Mr. ANDREW, of Massachusetts: I rise to a point of order. The motion of the gentleman from Ohio is not in order, for the reason that this Convention have already passed a rule that the Committee on Platform and Resolutions shall make their report in print, and that printed report has not been received by this Convention.

The PRESIDENT: We will have that resolution read.

Mr. CARTER: There is no such rule.

The PRESIDENT: Will gentlemen give their attention? The Chair will state the position of the question. The Committee on Platform and Resolutions have presented a report which has been read by the chairman. Upon the question of acceptance of that report, Mr. Carter, of Ohio, demands the previous question. Pending that demand, Mr. Andrew, of Massachusetts, raises a question of order that it is not in order to demand the previous question, because the Convention has adopted a standing rule that before acting upon that report, the report should be printed and presented to the Convention. Upon examining the record, the Chair rules that there is no such rule. It was an independent motion made by Mr. Kaufmann, of Pennsylvania.

Much confusion was here caused by the anxiety of delegates and the crowd in the wigwam to obtain copies of the platform, which by this time had been brought into the hall and were being distributed.

The PRESIDENT: The question is on the demand of Mr. Carter for the previous question.

Mr. TRACY, of California: I hope, as a member of the Committee on Resolutions and Platform, and as one of the subcommittee that drafted these resolutions, that the previous question will not be sustained.

The PRESIDENT: It certainly is not a debatable matter. Mr. TRACY: I know it is not debatable, I only expressed a hope.

Mr. GIDDINGS: I desire my colleague to withdraw the call for the previous question.

Mr. CARTER: It has got to be voted down or it has to be voted up.

The PRESIDENT: Is there a second for the call of the previous question?

VOICES: "Yes."

Motion for the previous question was submitted and declared to be lost.

Mr. CARTER: I call for a division on that question and a vote by States.

The PRESIDENT: It was voted down 3 to 1.

Mr. CARTER: I don't understand it so. I call for a division.

A DELEGATE: I rise to a point of order. It is too late to call for a division after the question is decided.

Mr. CARTER: It is not. You can't call for it before.

The PRESIDENT then submitted the question. The roll of States was called with the following result:

Mr. TRACY: California believes in free speech and free men, and votes 8 against the previous question.

Ohio being called,

Mr. CARTER: Coming from Ohio, a State where free speech is not allowed, she votes 24 ayes and 18 nays.

The PRESIDENT announced the previous question not sustained.

Mr. GIDDINGS, of Ohio, took the floor.

Gov. REEDER: I ask the gentleman if he will give way while we take up these resolutions singly?

VOICES: "No, no."

Mr. GIDDINGS: Mr. President, I propose to offer, after the first resolution as it stands here, as a declaration of principles, the following:

"That we solemnly re-assert the self-evident truths that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable

rights, among which are those of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness [Cheers]; that governments are instituted among men to secure the enjoyment of these rights."

Mr. CARTER, of Ohio, [Interrupting]: Mr. President, I—

Mr. GIDDINGS: My colleague will ask no favors of me, I take it. [Applause.] I will detain the Convention but a moment. Two hundred years ago the philosophers of Europe declared to the world that human governments were based upon human rights, and all Christian writers have sustained that doctrine until the meeting of this Convention. Our fathers were impressed with this all-permeating truth, that right of every human being to live and enjoy that liberty, which enables him to obtain knowledge and pursue happiness, and no man has the power to withhold it from him. [Prolonged cheers.] Our fathers, impressed with this solemn truth, laid it down as the chief corner stone, the basis upon which this Federal Government was founded. By consent of all parties, the Supreme Court included, these were the permeating, life-giving, vitalizing principles of the Constitution. It is because these principles have been overturned, denied and prostrated by our opponents, that we now exist as a party. [Cheers.] At Philadelphia we proposed and propounded this issue to our opponents. We called on them to meet it. They have not met it. They put forward the Supreme Court to meet it. That court denied those principles, but the Democratic party to this day dare not meet them; and through the campaign, and for four years, no Democrat has stood before the world denying that truth, nor will they deny them. Now I propose to maintain the doctrines of our fathers. I propose to maintain the fundamental and primal issues upon which the government was founded. I will detain this Convention no longer. I offer this because our party was formed upon it. It grew upon it. It has existed upon it, and when you leave out this truth you leave out the party. [Loud cheers.]

Mr. CARTER: After this display of argument, I call for the reading of clause second in the report of committee.

Mr. Lowry, of Pennsylvania: I rise to a question of order. We have upon our journal a resolution that all matters that come up by resolution, should be referred to the committee appointed for that purpose, without debate. I therefore call upon the President of this Convention now to enforce this rule.

The PRESIDENT: The Chair is of the opinion that this proposition does not come within the principle of the rule that the gentleman alludes to.

Mr. LowRY: Then, Mr. President

Mr. CARTER: I wish simply to read in reply to this—

Mr. LowRY: Mr. President, I move that the report of the committee as prepared and presented be adopted.

The PRESIDENT: The gentleman is out of order. He has not got the floor.

Mr. CARTER: The only reply I wish to make on this amendment and the gas expended on it, is in the second clause of the report, which reads as follows: "That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution, 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."

Mr. THAYER, of Oregon: I agree with the venerable delegate from Ohio, Mr. Giddings, in all that he has affirmed to this Convention, concerning the principles of the Declaration of Independence. There are also many other truths that are enunciated in that Declaration of Independence-truths of science-truths of physical science, of mental and moral science-truths of government, and great religious truths; but it is not the business, I think, of this Convention, at least