prospective, for the reason that his great talents and inflexible patriotism guaranty a firm and unyielding maintenance of our national sovereignty, and the protection of those commercial interests which were flagging under the weakness and imbecility of the administration.

1815.-Resolutions passed by the Hartford

Convention, January 4.

Resolved, That it be and is hereby recommended to the legislatures of the several states represented in this convention, to adopt all such measures as may be necessary effectually to protect the citizens of said states from the operation and effects of all acts which have been or may be passed by the Congress of the United States, which shall contain provisions subjecting the militia or other citizens to forcible drafts, conscriptions, or impressments not authorized by the constitution of the United States.

Resolved, That it be and is hereby recommended to the said legislatures, to authorize an immediate and an earnest application to be made to the government of the United States, requesting their consent to some arrangement whereby the said states may, separately or in concert, be empowered to assume upon themselves the defense of their territory against the enemy, and a reasonable portion of the taxes collected within said states may be paid into the respective treasuries thereof, and appropriated to the balance due said states and to the future defense of the same. The amount so paid into said treasuries to be credited, and the disbursements made as aforesaid to be charged to the United States.

aforesaid, to be proposed by them for adoption by the state legislatures, and in such cases as may be deemed expedient by a convention chosen by the people of each state. And it is further recommended that the said states shall persevere in their ef forts to obtain such amendments, until the same shall be effected.

First. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers of free persons, including those bound to serve for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, and all other persons;

Second. No new state shall be admitted into the Union by Congress, in virtue of the power granted in the constitution, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses;

Third. Congress shall not have power to lay an embargo on the ships or vessels of the citizens of the United States, in the ports or harbors thereof, for more than sixty days;

Fourth. Congress shall not have power, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses, to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and any foreign nation or the dependencies thereof;

Fifth. Congress shall not make nor declare war, nor authorize acts of hostility against any foreign nation, without the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses, except such acts of hostility be in defense of the territories of the United States when actually invaded;

Sixth. No person who shall hereafter be naturalized shall be eligible as a member of the Senate or House of Representatives of the United States, or capable of holding any civil office under the authority of the United States;

Seventh. The same person shall not be Resolved, That it be and hereby is re-elected President of the United States a commended to the legislatures of the afore- second time, nor shall the President be said states, to pass laws where it has not elected from the same state two terms in already been done, authorizing the gov- succession. ernors or commanders-in-chief of their militia to make detachments from the same, or to form voluntary corps, as shall be most convenient and conformable to their constitutions, and to cause the same to be well armed, equipped, and held in readiness for service, and upon request of the governor of either of the other states, to employ the whole of such detachment or corps, as well as the regular forces of the зtate, or such part thereof as may be required, and can be spared consistently with the safety of the state, in assisting the state making such request to repel any invasion thereof which shall be made or attempted by the public enemy.

Resolved, That the following amendments of the constitution of the United States be recommended to the states represented as

Resolved, That if the application of these states to the government of the United States, recommended in a foregoing resolution, should be unsuccessful, and peace should not be concluded, and the defense of these states should be neglected, as it has been since the commencement of the war, it will, in the opinion of this convention, be expedient for the legislatures of the several states to appoint delegates to another convention, to meet at Boston, in the state of Massachusetts, on the third Monday of June next, with such powers and instructions as the exigency of a crisis so momentous may require.

Resolved, That the Honorable George Cabot, the Honorable Chauncey Goodrich, the Honorable Daniel Lyman, or any two of them, be authorized to call another

meeting of this convention, to be holden | publican government is the equal rights of

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created free and equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among Resolved, That in Francis Granger we which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of recognize one of our most distinguished happiness; that the true foundation of re- fellow-citizens, whose talents we admire,

whose patriotism we trust, and whose prin- | has a right to demand and insist upon an ciples we sanction.

1839.-Abolition Resolution,

Warsaw, N. Y., November 13.

Resolved, That, in our 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.

Abolition Platforms.

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 ducting our public affairs, and that no practice the most rigid economy in conmore revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the government.

to charter a United States bank; that we 6. Resolved, That Congress has no power 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

The first national platform of the Aboli-and the will of the people. tion party upon which it went into the contest in 1840, favored the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and Territories; the inter-state slave-trade, and a general opposition to slavery to the full extent of constitutional power.

In 1848, that portion of the party which did not support the Buffalo nominees took the ground of affirming the constitutional authority and duty of the General Government to abolish slavery in the States.

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 relaplat-most alarming and dangerous consequention thereto, are calculated to lead to the ces, 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.

Under the head of "Buffalo," the form of the Free Soil party, which nominated Mr. Van Buren, will be found.

1840.-Democratic Platform,
Baltimore, May 5.

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 internal 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

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 book.

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 ] ing limits, but should be gradually, and between the individuals in nomination, yet, at no distant day, wholly abolished by but to leave the decision to their repub-state authority. lican fellow-citizens in the several states, tru-ting 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.

1843.-Liberty Platform.
Buffalo, August 30).

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

manent.

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. Resolted, That the Liberty party has not been organized for any temporary purpose by interested politicians, but has ari-en 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 slaveholding a 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.

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.

S. 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.

rights, and strictly local, and that its existence and continuance rests on no other support than state legislation, and not on any authority of Congress.

5. Resolved. That the Liberty party is 10. Resolved, That we recognize as sound not a sectional party but a national party; the doctrine maintained by slaveholding was not originated in a desire to accom-jurists, that slavery is against natural plish 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 exist

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 provisions of the

constitution of the United States which confers extraordinary political powers on that any contract, covenant, or agreethe owners of slaves, and thereby consti- ment, to do an act derogatory to natural tuting the two hundred and fifty thousand right, is vitiated and annulled by its inslaveholders in the slave states a privi- herent immorality-has been recognized leged aristocracy; and the provisions for by one of the justices of the Supreme the reclamation of fugitive slaves from Court of the United States, who in a reservice, are anti-republican in their char- cent case expressly holds that " acter, dangerous to the liberties of the peo-tract that rests upon such a basis is void;" ple, and ought to be abrogated.