:California, 6; Colorado, 3; Florida, 4; Illinois, 21; Iowa, 11; Kansas, 5; Louisiana, 8; Maine, 7; Massachusetts, 13; Michigan, 11; Minnesota, 5; Nebraska, 3; Nevada, 3; New Hampshire, 5; Ohio, 22; Oregon, 3; Pennsylvania, 29; Rhode Island, 4; South Carolina, 7; Vermont, 5; Wisconsin, 10. Total, 185. Elected. Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, Democrats:-Alabama, 10; Arkansas, 6; Connecticut, 6; Delaware, 3; Georgia, 11; Indiana, 15; Kentucky, 12; Maryland, 8; Mississippi, 8; Missouri, 15; New Jersey, 9; New York, 35; North Carolina, 10; Tennessee, 12; Texas, 8; Virginia, 11; West Virginia, 5. Total, 184. Popular vote: Tilden, 4,284,757; Hayes, 4,033,950; Cooper, 81,740; Smith, 9,522; Walker, 2,636. 1880 Republican Party Convention held in Chicago, June 2-8, 1880; temporary and permanent chairman, George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. At this convention occurred the celebrated struggle again to nominate General Grant for the Presidency, the Grant forces being led by Roscoe Conkling, of New York, against the strenuous opposition of the supporters of James G. Blaine, of Maine; John Sherman, of Ohio; George F. Edmunds, of Vermont; Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois; and William Windom, of Minnesota. Four days were consumed in deciding contests for seats, adopting the rules and platform, and placing the candidates in nomination. Efforts to enable the State delegations to enforce a unit rule were defeated, and in the balloting every delegate was permitted to vote according to his preference. First ballot for President:-Grant, 304; Blaine, 284; Sherman, 93; Edmunds, 34; Washburne, 30; Windom, 10. Thirty-six ballots proved necessary for a choice. On every ballot until the last Grant led, his vote never falling below 302 or going above 313. James A. Garfield, the head of the Ohio delegation and in charge of Sherman's interests, received one vote on the second ballot; and on many of the subsequent ballots until the |