We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the National Constitution and to the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in public elections, and to have that duly counted. We hold the free and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all the people to be the foundation of our Republican government, and demand effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections, which are the fountains of all public authority. We charge that the present administration and the Democratic major ity in Congress owe their existence' to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the Constitution and laws of the United States. labor, and of Chinese labor, alien to our civilization and our Constitution, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the existing laws against it, and favor such immediate legislation as will exclude such labor from our shores. We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital organized in trusts or otherwise to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citizens, and we recommend to Congress and to the State Legislatures in their respective jurisdictions such legislation as will prevent the execution of all the schemes to oppress the people by undue charges on their supplies, or by the unjust rates for the transportation of their products to market. We approve the legislation by Congress to prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair discriminations between the States. We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlers, not aliens, which the Republican We are uncompromisingly in favor of party established in 1862, aga nst the perthe American system of protection. We sistent opposition of the Democrats in protest against its destruction as proposed Congress, and which has brought our great by the President and his party. They western domain into such magnificent deserve the interests of Europe; we will sup-velopment. The restoration of unearned port the interests of America. We accept railroad land grants to the public domain, the issue and confidently appeal to the for the use of the actual settlers, which people for their judgment. The protective was begun under the administration of system must be maintained. Its abandon- President Arthur, should be continued. ment has always been followed by general We deny that the Democratic party has disaster to all interests except those of ever revoked one acre to the people, but the usurer and the sheriff. We denounce declare that, by the joint action of Rethe Mills bill as destructive to the general business, the labor and the farming interests of the country, and we heartily endorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Republican Representatives in Congress in opposing its passage. We condemn the proposition of the Democratic party to place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties thereon shall be adjusted and maintained so as to furnish full and adequate protection to that industry. publicans and Democrats, about fifty millions of acres of unearned lands originally granted for the construction of railroads have been restored to the public domain, in pursuance of the conditions inserted by the Republican party in the original grants. We charge the Democratic administration with failure to execute the laws securing to settlers titles to their homesteads, and with using appropriations made for that purpose to harass innocent settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretense of exposing frauds and vindicating the law. The Republican party would effect all needed reduction of the national revenue The Government by Congress of the by repealing the taxes upou tobacco, which Territories is based upon necessity only, to are an annoyance and burden to agricul- the end that they may become States in ture, and the tax upon spirits used in the the Union; therefore, whenever the conarts and for mechanical purposes, and by ditions of population, material resources, such revision of the tariff laws as will tend public intelligence and morality are such as to check imports of such articles as are to insure a stable Government therein, the produced by our people, the production of people of such territories should be perwhich gives employment to our labor, and mitted, as a right inherent in them, the release from import duties those articles of right to form for themselves constitutions foreign production (except luxuries) the and State Governments and be admitted like of which cannot be produced at home. into the Union. Pending the preparation If there shall still remain a larger revenue for statehood, all officers thereof should be than is requisite for the wants of the Gov- selected from the bona-fide residents and ernment, we favor the entire repeal of in- citizens of the territory wherein they are ternal taxes rather than the surrender of to serve. South Dakota should of right be any part of our protective system at the joint behest of the whisky trusts and the agents of foreign manufacturers. We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of foreign contract immediately admitted as a State in the Union under the Constitution framed and adopted by her people, and we heartily endorse the action of the Republican Senate in twice passing bills for admission. The trust by the transfer also to the Democracy of such industries and enterprises by giving of the entire legislative power. them assurance of an extended market and steady and continuous operations. In the interests of American labor, which should in no event be neglected, revision of our tax laws, contemplated by the Democratic party, should promote the advantage of such labor by cheapening the cost of necessaries of life in the home of every working man, and at the same time securing to him steady and remunerative employment. Upon this question of tariff reform, so closely concerning every phase of our national life, and upon every question The Republican party controlling the Senate and resisting in both Houses of Congress a reformation of unjust and unequal tax laws, which have outlasted the necessities of war and are now undermining the abundance of a long peace, deny to the people equality before the law, and the fairness and the justice which are their right. Then the cry of American labor for a better share in the rewards of industry is stiffled with false pretences, enterprise is fettered and bound down to home markets, capital is discouraged with doubt, and un-involved in the problem of good governequal, unjust laws can neither be properly amended nor repealed. The Democratic party will continue with all the power confided to it, the struggle to reform these laws in accordance with the pledges of its last platform, endorsed at the ballot-box by the suffrages of the people. Of all the industrious freemen of our land, the immense majority, including every tiller of the soil, gain no advantage from excessive tax laws, but the price of nearly everything they buy is increased by the favoritism of an unequal system of tax legislation. All unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation. It is repugnant to the creed of Democracy that by such taxation the cost of the necessaries of life should be unjustifiably ncreased to all our people. Judged by iDemocratic principles the interests of the people are betrayed when, by unnecessary taxation, trusts and combinations are permitted to exist, which, while unduly enriching the few that combine, rob the body of the citizens by depriving them of the benefits of natural competition. Every Democratic rule of governmental action is violated when, through unnecessary taxation, a vast sum of money, far beyond the needs of an economical administration, is drawn from the people and the channels of trade and accumulated as a demoralizing surplus in the National Treasury. The money now lying idle in the Federal Treasury, resulting from superfluous taxation, amounts to more than one hundred and twenty-five millions, and the surplus collected is reaching the sum of more than sixty millions annually. Debauched by this immense temptation, the remedy of the Republican party is to meet and exhaust by extravagant appropriations and expenses, whether constitutional or not, the accumulation of extravagant taxations. The Democratic policy is to enforce frugality in public expense and abolish unnecessary taxation. Our established domestic industries and enterprises should not and need not be endangered by the reduction and correction of the burdens of taxation. On the contrary, a fair and careful revision of our tax laws, with due allowance for the difference between the wages of American and foreign labor, must promote and encourage every branch ment, the Democratic party submits its principles and professions to the intelligent suffrages of the American people. Resolved, That this Convention hereby endorses and recommends the early passage of the bill for the reduction of the revenue now pending in the House of Representatives (Referring to the Mills bill.) Resolved, That we express our cordial sympathy with the struggling people of all nations in their efforts to secure for themselves the inestimable blessings of selfgovernment and civil and religious liberty; and we especially declare our sympathy with the efforts of those noble patriots who, led by Gladstone and Parnell, have conducted their grand and peaceful contest for Home Rule in Ireland. The Republican National Platform, Adopted at Chicago Convention, June 19, 1888. The Republicans of the United States, assembled by their delegates in National Convention, pause on the threshold of their proceedings to honor the memory of their first great leader, the immortal champion of liberty and the rights of the people-Abraham Lincoln-and to cover also with wreaths of imperishable remembrance and gratitude the heroic names of our later leaders who have more recently been called away from our councilsGrant, Garfield, Arthur, Logan, Conkling. May their memories be faithfully cherished. We also recall with our greetings. and with prayer for his recovery, the name of one of our living heroes whose memory will be treasured in the history both of the Republicans and the republic the name of that noble soldier and favorite child of victory, Philip H. Sheridan. In the spirit of these great leaders and of our own devotion to human liberty, and with that hostility to all forms of despotism and oppression which is the fundamental idea of the Republican party, we add fraternal congratulation to our fellowAmericans of Brazil upon their great set of emancipation, which completed the abolition of slavery throughout the two American continents. We earnestly hope that we may soon congratulate our fellow-citizens of Irish birth upon the peaceful recovery of Home Rule for Ireland. We reaffirm our unswerving devotion to the National Constitution and to the indissoluble union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of citizens in all the States and Territories in the Union, and especially to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in public elections, and to have that duly counted. We hold the free and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all the people to be the foundation of our Republican government, and demand effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections, which are the fountains of all public authority. We charge that the present administration and the Democratic major ity in Congress owe their existence' to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the Constitution and laws of the United States. labor, and of Chinese labor, alien to our civilization and our Constitution, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the existing laws against it, and favor such immediate legislation as will exclude such labor from our shores. We declare our opposition to all combinations of capital organized in trusts or otherwise to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our citizens, and we recommend to Congress and to the State Legislatures in their respective jurisdictions such legislation as will prevent the execution of all the schemes to oppress the people by undue charges on their supplies, or by the unjust rates for the transportation of their products to market. We approve the legislation by Congress to prevent alike unjust burdens and unfair discriminations between the States. We reaffirm the policy of appropriating the public lands of the United States to be homesteads for American citizens and settlers, not aliens, which the Republican We are uncompromisingly in favor of party established in 1862, against the perthe American system of protection. We sistent opposition of the Democrats in protest against its destruction as proposed Congress, and which has brought our great by the President and his party. They western domain into such magnificent deserve the interests of Europe; we will sup- velopment. The restoration of unearned port the interests of America. We accept railroad land grants to the public domain, the issue and confidently appeal to the for the use of the actual settlers, which people for their judgment. The protective was begun under the administration of system must be maintained. Its abandon- President Arthur, should be continued. ment has always been followed by general We deny that the Democratic party has disaster to all interests except those of ever revoked one acre to the people, but the usurer and the sheriff. We denounce declare that, by the joint action of Rethe Mills bill as destructive to the general publicans and Democrats, about fifty milbusiness, the labor and the farming inter-lions of acres of unearned lands originally ests of the country, and we heartily endorse the consistent and patriotic action of the Republican Representatives in Congress in opposing its passage. We condemn the proposition of the Democratic party to place wool on the free list, and we insist that the duties thereon shall be adjusted and maintained so as to furnish full and adequate protection to that industry. granted for the construction of railroads have been restored to the public domain, in pursuance of the conditions inserted by the Republican party in the original grants. We charge the Democratic administration with failure to execute the laws securing to settlers titles to their homesteads, and with using appropriations made for that purpose to harass innocent settlers with spies and prosecutions under the false pretense of exposing frauds and vindicating the law. The Republican party would effect all needed reduction of the national revenue The Government by Congress of the by repealing the taxes upon tobacco, which Territories is based upon necessity_only, to are an annoyance and burden to agricul- the end that they may become States in ture, and the tax upon spirits used in the the Union; therefore, whenever the conarts and for mechanical purposes, and by ditions of population, material resources, such revision of the tariff laws as will tend public intelligence and morality are such as to check imports of such articles as are to insure a stable Government therein, the produced by our people, the production of people of such territories should be perwhich gives employment to our labor, and mitted, as a right inherent in them, the release from import duties those articles of right to form for themselves constitutions foreign production (except luxuries) the and State Governments and be admitted like of which cannot be produced at home. into the Union. Pending the preparation If there shall still remain a larger revenue for statehood, all officers thereof should be than is requisite for the wants of the Gov- selected from the bona-fide residents and ernment, we favor the entire repeal of internal taxes rather than the surrender of any part of our protective system at the joint behest of the whisky trusts and the agents of foreign manufacturers. We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of foreign contract citizens of the territory wherein they are to serve. South Dakota should of right be immediately admitted as a State in the Union under the Constitution framed and adopted by her people, and we heartily endorse the action of the Republican Senate in twice passing bills for admission. The refusal of the Democratic House of Rep-merce; for the encouragement of the shipresentatives, for partisan purposes, to ping interests of the Atlantic, Gulf and favorably consider these bills, is a willful Pacific States, as well as for the payment violation of the sacred American principle of the maturing public debt. This policy of local self government and merits the will give employment to our labor, accondemnation of all just men. The pend- tivity to our various industries, increase ing bills in the Senate for acts to enable the the security of our country, promote trade, people of Washington, North Dakota and open new and direct markets for our proMontana territories to form Constitutions duce, and cheapen the cost of transportaand establish State Governments, should be tion. We affirm this to be far better for passed without unnecessary delay. The Re- our country than the Democratic policy of publican party pledges itself to do all in its loaning the Government's money without power to facilitate the admission of the Ter- interest to "pet banks." ritories of New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho and Arizona to the enjoyment of selfgovernment as States, such of them as are not qualified as soon as they may become so. The political power of the Mormon church in the Territories, as exercised in the past, is a menace to free institutions, a danger no longer to be suffered; Therefore, we pledge the Republican party to appropriate legislation asserting the sovereignty of the Nation in all Territories. where the same is questioned, and in furtherance of that end to place upon the statute books legislation stringent enough to divorce the political from the ecclesiastical power, and thus stamp out the attendant wickedness of polygamy. The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic Administration in its efforts to demonetize silver. We demand the reduction of letter postage to one cent per ounce. In a Republic like ours, where the citi zen is the sovereign and the official the servant; where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign-the people-should possess intelligence. The free school is the promotor of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation; the State or nation, or both combined, should support free institutions of learning sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education. We earnestly recommend that prompt action be taken by Congress in the enactment of such legislation as will best secure the rehabilitation of the American mer chant marine, and we protest against the passage by Congress of a free ship bill, as calculated to work injustice to labor by lessening the wages of those engaged in preparing materials as well as those directly employed in our ship yards. We demand appropriations for the early rebuilding of our navy; for the construction of coast fortifications and modern ordnance and other approved modern means of defence for the protection of our defenceless harbors and cities; for the payment of just pensions to our soldiers; for necessary works of national importance in the improvement of harbors and the channels f internal, coastwise and foreign com The conduct of foreign affairs by the present administration has been distinguished by its inefficiency and its cowardice. Having withdrawn from the Senate all pending treaties affected by Republican administrations for the removal of foreign burdens and restrictions upon our commerce and for its extension into better markets, in has neither effected nor proposed any others in their stead. Professing adherence to the Monroe doctrine, it has seen with idle complacency the extension of foreign influence in Central America and of foreign trade everywhere among our neighbors. It has refused to charter, sanction or encourage any American organization for constructing the Nicaragua canal, a work of vital importance to the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine and of our national influence in Central and South America, and necessary for the development of trade with our Pacific territory, with South America and with the islands and further coasts of the Pacific Ocean. We arraign the present Democratic administration for its weak and unpatriotic treatment of the fisheries question, and its pusillanimous surrender of the essential privileges to which our fishing vessels are entitled in Canadian ports under the treaty of 1818, the reciprocal maritime legislation of 1830, and the comity of nations, and which Canadian fishing vessels receive in ports of the United States. We condemn the policy of the present administration and the Democratic majority in Congress towards our fisheries as unfriendly and conspicuously unpatriotic, and as tending to destroy a valuable national industry and an indispensable resource of defense against a foreign enemy. The name of American applies alike to all citizens of the Republic, and imposes upon all alike the same obligation to obedience to the laws. At the same time that citizenship is and must be the panoply and safeguard of him who wears it, and protect him, whether high or low, rich or poor, in all his civil rights, it should and must afford him protection at home and follow and protect him abroad in whatever land he may be on a lawful errand. The men who abandoned the Republican party in 1884 and continue to adhere to the Democratic party have deserted not only the cause of honest government, of DEMOCRATIC. sound finance, of freedom and purity of the The gratitude of the nation to the de- vetoes In support of the principles herewith enunciated we invite the co-operation of patriotic men of all parties, and especially of all workingmen, whose prosperity is seriously threatened by the free trade policy of the present administration. On motion of Hon. Chas. A. Boutelle of Maine, the following was also adopted: "The first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home. The Republican party cordially sympathizes with all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality." [Plank 8. 1860-Reaffirm 1864 1868 1872-We recogence and embodied nize the equality of in the Federal Con- all men before the stitution, is essential law, and hold that REPUBLICAN. to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States shall be preserved; that with our Republican fathers, we hold it to be a self-evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to fe, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction. [Plank 1. 1860 That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution. "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union of the States must and shall be preserved. [Plank 2. 1864- 1872-Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil, |