1813-1829.-No Platforms by either Political Party, except that at Hartford by Federalists. 1830.-ANTI-MASONIC RESOLUTION, Philadelphia, September. Resolved, That it is recommended to the people of the United States, opposed to secret societies, to meet in convention on Monday, the 26th day of September, 1831, at the city of Baltimore, by delegates equal in number to their representatives in both houses of Congress, to make nominations of suitable candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President, to be supported at the next election, and for the transaction of such other business as the cause of anti-Masonry may require. 1832.-NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, ADOPTED AT A RATIFICATION MEETING At Washington City, May 11. Resolved, That an adequate protection to American industry is indispensable to the prosperity of the country; and that an abandonment of the policy at this period would be attended with consequences ruinous to the best interests of the nation. Resolved, That a uniform system of internal improvements, sustained and supported by the general government, is calculated to secure, in the highest degree, the harmony, the strength and permanency of the republic. Resolved, That the indiscriminate removal of public officers for a mere difference of political opinion, is a gross abuse of power; and that the doctrine lately boldly preached in the United States Senate, that "to the victors belong the spoils of the vanquished," is detrimental to the interests, corrupting to the morals, and dangerous to the liberties of the country. 1836.-" LOCOFOCO" PLATFORM. New York, January. 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 which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that the true foundation of republican government is the equal rights of every citizen in his person and property, and in their management; that the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right; that the rightful power of all legislation is to declare and en force only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us; that no man has the natural right to commit aggressions on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the law ought to restrain him; that every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society, and this all the law should enforce on him; that when the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions. We declare unqualified hostility to bank notes and paper money as a circulating medium, because gold and silver is the only safe and constitu'tional currency; hostility to any and all monopolies by legislation, because they are violations of equal rights of the people; hostility to the dangerous and unconstitutional creation of vested rights or prerogatives by legislation, because they are usurpations of the people's sovereign rights; no legislative or other authority, in the body politic, can rightfully, by charter or otherwise, exempt any man or body of men, in any case whatever, from trial by jury, and the jurisdiction or operation of the laws which govern the community. We hold that each and every law or act of incorporation, passed by preceding legislatures, can be rightfully altered and repealed by their successors; and that they should be altered or repealed, when necessary for the public good, or when required by a majority of the people. 1836.-WHIG RESOLUTIONS, Albany, N. Y., February 3. Resolved, That in support of our cause, we invite all citizens opposed to Martin Van Buren and the Baltimore nominees. Resolved, That Martin Van Buren, by intriguing with the executive to obtain his influence to elect him to the Presidency, has set an example dangerous to our freedom and corrupting to our free institutions. Resolved, That the support we render to William H. Harrison is by no means given to him solely on account of his brilliant and successful services as leader of our armies during the last war, but that in him we view also the man of high intellect, the stern patriot, uncontaminated by the machinery of hackneyed politicians—a man of the school of Washington Resolved, That in Francis Granger we recognize one of our most distinguished fellow-citizens, whose talents we admire, whose patriotism we trust, and whose principles we sanction. CHAPTER XII. VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION. 1837-1841. PRESIDENT'S POLICY. Van Buren continued Jackson's cabinet, and promised "to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor." The reduced democratic majority in the non-slaveholding states which he had received, made it apparent that a re-election must come, if at all, from the south. He improved the earliest opportunities of making advances in that direction, and declared that he "went into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, against the wishes of the slaveholding states; and, with equal determination, he would resist the slightest interference with it in the states where it existed." PANIC OF '37. The circumstances attending the accession of the new President to power were very inauspicious. The doing away with the United States bank, and the making of gold and silver the medium of exchange, produced a money pressure, which culminated in May, 1837. During this month the banks of New York suspended specie payment. Their example was followed by other banks throughout the country. Commercial distress and business prostration followed immediately. Property depreciated, and the whole country was filled with distress and consternation. This condition of things was the more embarrassing to the new administration, because it had grown out of measures enacted and sanctioned by the previous one, to the continuation of which Van Buren had pledged himself. He was urged to repeal the specie circular, and call an extra session of Congress. Congress met September 4, 1837. The democrats were in Twenty-fifth Congress, the majority, but the whigs had made Extra Session. great gains. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was elected Speaker. The President, in his message, went into a lengthly discussion of the causes instrumental in bringing about such a condition of affairs, and held that the government should not attempt to interfere directly with the panic, but let it right itself, which it would finally do more easily and satisfactorily than could be done in any other way. He held that the panic was due, in large part, to the overstimulated condition of commerce and trade, engendered by an excessive issue of bank paper, previous to the issuing of the "specie circular," and that the country must look to the development of its resources as a means of bridging over the financial distress. He, therefore, refused to rescind the "specie circular," but proposed, instead, a SUB-TREASURY. This plan met with strong opposition from the whigs, and some of the democrats, the latter assuming the title of "conservatives," and, as a rule, voting with the whigs on financial measures. The measure establishing the sub-treasury, though passed in the Senate, was lost in the House; but an act was passed authorizing the issue of $10,000,000 in treasury notes, and giving merchants further time on their revenue bonds. Congress adjourned October 16. Congress met December 4, 1837. The bill for the estabTwenty-fifth Congress,lishment of the independent treasury First Session. was again recommended by the President, and again passed in the Senate, but killed in the House. |