to the future, and grapples with its problems you represent, "start upon a new march to of duty and of danger. It proposes as objects victory.' of its immediate accomplishment "complete Having accepted thirty-six years ago the liberty and exact equality" for all; the enforce- distinguishing doctrines of the Republican ment of "the recent amendments to the party of to-day; having, during years of that national Constitution;" reform in the "civil period, for their advancement, subordinated service;" the "national domain to be set all other issues, acting in and cooperating with apart for homes to the people ;" the adjust political organizations with whose leading docment of duties on imports so as to secure trines I sometimes had neither sympathy nor "remunerative wages to labor;" the extension belief; having labored incessantly for many of bounty to all soldiers and sailors "who years to found and build up the Republican in the line of duty became disabled;" the party, and having, during its existence, taken continual and careful encouragement and pro- an humble part in its grand work, I gratefully tection of voluntary immigration, and the guard-accept the nomination thus tendered, and shall ing "with jealous care the rights of adopted endeavor, if it shall be ratified by the people, citizens;" the abolition of the franking privi- faithfully to perform the duties it imposes. lege and "the speedy reduction of the rates Respectfully, yours, of postage;' ;" the reduction of the national debt and the rates of interest and "the resumption of specie payments;" the encour- NATIONAL LIBERAL REPUBLICAN CONagement of American commerce and of shipbuilding; the suppression of violence and "the protection of the ballot-box." It also placed on record the opinions and purposes of the party in favor of amnesty, against all forms of repudiation, and indorsed the humane and peaceful policy of the Administration in regard to the Indians. VENTION. HENRY WILSON. Cincinnati, May 1-3, 1872. [Met pursuant to a call of the Liberal Republican State convention of Missouri.] For President, HORACE GREELEY, of New York; Vice President, BENJAMIN GRATZ BROWN, of Missouri. Brown 2; 4th, Adams 279, Greeley 251, Trumbull 141, Davis 51, Brown 2; 5th, Adams 309, Greeley 258, Trumbull 91, Davis 30, Brown 2, Chase 24; 6th, Adams 187, Greeley 482. But while clearly defining and distinctly an- Ballot for President - 1st, Adams 205, nouncing the policy of the Republican party Trumbull 110, Davis 92, Greeley 147, Brown on these questions of practical legislation and 95; 2d, Greeley 239, Adams 243, Trumbull administration, the convention did not ignore 148, Davis 81, Brown 2, Chase 1; 3d, Greethe great social problems which are pressing ley 258, Trumbull 156, Adams 264, Davis 44, their claims for solution, and which demand the most careful study and wise consideration. Foremost stands the labor question. Concerning "the relations of capital and labor" the Republican party accepts the duty of “ shaping legislation as to secure the full protection and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator of capital, the largest opportunities, and a just share of the mutual profits of those two great servants of civilization." 80 To woman, too, and her great demands, it extends the hand of grateful recoguition, and proffers its most respectful inquiry. It recognizes her noble devotion to country and free dom, welcomes her admission to "wider fields of usefulness," and commends her demands for "additional rights" to the calm and careful consideration of the nation. To guard well what has already been secured, to work out faithfully and wisely what is now in hand, and to consider the questions which are looming up to view but a little way before us, the Republican party is to-day what it was in the gloomy years of slavery, rebellion, and reconstruction, a natural necessity. It appeals, therefore, for support to the patriotic and liberty loving, to the just and humane, to all who would dignify labor, to all who would educate, elevate, and lighten the burdens of the sons and daughters of toil. With its great record, the work still to be done under the lead of the great soldier whose historic renown and whose successful Administration for the last three years begat such popular confidence, the Republican party may coufidently, in the language of the convention Ballot for Vice President-1st, Brown 237, Trumbull, 158, Julian 1844, Walker 841, Tipton 8, Cox 25, Clay 34, Scovel 12; 2d, Brown 485, Julian 175, Walker 75, Tipton 3, Palmer 8. Address to the People of the United States. The Administration now in power has rendered itself guilty of wanton disregard of the laws of the land, and of usurping powers not granted by the Constitution; it has acted as if the laws had binding force only for those who are governed, and not for those who govern. It has thus struck a blow at the fundamental principles of constitutional government and the liberties of the citizen. The President of the United States has openly used the powers and opportunities of his high office for the promotion of personal ends. He has kept notoriously corrupt and unworthy men in places of power and responsibility, to the detriment of the public interest. He has used the public service of the Government as a machinery of corruption and personal influence, and has interfered with tyrannical arrogance in the political affairs of States and municipalities. He has rewarded with influential and lucrative offices men who had acquired his favor by valuable presents, thus stimulating the demoralization of our political life by his conspicuous example. He has shown himself deplorably unequal to the task imposed upon him by the necessities of the country, and culpably careless of the responsibilities of his high office. nesty will result in complete pacification in all sections of the country. 4. Local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights of all citizens The partisans of the Administration, assum- more securely than any centralized power. ing to be the Republican party and controlling The public welfare requires the supremacy of its organization, have attempted to justify the civil over the military authority, and the such wrongs and palliate such abuses to the freedom of person under the protection of end of maintaining partisan ascendency. the habeas corpus. We demand for the indiThey have stood in the way of necessary vidual the largest liberty consistent with pubinvestigations and indispensable reforms, pre- lic order, for the State self-government, and tending that no serious fault could be found for the nation a return to the methods of peace with the present administration of public and the constitutional limitations of power. affairs, thus seeking to blind the eyes of the 5. The civil service of the Government has people. become a mere instrument of partisan tyranny and personal ambition, and an object of selfish greed. It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions, and breeds a demoralization dangerous to the perpetuity of republican reform of the civil service as one of the most pressing necessities of the hour; that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claims to public employment; that the offices of the Government cease to be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, and that public station shall become again a post of honor. To this end it is imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for reëlection. They have kept alive the passions and resentments of the late civil war, to use them for their own advantage; they have resorted to arbitrary measures in direct conflict with the organic law, instead of appealing to the government. We therefore regard a thorough better instincts and latent patriotism of the southern people by restoring to them these rights, the enjoyment of which is indispensable to a successful administration of their local affairs, and would tend to revive a patriotic and hopeful national feeling. They have degraded themselves and the name of their party, once justly entitled to the confidence of the nation, by a base sycophancy to the dispenser of executive power and patronage, unworthy of republican freemen; they have sought to silence the voice of just criticism, and stifle the moral sense of the people, and to subjugate public opinion by tyrannical party discipline. They are striving to maintain themselves in authority for selfish ends by an unscrupulous use of the power which rightfully belongs to the people, and should be employed only in the service of the country. Believing that an organization thus led and controlled can no longer be of service to the best interests of the Republic, we have resolved to make an independent appeal to the sober judgment, conscience, and patriotism of the American people. Resolutions. We, the Liberal Republicans of the United States in national convention assembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the following principles as essential to just government: 1. We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of Government, in its dealings with the people, to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political. 2. We pledge ourselves to maintain the Union of these States, emancipation, and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questions settled by the thirteenth, fourteenth, and ifteenth amendments of the Con stitution. 6. We demand a system of Federal taxation which shall not unnecessarily interfere with the industry of the people, and which shall provide the means necessary to pay the expenses of the Government, economically administered, the pensions, the interest on the public debt, and a moderate reduction annually of the principal thereof; and recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free trade, we remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their congressional districts and the decision of Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation. 7. The public credit must be sacredly maintained, and we denounce repudiation in every form and guise. 8. A speedy return to specie payments is demanded alike by the highest considerations of commercial morality and honest govern ment. 9. We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and no act of ours shall ever detract from their justly earned fame or the full rewards of their patriotism. 10. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or other corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to actual settlers. 11. We hold that is the duty of the Government in its intercourse with foreign nations to cultivate the friendships of peace by treating with all on fair and equal terms, regarding it alike dishonorable eitber to demand what is not right or submit to what is wrong. 3. We demand the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities imposed on account 12. For the promotion and success of these of the rebellion, which was finally subdued vital principles and the support of the candiseven years ago, believing that universal am-dates nominated by this convention we invite and cordially welcome the coöperation of all patriotic citizens, without regard to previous political affiliations. Mr. Greeley's Acceptance. NEW YORK, May 20, 1872. GENTLEMEN: I have chosen not to acknowledge your letter of the 3d instant until I could learn how the work of your convention was received in all parts of our great country, and judge whether that work was approved and ratified by the mass of our fellow-citizens. Their response has from day to day reached me through telegrams, letters, and the comments of journalists independent of official patronage and indifferent to the smiles or frowns of power. The number and character of these unconstrained, unpurchased, unsolicited utterances satisfy me that the movement which found expression at Cincinnati has received the stamp of public approval, and been bailed by a majority of our countrymen as the harbinger of a better day for the Republic. I do not misinterpret this approval as especially complimentary to myself, nor even to the chivalrous and justly esteemed gentleman with whose name I thank your convention for asso ciating mine. I receive and welcome it as a spontaneous and deserved tribute to that admirable platform of principles wherein your convention so tersely, so lucidly, so forcibly, set forth the convictions which impelled and the purposes which guided its course-a platform which, casting behind it the wreck and rubbish of worn-out contentions and by-gone feuds, embodies in fit and few words the needs and aspirations of to-day. Though thousands stand ready to condemn your every act, hardly a syllable of criticism or cavil has been aimed at your platform, of which the substance may be fairly epitomized as follows: and promote the well-being of its inhabitants by such means as the judgment of its own people shall prescribe. IV. There shall be a real and not merely a simulated reform in the civil service of the Republic; to which end it is indispensable that the chief dispenser of its vast official patronage shall be shielded from the main temptation to use his power selfishly by a rule inexorably forbidding and precluding his reëlection. V. That the raising of revenue, whether by tariff or otherwise, shall be recognized and treated as the people's immediate business, to be shaped and directed by them through their Representatives in Congress, whose action thereon the President must neither overrule by his veto, attempt to dictate, nor presume to punish, by bestowing office only on those who agree with him or withdrawing it from those who do not. VI. That the public lands must be sacredly reserved for occupation and acquisition by cultivators, and not recklessly squandered on the projectors of railroads for which our people have no present need, and the premature construction of which is annually plunging us into deeper and deeper abysses of foreign indebtedness. VII. That the achievement of these grand purposes of universal beneficence is expected and sought at the hands of all who approve them, irrespective of past affiliations. VIII. That the public faith must ut all hazards be maintained, and the national credit preserved. IX. That the patriotic devotedness and inestimable services of our fellow-citizens, who, as soldiers or sailors, upheld the flag and maintained the unity of the Republic, shall ever be gratefully remembered and honorably requited. These propositions, so ably and forcibly preI. All the political rights and franchises sented in the platform of your convention, which have been acquired through our late have already fixed the attention and combloody convulsion must and shall be guaran-manded the assent of a large majority of our tied, maintained, enjoyed, respected ever- countrymen, who joyfully adopt them, as I do, as the bases of a true, beneficent, national more. II. All the political rights and franchises reconstruction-of a new departure from jealwhich have been lost through that convulsion ousies, strifes, and hates, which have no longer should and must be promptly restored and adequate motive or even plausible pretext, reëstablished, so that there shall be henceforth into an atmosphere of peace, fraternity, and no proscribed class and no disfranchised caste mutual good-will. In vain do the drill-serwithin the limits of our Union, whose long-geants of decaying organizations flourish me. estranged people shall reunite and fraternize nacingly their truncheons and angrily insist upon the broad basis of universal amnesty that the files shall be closed and straightened; with impartial suffrage. in vain do the whippers-in of parties, once III. That, subject to our solemn constitu- vital because rooted in the vital needs of the tional obligation to maintain the equal rights hour, protest against straying and bolting, deof all citizens, our policy should aim at local nounce men nowise their inferiors as traitors self government, and not at centralization; and renegades, and threaten them with infamy that the civil authority should be supreme over and ruin. I am confident that the American the military; that the writ of habeas corpus people have already made your cause their should be jealously upheld as the safeguard own, fully resolved that their brave hearts of personal freedom; that the individual citi- and strong arms shall bear it on to triumph. zen should enjoy the largest liberty consistent In this faith, and with the distinct understandwith public order; and that there shall be no Federal subversion of the internal polity of the several States and municipalities, but that each shall be left free to enforce the rights ing that if elected I shall be the President not of a party, but of the whole people, I accept your nomination, in the confident trust that the masses of our countrymen, North and South, are eager to clasp hands across | enduring unity and broader national life in the bloody chasm which has too long divided the future. Amnesty, however, to be efficathem, forgetting that they have been enemies in the joyful consciousness that they are and must henceforth remain brethren. Yours, gratefully, HORACE GREELEY. Gov. Brown's Acceptance. EXECUTIVE OFFICE, JEFFERSON CITY, May 31, 1872. GENTLEMEN: Your letter advising me of the action of the Liberal Republican convention at Cincinnati has been received, and I return through you my acknowledgment of the honor which has been conferred upon me. I accept the nomination as a candidate for Vice President, and indorse most cordially the resolutions setting forth the principles on which this appeal is made to the whole people of the United States. cious must be real, not nominal; genuine, not evasive. It must carry along with it equal rights as well as equal protection to all; for removal of disabilities as to some, with enforcement as to others, leaves room for suspicion that pardon is measured by political gain. Especially will such proffered clemency be futile in presence of renewed attempt at prolonging a suspension of the habeas corpus, in persistent resort to martial rather than civil law, in upholding those agencies used to alienate races where concord is most essential, and in preparing another elaborate campaign on a basis of dead issues and arbitrary interventions. All will rightly credit such conduct as but a mockery of amnesty, and demand an Administration which can give better warrant of honesty in the great work of reconstruction and reform. A century is closing upon our experience of In the array of sectional interests a republic republican government, and while that lapse so widespread as ours is never entirely safe of time has witnessed great expansion of our from serious conflicts. These become still free institutions, yet it has not been without more dangerous when complicated with quesillustration also of grave dangers to the stabil- tions of taxation where unequal burdens are ity of such system. Of those successfully believed to be imposed on one part at the exencountered it is needless to speak; of those pense of another part. It was a bold as well which remain to menace us the most threatas admirable policy, in the interest of present ening are provided against, as I firmly believe, in the wise and pacific measures proposed by your platform. as well as future tranquillity, to withdraw the decision of industrial and revenue matters from the virtual arbitration of an Electoral College, It has come to be the practice of those ele chosen with a single animating purpose of vated to positions of national authority to party ascendency, and refer them for a more regard the public service not as a public trust, direct popular expression to each congresbut only as means to retain power. This re- sional district. Instead of being muzzled by sults in substituting a mere party organization some evasive declaration, the country is thereby for the Government itself, constitutes a con invited to its frankest utterance, and sections trol amenable to no laws or moralities, im- which would revolt at being denied a voice, pairs all independent thought, enables the few out of deference to other success, would be to rule the many, and makes personal alle content to acquiesce in a general judgment giance the road to favor. It requires little fore-honestly elicited. If local government be, cast to perceive that this will wreck our liberties as it undoubtedly is, the most vital principle unless there be interposed a timely reform of of our institutions, much advance will be made administration, from its highest to its lowest toward reëstablishing it by enabling the people station, which shall not only forbid those abuses to pass upon questions so nearly affecting their but likewise take away the incentive to their well-being dispassionately, through their local practice. Wearied with contentions that are representation. The precipitancy which would carried on in avarice of spoils, the country force a controlling declaration on tax or tariff demands repose, resents the effort of officials through a presidential candidacy is only a to dragoon it again into partisan hostilities, disguised form of centralization involving hazand will zealously sustain any movement promising a sure deliverance. ardous reaches of executive influence. Conclusions will be much more impartially determOf the perils which have been connected ined, and with less disturbance to trade and with the war it is safe to say that only those finance, by appealing to the most truthful and are now to be feared which come of an abuse diversified local expression. Industrial issues of victory into permanent estrangement. can be thus likewise emancipated from the The Union is fortified by more power than power of great monopolies, each canvass made ever before, and it remains as an imperative to determine its own specific instruction, and duty to cement our nationality by a perfect each Representative held to fidelity toward his reconciliation. At the North a widespread immediate constituents. sympathy is aroused in behalf of those States These are the most prominent features of of the South which long after the termination that general concert of action which proposes of resistance to rightful Federal authority are to replace the present Administration by one still plundered under the guise of loyalty, and more in sympathy with the aspirations of the tyrannized over in the name of freedom. Along masses of our countrymen. Of course such with this feeling is present, too, the recognition concert cannot be attained by thrusting every that in complete amnesty alone can be found minor or past difference into the foreground, hope of any return to constitutional govern- aud it will be for the people, therefore, to dement as of old, or any development of a more termine whether these objects are of such mag nitude and present urgency as to justify them for the nation a return to the methods of in deferring other adjustments until the coun- peace and the constitutional limitations of try shall be first restored to a free suffrage, power. uninfluenced by official dictation, and ours becomes in fact a free republic, released from apprehension of a central domination. Without referring in detail to the various other propositions embraced in the resolutions of the convention, but seeing how they all contemplate a restoration of power to the people, peace to the nation, purity to the Government; that they condemn the attempt to establish an ascendency of military over civil rule, and affirm with explicitness the maintenance of equal freedom to all citizens, irrespective of race, previous condition, or pending disabili ties, I have only to pledge again my sincere coöperation. I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, yours, B. GRATZ BROWN. NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. Baltimore, July 9-10, 1872. 5. The civil service of the Government has become a mere instrument of partisan tyranny and personal ambition and an object of selfish greed. It is a scandal and reproach upon free institutions and breeds a demoralization dangerous to the perpetuity of republican government. We therefore regard a thorough reform of the civil service as one of the most pressing necessities of the hour; that honesty, capacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid claim to public employment; that the offices of the Government cease to be a matter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, and that public station become again a post of honor. To this end it is imperatively required that no President shall be a candidate for reëlection. 6. We demand a system of Federal taxation which shall not unnecessarily interfere with the industry of the people, and which shall provide the means necessary to pay the expenses of the Government, economically administered, the pensions, the interest on the public For President, HORACE GREELEY, of New debt, and a moderate reduction annually of York; Vice President, BENJAMIN GRATZ Mr. GREELEY was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 686 votes, the remainder being: for JAMES A. BAYARD, of Delaware, 15 JEREMIAH S. BLACK, of Pennsylvania, 21; WILLIAM S. GROESBECK, of Ohio, 2; blank, 8 Mr. BROWN was nominated on the first bal lot, which stood: BENJAMIN GRATZ BROWN, 713; JOHN W. STEVENSON, of Kentucky, 6; blank, 13. The Platform. We, the Democratic electors of the United States in convention assembled, do present the following principles, already adopted at Cincinnati, as essential to just government: 1. We recognize the equality of all men before the law, and hold that it is the duty of Government in its dealings with the people to mete out equal and exact justice to all, of whatever, nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political. 2. We pledge ourselves to maintain the union of these States, emancipation, and enfranchisement, and to oppose any reopening of the questious settled by the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. 3. We demand the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities imposed on account of the rebellion, which was finally subdued seven years ago. believing that universal am nesty will result in complete pacification in all sections of the country. 4. Local self-goverument, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized power. The public welfare requires the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus. We demand for the individual the largest liberty consistent with public order; for the State self-government, and the principal thereof; and recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free trade. people in their congressional districts, and to we remit the discussion of the subject to the the decision of the Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation. tained, and we denounce repudiation in every 7. The public credit must be sacredly mainform and guise. 8. A speedy return to specie payment is demanded alike by the highest considerations of commercial morality and honest government. 9. We remember with gratitude the heroism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and no act of ours shall ever detract from their justly earned fame for the full reward of their patriotism. 10. We are opposed to all further grants of lands to railroads or other corporations. The public domain should be held sacred to actual settlers. 11. We hold that it is the duty of the Government in its intercourse with foreign nations to cultivate the friendships of peace, by treating with all on fair and equal terms, regarding it alike dishonorable either to demand what is not right or to submit to what is wrong. 12. For the promotion and success of these vital principles, and the support of the candidates nominated by this convention, we invite and cordially welcome the coöperation of all patriotic citizens, without regard to previous political affiliations.. NATIONAL LABOR REFORM CONVENTION. Columbus, February 21-22, 1872. |