Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1878 — THE NATIONAL CONVENTION AT TOLEDO. [ARTICLE]

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION AT TOLEDO.

The convention of the National Greenback party, held at Toledo on Friday, Feb. 22, was largely attended, and the proceeaings were uunstially harmonious. Judge Francis W. Hughes, of Pennsylvania, presided. In taking the chair he briefly thanked the body for th# honor conferred on him, and reviewed at some length the history of the national-banking system from the first feeble and fruitless attempts to inaugurate it in 1789 to the prebent time. He then discussed at considerable length the pioblem of labor and capital, and declared that it would not be solved by either great political party, and would remain unsolved unless the party bom here to-day should settle the question in the future. Regarding protection, he declared that the State of Pennsylvania had been misrepresented. The 54,000 Greenback votes of Pennsylvania came from a party which advocates the broadest kind of protection—the protection of labor against capital and against the extortions of usurers; the protection of miners and their families against transportation monopolists. He said protection should be applied to the agricultural interests of the Mississippi valley; that they should be shielded from the combinations of trunk lines, and remarked incidentally that he and the party favored eminent domain in respect to cottagers as against railroads. Mr. Harper, of Illinois, made a speech, and Mr. AUis presented the views of the Greenback State Central Committee of Wisconsin on the financial question. He read a lengthy speech, in the course of which he promised that Wisconsin, which was already a strong Greenback State, would cast an overwhelming Greenback vote at the next national election if the platform adopted by this convention should be wisely formed. He arraigned the financial policy of the Government in past years as being in the sole interest of the rich and against the poor, and denounced the Secretary of the Treasury and his present policy, contrasting it With his former utterances, and said that, in brief, Wisconsin, demandea the enfranchisement of labor, through a plentiful supply of Government money. Labor asked this from capital not as a charity or as a mercy, but demanded it as a right, and she will have it peaceably. The following platform ww read: Wh«*«ab, Throughout our entire country the value of real estate is depreciated, industry paralyzed, trade depppiißßd, buainMg income* and wages redwd ( unpft|iaUeled distress inflicted lipop the

poorer and middle ranks of our neoplc, the land filled with fraud, cmbezz’ewnt, b#iArtip‘cy, crime, suffering, pauperism and starvation; and Whxbkas. This statiof things has been brought abriut by legit liltion in? the interest of and dictated by money-lenders, bankers and bondholders ; and Whereas, While we recogniz? the fact that men In Congress connected with both the old political parties hair stood up manfully for the rights of the people, and m<t the threats of the money power aud the ridicule of an ignorant and subsidized press, yet neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties in tbeir national aioUcics propose remedies for the existing evils: and WiiEHEAK, The Independent-Greenback party and other affectations more or less effective have been unable heretofore to make a formidable oppoi ition to the old party organ-rations; and W HEH> as, The limiting of the legal-tender quality of greenbacks, the changing bf currency bonds into coin bonds, the demonetization of the silver doi ar. the exception of bonds from taxation, the contraction of the circulating medium, the proposed forced resumption of specie payments, and the prodigal waste of the public lands were crimes against the people, and as far as poss.ble the results of these criminal acts must bo counteracted by judicious legislation, therefore we assemble in National convention and make a.deciaraSoa of our princ pics, and invite all patriotic citizens to unite in dn effort to secure financial reform and iufiiwtria) ethtneipution. The organization shall be known as the “ National party.” and under this name we will perfect, with out delay, national State uud local associati-rns to secure the election to office of such men only as will pledge themselves to do all in their power to establish these principles: 1. It ia tbe exclusive function of the General Government to coin and create money snd regulate its value. All bank issues designed to circulate as money should be suppressed, their circulating median. whether of metal or paper, should be issued by the Government and made a full legal tender for ail debts, duties and taxes in the United States at its stamped va’ne. 2. There shall be no privileged class of creditors. Official salaries, pensions, bonds, and all other debts and obligations, public or private, shall I e discharged in. the legal-tender money of th l ' United States, strictly sqcordliig 4° the stipulations of the laws tender Whieh'they were contracted. 8 That the wteage of silver be placed on the same footing as that of gold. 4 Corfgress shill provide said money adequate to the full employment cf labor, the equitable distrlbution of its products, nriiTthe requirements of buafnewi, ntirig'# niiniffiinii amount per capita to the. population us year as may be, and otherwise regulating its volume by wise and equitable provisions of law, so that the rate of interest will secure to labor its just reward. 5. It is inconsistent with the genius and spirit of popular government that any species of private property should lie exempt from beating its just share, of the public burdens. Government bonds and money should be faxed precisely as other property, and a graduated income tax should be levied for the support of the Government and the payment of its debts.

6. The public lands are the common property of the whole people, and should not bo sold to speculators nor gambled to railroads or other 'corporations, but should lie donated to actual settlers in limited quantities. 7. 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. 8. All useless offices should be abolished, the most rigid economy enforced in every branch cf the public service, and severe punishments inflicted upon public officers who betray the trusts reposed in them. 9. As educational labor has devised means for multiplying production by inventions and discoveries, and as their use requires the exercise of mind'as well as body, such legislation should be had that the nuruber of hours of daily toll will be reduced, giving to the working clasßes more leisure for mental improvement and social enjoyment, and saving them from premature decay and death. 10. The adoption of an American monetary sj stem, as proposed herein, will harmonize all difference in regard to to tariff and Federal taxation, reduce and equalize the cost of transportation by land and water, distribute equitably the j >int earrings of capital and labor, secure to the producers of wealth the results of their labor and skill, muster out the vast army of idlers who, under the existing system, grow rich upon the earnings of oth ers, that every man and woman may, by their own efforts, secure a competence,so that overgrow n fortunes and extreme poverty Wi’l be seldom found within the limits of our republic. 11. Both National and State Governments should establish bureaus of labor and industrial statistics, clotlwd will, tho power of gathering and pnbliebing the same. 12. 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. 13. 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. Each resolution was received with applause, but vociferous and long-continued cheering greeted the first plank, which bears more directly on the finance question. The whole platform was Adopted without debate, and by a unanimous vote. The foltowing National Executive Committee was appointed: Massachusetts, Charles McLean : Rhode Island, J. C. Vallett; Connecticut, Alexander Tronp ; New York, Ralph Beaumont ; New Jersey, John J. Drew ; Pennsylvania, F. Dewees; Maryland, Jesse Gfmore . Virginia, Moses Stearns; West Virginia, John A. Thompson ; Ohio, D. B. Sturgeon; Michigan, Moses W. Field; Indiana, O. J. Smith ; Illinois, Alexander Campbell ; Wisconsin, Edward P. Allis; Nebraska, Allen Root; lowa, Daniel Campbell; Missouri, Britain A. Hill; Kentucky, P. L. D. Dnppy; Tennessee, Henry Richmond; Arkansas, Charles E. (.'tinningbain; Louisiana, D. Forney; Alabama, J. Woodall; Georgia, Daniel H. Pittman: Kansas, U. F. Sargent ; Texas, left vacant by request until the State Convention meets ; Colorado, Joseph Wolf ; Oregon, Thomas 8. Durant; California, left vacant for the present: .. . * A resolution was offered and unanimously adopted denouncing theßilveM>ill just passed in Congress as a dejusim, and indignantly condeuming it as a financial measure. The Hon. 8. F. Cary made'an eloquent fiveminute speech, in which he urged an active aggressive, forward movement; express! <1 hopes that the Silver-League in Washington would feel the moral pressure of this convention and constitution, and would break away from parties that have been binding them so firmly. Blanton Dur.can said he had advocated tli« name of National paarty thatihe name might indicate that it was a party of the whole Union, and that, while he had been a Confederate soldier, he was now a trues Union, man. He predicted that the countiy would at the next election be astdnPsticd at the strength of this party, which would become the first party instead of the third party, as it is now called. Other speeches were mMo by Hill of Missouri, Trevellick of Michigan, Emerson of Pennsylvania, Bane or Ilirnois, Selby of Kentucky, afid Beaumont of New York.