modes of federal taxation, to the end that capital may be set free from distrust and labor lightly burdened.

We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly four thousand articles, as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and false pretence. It yields a dwindling, not a yearly rising, revenue. It has impoverished many industries to subsidize a few. It prohibits imports that might purchase the products of American labor. It has degraded American commerce from the first to an inferior rank on the high seas. It has cut down the sales of American manufactures at home and abroad, and depleted the returns of American agriculture an industry followed by half our people. It costs the people five times inore than it produces to the treasury, obstructs the processes of production, and wastes the fruits of labor. It promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest officials, and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that all customhouse taxation shall be only for revenue.

Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense-federal, state, and municipal. Our federal taxation has swollen from sixty millions gold, in 1880, to four hundred and fifty millions currency, in 1870; our aggregate taxation from one hundred and fiftyfour millions gold, in 1860, to seven hundred and thirty millions currency, in 1870 -or, in one decade, from less than five dollars per head to more than eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace, the people have paid to their tax-gatherers more than thrice the sum of the national debt, and more than twice that sum for the Federal government alone. We demand a rigorous frugality in every department and from every officer of the government. Reform is necessary to put a stop to the profligate waste of public lands, and their diversion from actual settlers, by the party in power, which has squandered 200,000,000 of acres upon railroads alone, and, out of more than thrice that aggregate, has disposed of less than a sixth directly to tillers

of the soil.

ported 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 legisla tion 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 elections, and lifting it above the two false issues with which the officeholding 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 belongs exclusively to the several states, and which the Democratic party has cherished from their foundation, and is resolved to maintain, without preju dice or preference for any class, sect, or creed, and without largesses from the treasury to any.

2. The false issue by which they seek to light anew the dying embers of sectional hate between kindred peoples 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 governmental business is not possible if its civil service be subject to change at every election, be a prize fought for at the ballot-box, be a brief 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 neither be a tax upon the time of all our public men nor the instrument of their ambition. Here, again, promises, 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. Their cffices are not a private Reform is necessary to correct the omis- perquisite; they are a public trust. When sion of a Republican Congress, and the the annals of this Republic show the diserrors of our treaties and our diplomacy grace and censure of a Vice-President; a which have stripped our fellow-citizens of late Speaker of the House of Representaforeign birth and kindred race, recrossing tives marketing his rulings as a presiding the Atlantic, of the shield of American officer; three Senators profiting secretly by citizenship, and have exposed our brethren their votes as law-makers; five chairmen of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a of the leading committees of the late House race not sprung from the same great parent of Representatives exposed in jobbery; a stock, and in fact now, by law, denied late Secretary of the Treasury forcing bacitizenship through naturalization, as being lances in the public accounts; a late Atneither accustomed to the traditions of a torney-General misappropriating public progressive civilization nor exercised in funds; a Secretary of the Navy enriched, liberty under equal laws. We denounce or enriching friends, by percentages levied the policy which thus discards the liberty- off the profits of contractors with his deloving German and tolerates a revival of partment; an Ambassador to England conthe coolie trade in Mongolian women, im-cerned in a dishonorable speculation; the

President's private secretary barely escap- the old political parties have stood up manfully for the rights of the people, and met the threats of the money power, and the ridicule of an ignorant and subsidized press, yet neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties, in their policies, propose remedies for the existing evils; and

bearing its proper share of the public of law over and above all perishable maburdens. Government bonds and money |terial, and in the necessity of a party of should be taxed precisely as other property, united people that will rise above old party and a graduated income tax should be lines and prejudices. We will not affiliate levied for the support of the government in any degree with any of the old parties, and the payment of its debts.

Sixth. Public lands are the common property of the whole people, and should not be sold to speculators nor granted to railroads or other corporations, but should be donated to actual settlers, in limited quantities.

Seventh. The government should, by general enactments, encourage the development of our agricultural, mineral, mechanical, manufacturing, and commercial resources, to the end that labor may be fully and profitably employed; but no monopolies should be legalized.

Eighth. All useless offices should be abolished, the most rigid economy favored in every branch of the public service, and severe punishment inflicted upon public officers who betray the trusts reposed in

them.

Ninth. As educated labor has devised means for multiplying productions by inventions and discoveries, and as their use requires the exercise of mind as well as body, such legislation should be had that the number of hours of daily toil will be reduced, giving to the working classes more leisure for mental improvement and their several enjoyments, and saving them from premature decay and death.

but, in all cases and localities, will organize anew, as united National men-nominate for office and official positions only such persons as are clearly believers in and identified with this our sacred cause; and, irrespective of creed, color, place of birth, or past condition of political or other servitude, vote only for men who entirely abandon old party lines and organizations.

1879.-National Liberal Platform.

Cincinnati, Ohio, September 14.

1. Total separation of Church and State, to be guaranteed by amendment of the United States constitution; including the equitable taxation of church property, secularization of the public schools, abrogation of Sabbatarian laws, abolition of chaplaincies, prohibition of public appropríations for religious purposes, and all measures necessary to the same general end.

2. National protection for national citizens in their equal civil, political, and religious rights, to be guaranteed by amendment of the United States constitution and afforded through the United States courts.

3. Universal education, the basis of universal suffrage in this secular Republic, to be guaranteed by amendment of the United States constitution, requiring every state to maintain a thoroughly secularized public school system, and to permit no child within its limits to grow up without a good elementary education.

Tenth. The adoption of an American monetary system, as proposed herein, will harmonize all differences in regard to tariff and federal taxation, reduce and equlize the cost of transportation by land and water, distribute equitably the joint earnings of capital and labor, secure to the producers of wealth the results of their labor and skill, and muster out of service the vast army of idlers, who, under the 1880.-Independent Republican Principles. existing system, grow rich upon the earnings of others, that every man and woman I. Independent Republicans adhere to may, by their own efforts, secure a compe- the republican principles of national supretency, so that overgrown fortunes and ex-macy, sound finances, and civil service retreme poverty will be seldom found within the limits of our republic.

Eleventh. Both national and state governments should establish bureaus of labor and industrial statistics, clothed with the power of gathering and publishing the

same.

Twelfth. That the contract system of employing labor in our prisons and reformatory institutions works great injustice to our mechanics and artisans, and should be prohibited.

Thirteenth. The importation of servile labor into the United States from China is a problem of the most serious importance, and we recommend legislation looking to its suppression.

Fourteenth. We believe in the supremacy

form, expressed in the Republican platform of 1876, in the letter of acceptance of President Hayes, and in his message of 1879; and they seek the realization of those principles in practical laws and their efficient administration. This requires,

1. The continuance on the statute-book of laws protecting the rights of voters at national elections. But national supremacy affords no pretext for interference with the local rights of communities; and the development of the south from its present defective civilization can be secured only under constitutional methods, such as those of President Hayes.

2. The passage of laws which shall de prive greenbacks of their legal-tender quality, as a first step toward their ulti

mate withdrawal and cancellation, and shall maintain all coins made legal tender at such weight and fineness as will enable them to be used without discount in the commercial transactions of the world.

stead of slavery, as its corner-stone. It transformed four million of human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the infamous work of hunting fugitive slaves,. and charged it to see that slavery does not exist.

absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country. It has lifted the credit of the nation from the point where six per cent. bonds sold at eighty-six to that where four per cent. bonds are eagerly sought at a premium.

3. The repeal of the acts which limit the terms of office of certain government officials to four years; the repeal of the It has raised the value of our paper curtenure-of-office acts, which limit the power rency from thirty-eight per cent. to the of the executive to remove for cause; the par of gold. It has restored, upon a solid establishment of a permanent civil service basis, payment in coin for all the national commission, or equivalent measures to as-obligations, and has given us a currency certain, by open competition, and certify to the President or other appointing power the fitness of applicants for nomination or appointment to all non-political offices. II. Independent Republicans believe that local issues should be independent of party. The words Republican and Democrat should have no weight in determining whether a school or city shall be administered on business principles by capable Our foreign trade has increased from men. With a view to this, legislation is $700,000,000 to $1,150,000,000 in the same asked which shall prescribe for the voting time; and our exports, which were $20,for local and for state officers upon sepa-000,000 less than our imports in 1860, were rate ballots. $264,000,000 more than our imports in 1879.

Under its administration railways have increased from 31,000 miles in 1860, to more than 82,000 miles in 1879.

annually, over $30,000,000 for soldiers' pensions. It has paid $888,000,000 of the public debt, and, by refunding the balance at lower rates, has reduced the annual interest charge from nearly $151,000,000 to less than $89,000,000.

III. Independent Republicans assert that a political party is a co-operation of Without resorting to loans, it has, since voters to secure the practical enactment the war closed, defrayed the ordinary exinto legislation of political convictions set penses of government, besides the accruing forth as its platform. Every voter accept-interest on the public debt, and disbursed, ing that platform is a member of that party; any representative of that party opposing the principles or evading the promises of its platform forfeits the support of its voters. No voter should be held by the action or nomination of any caucus or convention of his party against his private judgment. It is his duty to vote against bad measures and unfit men, as the only means of obtaining good ones; and if his party no longer represents its professed principles in its practical workings, it is his duty to vote against it.

IV. Independent Republicans seek good nominations through participation in the primaries and through the defeat of bad nominees; they will labor for the defeat of any local Republican candidate, and, in co-operation with those holding like views elsewhere, for the defeat of any general Republican candidate whom they do not deem fit.

1880. Republican Platform.

All the industries of the country have revived, labor is in demand, wages have increased, and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed.

Upon this record, the Republican party asks for the continued confidence and support of the people; and this convention submits for their approval the following statement of the principles and purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts:

1. We affirm that the work of the last twenty years has been such as to commend itself to the favor of the nation, and that the fruits of the costly victories which we have achieved, through immense difficulties, should be preserved; that the peace regained should be cherished; that the dissevered Union, now happily restored, should be perpetuated, and that the liberties secured to this generation should be transmitted, undiminished, to future generations; that the order established and the credit acquired should never be impaired; that the pensions promised should be paid; It suppressed a rebellion which had that the debt so much reduced should be armed nearly a million of men to subvert extinguished by the full payment of every the national authority. It reconstructed dollar thereof; that the reviving industries the union of the states with freedom, in- I should be further promoted; and that the

Chicago, Illinois, June 2. The Republican party, in national convention assembled, at the end of twenty years since the Federal government was first committed to its charge, submits to the people of the United States its brief report of its administration :

commerce, already so great, should be steadily encouraged.

That the purity and patriotism which characterized the early career of Ruther2. The constitution of the United States ford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which is a supreme law, and not a mere contract; guided the thoughts of our immediate preout of confederate states it made a sove- decessors to select him for a presidential reign nation. Some powers are denied to candidate, have continued to inspire him the nation, while others are denied to in his career as chief executive, and that states; but the boundary between the pow-history will accord to his administration ers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the national and not by the state tribunals.

3. The work of popular education is one let to the care of the several states, but it is the duty of the national government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional ability. The intelligence of the nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence in the several states; and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the genius of any one state, but by the average genius of all.

4. The constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion; but it is idle to hope that the nation can be protected against the influences of sectarianism while each state is exposed to its domination. We, therefore, recommend that the constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon the legislature of each state, to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools.

the honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his interposition between the people and proposed partisan laws.

8. We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and patronage. That to obtain possession of the national and state governments, and the control of place and position, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of suffrage; have devised fraudulent certifications and returns; have labored to unseat lawfully-elected members of Congress, to secure, at all hazards, the vote of a majority of the states in the House of Representatives; have endeavored to occupy, by force and fraud the places of trust given to others by the people of Maine, and rescued by the courageous action of Maine's patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, at5. We reathrm the belief, avowed in tached partisan legislation to appropria1876, that the duties levied for the pur- tion bills, upon whose passage the very pose of revenue should so discriminate as movements of government depend; have t favor American labor; that no further crushed the rights of the individual; have grant of the public domain should be made advocated the principle and sought the to any railway or other corporation; that favor of rebellion against the nation, and slavery having perished in the states, its have endeavored to obliterate the sacred twin barbarity-polygamy-must die in memories of the war, and to overcome its the territories; that everywhere the pro- inestimably valuable results of nationality, tection accorded to citizens of American personal freedom, and individual equality. birth must be secured to citizens by Ameri- Equal, steady, and complete enforcement can adoption. That we esteem it the duty of the laws, and protection of all our citizens of Congress to develop and improve our in the enjoyment of all privileges and imwater-courses and harbors, but insist that munities guaranteed by the constitution, further subsidies to private persons or cor- are the first duties of the nation. The danporations must cease. That the obliga-ger of a solid south can only be averted by tions of the republic to the men who preserved its integrity in the day of battle are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen years since their final victory-to do them perpetual honor is, and shall forever be, the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American people.

6. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Congress of the United States and its treaty-making powers, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise of that power to restrain and limit that immigration by the enactment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as will produce

that result.

the faithful performance of every promise which the nation made to the citizen. The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured, and genuine prosperity established throughout the south. Whatever promises the nation makes, the nation must perform; and the nation can not with safety relegate this duty to the states. The solid south must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find free expression; and to this end honest voters must be protected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican party to use all legitimate means to restore all the states of this Union to the most perfect harmony