Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1876 — National, Democratic Convention. [ARTICLE]

National, Democratic Convention.

FIRST DAY. I The delegates to Use Democratic National assembled in the St. Loui* Chamber of Commerce, at noon on the 27th, and were called to order by Hou. Augustus Schell, of New York, Chairman ot the National Committee, who made a few remarks upon the purposes of the Convention. Henry Watterson, of Kentucky,wos chosen Temporary Chairman. His remarks on taking the chair were received with applatlie. Afterprayer by the Rev. Mr. Marvin, the Chair announced as Temporary Secretary Frederick O. Prince, of Massachusetts, with T. O. Walker, of lowa, and 8. K. Donovan, of Ohio, as Assistant Secretaries. Daniel Able, of Missouri, was appointed fiergeunt-at-Anns. The Committees on Credentials, Permanent Organization and Resolutions were apDelegates from the Woman’s National Suffrage Association being present and asking for a hearing, and no objection being made, Miss Pho?be W. Coznens, of St. Louis, took the platform and addressed the Convention in behalf of woman's suffrage, and concluded her remarks by presenting the resolutions of the National Association 1 Which she represented, -which resolution* were, on motion, referred, to the Committee on Resolutions for respectful consideration. Mr. 8. 8. Hayes, of Illinois, offered a series of resolutions on the currency question, which were referred to the Committee on — '

A recess was taken until five o’clock p. m. After reassembling at 5:20, the Committee on Credentials reported that there were no contested aeate, and that the States were fully represented. The report was amended so as to give the Territories and the District of Columbia representation in the Convention, witli the right to voto, and the report as amended, was adopted. The Committee on Permanent Organization made the following report, which was adopted: For Permanent President, John A. McOlernand, of Illinois; Vkc-Presidente and Secretaries, one from each State; continuing the Temporary Secretaries, with Mr, Prince, of Boston, as chief. Bergeant-at-Arms Able, was re-appointed.

Gen. McCleruund was then escorted to the chair, and returned thanks for the honor conferred upon him. The rules and regulations of the National Democratic Convention of 1872 were adopted for the government of the proceedings of this Convention. Mr. August Belmont, of New York, then addressed the Convention, and offered a series of resolutions, which, under the rules, were referred to the Committee on Resolutions. The Committee on Resolutions not being ready to report, a motion was made and carried to adjourn until eleven o’clock on the morning of the 28th. SECOND DAY. The Convention was opened with prayer on the morning of the 28th. Several resolutions were offered and referred to the Platform Committee, as was also the memorial of the Workingmen’s Central Union, expressing their views. Pending the consideration of a motion to proceed to ballot for candidates by calling the roll of States, announcement was made that the Committee on Resolutions were ready to report Mr. Meredith, Chairman of the Committee,, said they had agreed on the resolutions, but had referred them to a Committee of Revision. A recess was thqn taken until two o’clock p. m. During the recess speeches were made by Messrs. Doolittle, Breckenridge, Grate Brown and Wallace, of.Jfcnnsylvania. On reassembling the report of the Comtntttce on Resolutions Was read as follows: ' , 1. We. the delegates of the Democratic party of < the United States, in National Convention assetu-, bled, do hereby declare the Administration of the i Federal Government to be in urgent need of immediate reform, and we do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of this Convention and of the Democratic party in each State, a zealous effort and cooperation to this end, and do hereby appeal to oar fellow-citizens of every former political connection to undertake with us this first and most pressing patriotic duty.

x. For the Democracy of the whole country, we do here reaffirm our faith in the permanence of the Federal Union, our devotion to the .Constitution of the United States, with its amendments, universally accepted as a final settlement of the controversies that engendered civil war, and do here record our steadfast confidence In the perpetuity of republican self-government; in m abeo'ute acquiescence in the will of the majority, the vital principle of the Republic; ib the supremacy of the civil over the military authorities; the total separation of Church and State, for the sake alike of civil and religious freedom; in the equality of allcitirens before just laws of their own enactment; in the liberty of individual conduct nnvexed by sumptuary laws: in' the’ faithful education of the rising generation, that they may preserve, enjoy and transmit these best conditions of human happiness and hope—the noblest nn ducts of a hundred years of changeful history; but while upholding the bond of our Union and the great charter of' these our rights, it behooves a free people to practice, also, that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty. 3. Refopn is necessary to rebuild and establish in the hearts of the whole people of the Union, eleven years ago happily rescued from the danger of a secession of States, but now to be saved from a corrupt centralism, which, after inflicting npon ten States the rapacity of carpet-bag tyrannies, has honeycombed the offices of the Federal Government itself with incapacity, waste and fiaud, infected States and municipalities with the Contagion of misrule, and locked fast the prosperity of an industrious people in the paralysis of hard times. 4. Reform is necessary to establish a sound currency. restore the public credit and maintain the National honor. We denounce the failure of the Republican party for all these eleven years to make good the promise of the legal-tender notes, which are a changing, standard of value in the hands of the people, and the non-payment of which is a disregard of the plighted faith of the Nation. 5. We denounce the improvidence which in eleven years of peace has taken from the people in Federal taxes thirteen times the whole amount of the legal-tender notes and squandered four times

thl. iuni ia uceteM expenrejxlt , aecumutaUng any reverve for their redemptic of pe.ee, b». uuule no ad ™ " * -<«sexhiStl.. nJ ...ihUr ? J .nn’ * Jvdlclous system of preparation k 5 a? «h? afee. by official retrenrbmeut. and tow Nation ?wu to world! of It* perfect ability and , f adtueSH to meet any of its prouiiser t the creditor eatitled to payment. Wo xbauystoni, woll-duvlsod. and above all , • ,o competent hands for execution, creatlinH.r ••titne atlilklal scarcity ef.cnrnmqr, .»• Uwe Manning the public mind Into a *! ( xawal of that vaster machinery of credit by ch ninety-five per cent, of all business transfl 1 ' AooS are performed--a system open jo the pnb--11 A n«d Inspiring general confidence-would, Owns the day ot its adoption, bring healing on Its wings to all our haras-ed industries, set in motion the wheels of commerce, tnauafactnrto, and the mechanic arts, restore employment to labor and renew In all Its natural sonroe* the prosperity of the (K-opJe.

8. Reform is necessary In Um sum and mode of Federal taxation, to (he end that capital may be set free from distrust and labor lightly burdened. We denounce the present tariff levies Upon nearly 4.(100 articles as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality and false practice. It yield, a not a m rising, revenue. It has Impoverished many ries (o subsidize a few. 'lt prohibits Imports that might purchase the products of American labor. It has degraded American commerce from ’the lint to an inferior rank u|s>u the high seas. It has cut down the sales of American manufacture, at home and abroad, and depleted the returns of American agriculture, au industry followed by half our people. It costa the people five times more than it produces to the Treasury, obstructs the process of production, and wastes the fruits of labor, it promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest officials and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that all Cus-tom-House taxation shall be only for revenue. 9. Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense, Federal. State and municipal. Onr Federal taxation baa swollen from $60,000,000 in gold in 1860 to $450.0.10,000 in currency in 1870; our aggregate taxation from $154,000,000 in gold in 1860 to $730,000,000 In currency in 1870; or, in one decade from less than flve dollars per head to more than eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace, the people have paid to their tax-gatherers mote 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. 10. Reform Is necessary to put a stop to the profligate waste Of the public lands, and their diversion from actual settlers by the party in power, . which has squandered 200,000.009.0 f acres upon railroads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate has disposed of leas than a sixth directly to tillers of the soil. 11. Reform is necessary to correct the otnis- , sions of a Republican Congress and the errors of ohr treaties and our diplomacy, which have strip- ' ;>ed our fellow citizeus of foreign birth and kin<l red race, re-crossing the Atlantic, of the shield of American citizenship, and have exposed our brethren of the Pacific Coast to • the incursions of a race not sprung same great parent stnek. and, in faet. now lately denied citizenship through naturalization as being neither accustomed to the traditions of progressive civilization, nor exercised in liberty under equal laws. We denounce the policy w Meh thus discards the liberty-loving German, aud tolerates the revival of the Coolie trade in Mongolian women, imported for immoral purposes, aud Mongolian men, held to perform servile labor contracts, and demand such a modification of the treaty with the Chinese Empire, or such-legislation by Congress, within Constitutional limitations, as shall prevent the further importation or Immigration of the Mongolian face. 12. Reform is necessary, ;md can be effected only by making it the controlling issue of the elections, and lifting it above the two false iasuqg with which the office-holding class and the party in powyr seek to smother it; the false issues with which ' they would enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the public schools, of which the establishment and support belong exclusively to the several States, and which the Democratic party has cherished from their foundation, and is resolved to maintain without partiality or preference for any class, sect, or cfeed, and without contributions from the treasury to any; and the false issue-by which they seek to light anew the dying embers of sectional hate between kindred peoples, once unnaturally'estranged, but now reunited in one indivisible Republic and a common destiny. 13. Reform is necessary in the Civil Service. Experience proves that an efficient and economical conduct of the Governmental business is not possible If its Civil Service be subject to change at every election; it it be a prize fought for at the ballot-box; If it be a brief reward of party zeaL instead of a post 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 ail our public men nor the instrument of their ambition. Here, again, professions, falsified In the performance, attest that the party in power can work out no practical or salutary reform.

14. Reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the public service. The President, Vice-President, Judges, Senators, Representatives and Cabinet officers—these and all others in authority are the people's servants; their offices are not a private perquisite; they are a public trust When the annals of this Republic show the disgrace and censure of a Vice-President, a late Speaker of the House of Representatives, marketIpghis rulings as a presiding officer; three Senators profiting secretly by their votes as law-niak-ers; five Chairmen of the leading committees of the late House of Representatives exposed in jobbery; a late Secretary of the Treasury forcing balances in the public accounts; alate AttorneyGeneral misappropriating the public fnnds; a Secretary of the Navy enriched or enriching his friends by percentages levied off the profits of contractors with his department; an Ambassador to England censured In a dishonorable speculation; the President’s Private Secretart' barely escaping conviction upon his trial for guilty complicity in frauds upon the revenue: a Secretary of War Impeached for high crimes and confessed misdemeanors; the demonstration is complete that the first step in reform must be the people's choice of honest men from another party, lest the disease of one political organization infect the body politic, and lest, by making no change of men or party, we can get no change of measures and no reform. All these abuses, wrongs. «nd crimes, the product of sixteen year*’ ascendency o f the Republican party, create a necessity fo p reform conlessed by the Republicans themselves: but their reformers are voted down in convention, and displaced from the Cabinet. The party's mass of honest voters is powerless to resist the 80,000 officers, its leaders and guides. Reform can only be had by a peaceful civic revolution. We demand a change of system, a change of administration, a change of parties, that we may have a change of measures and of men. A Your committee hUte also had referred to them and recommend the adoption of the following resolution: Retolvrd. That this Convention, representing the llemncmtic party of the United States do cordially indorse the action of the present House of Representatives in reducing and curtailing the expenses of the Federal Government in cutting down salaries and extravagant appropriations, ana tn abolishing useless offices and places not required by the public necessity, and we shall trust to the firmness of the Democratic members of the House that no Committee of Conference and no misinterpretation of rules will be allowed'to defeat these wholesome measures of economy demanded by the country. Ruolttii, That the soldiers and sailors of the republic, and the widows and orphans of those who have fallen in battle, have a jpst claim upon the protection and gratitude of their fellow-j citizens. >

Gen. Ewing, of Ohio, then made a minority; report, signed by himself, Voorhees, of In-i diana; Brown, of Tennessee; Hoy, of Pennsylvania; Trumble, of Iowa; Davis, of West Virginia; Davis, of Kansas, and Hardee, of Missouri, which report was as follows: j The undersigned members of the committee recommend that the following clause in the reso-, lotions reported bv the committee be stricken oat: ssucnhlndfancewe th-nottm-v the.MMmptiOß danse of the act of 18.5. and we here demand its repeal." And they recommend that there be substunted for that clause the following: “The law for the resumption of specie payments on the Ist of January, 1879, having been enacted by the Republican party without deliberation in Congress or discassion before the people, and being noth’ ineffectual to secure its object and highly Injurious to the business of the country, ought to bo forthwith repealed." A lengthy discussion ensued on this report, amid* much confusion, when a motion to strike out tfie clause in the report of the ‘committee reading: *’As sudh hindrance We denounce the Resumption clause of the act of 1375, and we here demand its repeal,” was put and lost—yeas, 219; nays, 550. The roll was then called otf the question of the adoption of the majority report of the Committee on Resolutions, and the reStilt was announced as follows: Yeas 651, nays 88, and the platform was declared adopted. Candidates for the nomination for the Presidency were then named in the following order: Mr. Whitely, of Delaware, nominated Senator Thomas F. Bayard. Mr. Williams, of Indiana, nominated Gov. Thomas A. Hendricks.

sfi. of Now Jersey, nominated I Joel Parker. Senator Kernan, of New York, nominated Gov. Samuel J. Tttden. Mr. Tilden’s nomination was seconded by Vilonia, Texas and WismMtein. A 1 '’ Getu Ewiftfi, of Ohio, nominated «x-Gov. WTWInAIiW. Mr.Pymcr. of Pennsylvania, nominated (Gen. Winfield 8. Hancock, and was followed by Gen. Brtoit,, of Louisiana, in the lame behalf. The vote of tire States was then called for the first ballot, which resulted as follows: Tilden—Alabama,>B; Arkansas, 12; California, 12; . Connecticut, 12; Florida, 8; Georgia, 5; Illinois, 19; lowa, 14; Kentucky, 24; Louisiana, 9; Maine, 14; Maryland, 4; Massachusetts, 26; Michigan, 14; Minnesota, 10‘ MlMittWiß; IRnsourf, 2; Nebraska, 6; Nevada, 3; New Hampshire, 10; New "York, 70; North ’Carolina, 9; Oregon, 6; Rhode Island, 8; South Carolina, 14; Texas, (10X; Vermont, 10; Virginia, 17; Wisconsin, 10; Total, 403 - Hendrick*—Alabama, 5; Colorado, 6; ‘lllinois, 28; Indiana, 80; lowa, 6; Kansas, 10; Maryland, 8; Michigan, 8; Missouri, t (North Carolina, 4; Tennessee, 24; Texas, |2X; Virginia, 1; Wifieoneln, 1. Total, 130 - ; . Thurman—Nevada, 3. Hancock— Alabama, 2; Georgia, 1; lowa, 2; Louisiana, 5; Missouri, 19; North Carolina, 5; Pennsylvania, 58; Texas, 2. Total, *M.

Bayard—Delaware, 6; Georgia, 16; Louisiana, 2; Maryland, 2; North Carolina, 2; [Texas, 1; Virginia, 4. Total, 88. —-—i Allen—Missouri, 2; 0hi0,44; West Virginia, 10. Total, 56. Parker—New Jersey, 18. Changes were then" made in some of the votes, and the vote was declared as follows: Whole number of votes cast 738 Necessary to a choice 492 8. J. Tilden received 417t4 Thoms* J. Hendricks 140J4 Bayard 88 Allen ; 56 Hancock 75 Parker 18 A second ballot was then had, and resulted as follow*: Tilden, 508; Hendricks, 75; Hancock, 60; Allen, 54; Bayard, 11; Parker, 18; Thurman, 2. Mr. Tilden was then, on motion, declared the unanimous choice of the Convention and of the- Democratic party as candidate i for President ovthe United States. The Convention then adjourned-until-ten o’clock on the morning of the 29th. On the third day, Gov. T. A. Hendricks, of Indiana, wits nominated by acclamation ' for Vice-Preajrient.