Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1878 — THE NATIONAL PARTY. [ARTICLE]

THE NATIONAL PARTY.

Delegates to the Convention of the National party met at Toledo, on the 22d of February. A permanent organization was effected by electing Judge Francis W. Hughes, of Pennsylvania, as President, anna number of Vice-Presidents from different States. Ralph E. Hoyt, of Michigan; G. H. Jones, of New York, and G. W. Mnrphy, of lowa, were cnosen Secretaries. The following platform was adopted without debate and by a unanimous vote: Whereas, Throughout our entire country the value of real estate is depreciated, industry paralyzed, trade depressed, husinesa incomes and wages reduced, unparalleled distress inflicted upon the poorer and the middle ranks of our people, the land filled with fraud, embezzlement, bankruptcy, crime, suffering, pauperism ana stfti ration; and, Whereas, This state of things has been brought about by legislation in the interest of and dictated by money-lenders, bunkers and bondholders: ana, —rl- - While we recognize the fact that men in Congress, connected with both the old political parties, have stood up manfully for the rights of the people, nnd met the threats of the money power and the ridicule of an ignorant and subsidized press, yet neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties in their National policies propose remedies for the existing evils; and, Whereas, The Independent Greenback party and other Associations, more or less effective, have been unable heretofore to make a formidable opposition to the old party organizations; nnd

Whereas, The limiting of {the legal-tender quality of greenbacks, the changing of currency bonds into coin bonds, the demonetizing of the silver dollar, the exempting of bonds fiom taxation, the contraction of the circulating medium, the proposed forced resumption of specie payments, and the prodigal waste of tne public lands, were crimes against the people, and so far as possible the results of these criminal acts must be counteracted by judicious legislation; Therefore, We assemble in National Convention, and make a declaration of our principles, and invite all patriotic citizens to unite in an effort to secure financial reform and industrial emancipation. The organization shall be known as the " National Party." and under this name we will perfect without delay National, State and local associations, 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 is the exclusive function of the General Government to coin and create money and regulate its value. All bank issues designed to circulate as money should be suppressed. The circulating medium, whether of a metal or paper, should be issued by the Government, and made a full legal tender for all debts, duties and taxes in the United States at its stamped value. 2. There shall be no privileged class of credit. Official salaries, pehsions, bonds and all other debts and obligations, public and private, shall be discharged in the legal-tender money of the United States strictly according to the stipulations of the laws under which they were contracted. 3. The coinage of silver should lie placed on the same footing as that of gold. 4. Congress snail provide said money adequate to the full employment of labor, the equitable distribution of its products and the requirement of business, fixing, a minimum amount per co-pi tg to the population, as near 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. 6. It is inconsistent with the genius and spirit of popular government that any species of private property should be exempt from bearing its lust share of thefpublic burdens. Government bonds and money shonld be taxed precisely as other property, and a graduated income-tax should be levied for the support of the Governin' nt and the payment of its debts. 6. The public lands are the common property of the whole people, and should not be sold to spei ulators, nor granted to railroads or other corporations, but shonld be donated to actual settlers in limited quantities. 7. The Government shonld, by general enactment, 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 mo»t rigid economy enforced in every branch of the public service, and severe punishment inflicted upon officers who lietnty the trusts reposed in them. 9. As educated labor has devised means for multiplying production by inventions and discoveries. ana as their use requires the exercise of mind as well as body, such legislation should be had that the number of hours of daily toil will be reduced, giving to the working classes more leisure for mental improvement and social enjoyment, and saving them from premature decay and deatb. 10. The adoption of an American monetary system as proposed herein will harmonize an aiffcrCnoe in regard to tariff and Federal taxation, reduce ana equalize the oostof transportation by land and water, distribute equitably the joint earnings of capital and labor, secure to the producers of wealth the results of their labor and skill, muster out of service the vast army of idlera. who. under the existing system, grow rich upon the earnings of others, that every man and woman may, by their own efforts, secure a competence, so (hat overgrown fortunes and extreme seldom found within the limits 11. Both the National and Stkte Governments should establish bureaus of labor and industrial statistics, clothed with the power of gathering and publishing the same. 12. That the contract system of employing, labor in our prisons and reformatory institutions works great injustice to otir mechanics and artisans, and shonld 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, A National Executive Committee, to be composed of one member for, each State, was then ordered and appointed, the committee to have permission to fill vacancies which may occur in its membership. The committee is made up as follows; Massachnsetu, Charles McLean; Rhode Island. ( J, CTVallett; Connecticut, Al*xandqr sw^

New York. Ralph Beaumont; New Jersey. John J. Drew: Pennsylvania, F. Orwees; Maryland. Jem Gilmore; Virginia. Mo*es Stearns: West Viiginia. John A. Thompson; Ohio. D. B. fiturgmmt Michigan, Moms W. Field; Indian*. O. J. Smith: Illinois, Alexander Campbell-Wis-ciins.n, Edward P. Allis: Nebraska, Allen Root; lowa, Daniel (hmpb-11; Missouri, Brittan A. Hill; Kentucky, P. 1.. D. Guppy ; Tennessee. Henry Richmond; Arkansas.CharlesK.Cunningham: Isiuisiana, I). Forney; Alabama. J. K WishlkU; Georgia, Daniel H. Pittman; Kansas. U F. Sargent; Texas, left vacant by request until theHtate Convention meets; Colorado. Joseph Wolf; Oregon, Thomas J. Durant; California, left vacant for the present. Tlit* following resolution wan then unnnimoualy agreed to; Reeotnd, That, aa we lielieve in the supremacy (if the law over and above all perishable material. and the nenensity for a party of united people that will rise above old party lines and prejudices, we will not affiliate in anv uegrec with either of the old parties, hut in all cases snd localities will organize anew aa united National men, nominate for office or official position only such persons as are clearly believers in and identified with this our sacred cause, and, irrespective of creed, color, place of birth, or past conditions of political or other servitude, vote only for men who entirely nbandon old party lines and organization*. A resolution waa offered, and unanimously adopted, denouncing the Silver bill, just passed in Congress, as a delusion, and indignantly condemning it as a financial measure. After short speeches by Hon. S. F. Cary, Blanton Duncan and others, and the adoption of the usual resolutions of thanks and the Doxology, the Convention adjourned sine die.