1800-1880 POLITICAL PLATFORMS. FIRST AMERICAN PLATFORM. Preservation of the Constitution. Religious freedom. Political freedom. Equality. Rights not abridged on entering society. ADOPTED IN CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS, PHILADELPHIA, IN 1800, BY THE 1. An inviolable preservation of the federal Constitution, according to the true sense in which it was adopted by the States, that in which it was advocated by its friends, and not that which its enemies apprehended, who, therefore, became its enemies. 8. Freedom of religion, and opposition to all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another. 9. Freedom of speech and the press; and opposition, therefore, to all violations of the Constitution, to silence, by force, and not by reason, the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their public agents. EQUAL-RIGHTS PLATFORM. DEMOCRATIC EQUAL-RIGHTS PLATFORM, ADOPTED IN THE NEW YORK We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created free and equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that the true foundation of republican government is the equal rights of every citizen in his person and property, and in their management; that the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right; that the rightful power of all legislation is to declare and enforce Rights must not be only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us; that no man has the natural right infringed. to commit aggressions on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the law ought to restrain him; that every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society, and this is all the law should enforce upon him; that when the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions. Limitations of legislation. PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY. ADOPTED AT THE Democratic CONVENTIONS FROM 1840 TO 1856. Resolved, That the American democracy place their trust in the intelligence, the patriotism, and discriminating justice of the American people. Public opinion. Government limited to granted. That the federal government is one of limited power, derived solely from the Constitution, and powers the grants of power made therein ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the government, and that it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers. Principles of Jefferson That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned reaffirmed. in the Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the democratic faith. Resolved, That the foundation of this union of States having been laid in, and its prosperity, ex Foundation principles. founded on principles of religious lib erty. Government pansion, and pre-eminent example in free government built upon, entire freedom of matters of religious concernment, and no respect of persons in regard to rank or place of birth, no party can justly be deemed national, constitutional, or in accordance with American principles, which bases its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and accidental birthplace, and hence a political crusade in the nineteenth century, and in the United States of American, against Catholics and foreign-born, is neither justified by the past history or future prospects of the country, nor in unison with the spirit of toleration and enlightened freedom which peculiarly distinguishes the American system of popular government. Political crusades against any religion unamerican. Equality of all persons of all religions. LIBERAL REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CINCINNATI, MAY 1, 1872. 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. REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 5, 1872. Complete liberty and the exact equality in the enjoyment of all civil, political, and public rights should be established and effectually maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate State and federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration should aamit any discrimination in respect to citizens by reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude. No distinction of creed. Raster resolution. The republican party propose to respect the rights reserved by the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by them to the State and federal government. It disapproves of the resort to unconstitutional laws1 for the purpose of removing stitutional. evils by interfering with the rights not surrendered by the people to either the State or national govern ment. Sunday laws uncon 1 This resolution in the platform upon which President Grant was re-elected to the presidency was framed with direct reference, among other things, to Sunday laws which the Republican party denounced as unconstitutional, as is conclusively proved by a letter of the drafter of the resolution, Mr. Herman Raster, written thirty-four days afterward. In this letter, written from Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1872, and addressed to Mr. J. M. Miller, the writer states that one purpose he had in writing this resolution was the discountenancing" of all "Sunday laws," and this upon the ground of conserving "the rights of the people which had not been delegated to either national or State governments," among which he mentions "the right to look upon the day on which Christians have their prayer-meetings as any other day." This he gives as the true meaning and intent of the sixteenth resolution of the Philadelphia platform." 66 Nor has this resolution ever been supplaced or the idea repudiated by subsequent conventions. President Grant's utterance a little later, on the separation of religion and the state, only emphasizes this declaration of the national convention. In his address before the Army of the Tennessee, at Des Moines, Iowa, in 1875, he said: "Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contribution. Keep utterance. the church and state forever separate." Grant's famous For context and more extended quotation, see page 236. No distinctions on ac ious belief. DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT BALTIMORE, JULY 9, 1872. We recognize the equality of all men before the count of relig- 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. Separation of church and state. of Sunday laws, etc. NATIONAL LIBERAL PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CINCINNATI, SEPTEMBER 14, 1879. Total separation of church and state, to be guaranteed by amendment of the national Constitution; including the equitable taxation of church property, Abrogation secularization of the public schools, abrogation of Sabbatarian laws, abolition of chaplaincies, prohibition of public appropriations for religious purposes, and all measures necessary to the same general end. National protection for national citizens in their equal civil, political, and religious rights, to be guaranteed by amendment of the United States Constitution and afforded through the United States Court. Protection for all. Religious legislation un REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, JUNE 2, 1880. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make constitutional. any law respecting an establishment of religion; but it is idle to hope that the nation can be protected against the influences of sectarianism while each State is exposed to its domination. We, therefore, recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon the Legislature of each State, to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. |