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 office holders, its leaders and guides.

Reform can only be had by a peaceful civil revolution. We demand a change of system, a change of administration, a change of parties, that they may have a change of measures and of men."

The two remaining resolutions were simply commendatory of Congress for curtailing expenses, etc., and pledging the soldiers and sailors, and their families, the protection and gratitude of the people.

CONVENTION

OF JUNE 22ND, 1880, AT CINCINNATI THE PLATFORMS OF EIGHTY YEARS SHOW THE CONSISTENCY OF THE DEM OCRATIC PARTY-THE ONLY POINT OF DIFFERENCE BEING THE TREATMENT OF THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES.

THE Democrats of the United States, in Convention assembled, declare:

First. We pledge ourselves anew to the Constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teachings and examples of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots, and embodied in the platform of the last National Convention of the party.

Second. Opposition to centralization, and to that dangerous spirit of encroachment, which tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever form of government, a real despotism; no sumptuary laws; separation of the church and state for the good of each; common schools fostered and protected.

Third. Home rule; honest money, consisting of gold and silver, and paper convertible into coin on

demand; the strict maintainance of the public faith, state and national, and a tariff for revenue only; the subordination of the military to the civil power; and a general and thorough reform of the civil service.

Fourth. The right of a free ballot is a right preservative of all rights; and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States.

Fifth. The existing administration is the representative of a conspiracy only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops and deputy marshals, to intimidate and obstruct the elections, and the unprecedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power insults the people and imperils their institutions. We execrate the course of this administration in making places in the civil service a reward for political crimes, and demand a reform, by statute, which shall make it forever impossible for a defeated candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the people.

Sixth. The great fraud of 1876-77, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls was declared to be President, for the first time in American history; the will of the people was set aside under a threat of military violence, and a deadly blow was struck at our system of representative government. The Democratic party, to preserve the country from the horrors of civil war, submitted for the time, in

the firm and patriotic belief that the people would punish the crime in 1880. This issue precedes and dwarfs every other. It imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than ever addressed the consciences of a nation of freemen.

Seventh. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candidate for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his countrymen, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United States with deep sensibility; and they declare their confidence in his wisdom, patriotism, and integrity unshaken by the assaults of the common enemy; and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has chosen for himself, by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, who regard him as one who by elevating the standard of the public morality, and adorning. and purifying the public service, merits the lasting gratitude of his country and his party.

Eighth. Free ships, and a living chance for American commerce upon the seas; and on the land no discrimination in favor of transportation lines, corporations or monopolies.

Ninth. Amendments of the Burlingame treaty; no more Chinese immigration except for travel, education, and foreign commerce, and therein carefully guarded,

Tenth. Public money, and public credit for pub. lic purposes solely, and public lands for actual set tlers.

Eleventh. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorants and the

commune.

Twelfth. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and thrift of a Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expenditures ten millions of dollars a year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home and the national honor abroad; and above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the government as shall insure a genuine and lasting reform in every department of the public service."

Thus we have sketched the platforms of the Democratic party for a period of eighty years, in connection with the principles avowed by those eminent Democratic statesmen, who served in the office of President of the United States, before it was the rule to meet in Conventions and nominate candidates, and afterwards when nominations were taken out of the hands of a Congressional Caucus, and referred to a convention of delegates fresh from the people, who, in that capacity, have also declared their principles and purposes.

A perusal of these platforms demonstrates the fact, that the party has been consistent in its principles all the time through these one hundred or