George Washington Platt

“ Protection and reciprocity are both twin measures of Republican policy and go hand in hand. Democratic rule has recklessly struck down both, and both must be re-established. Protection for what we produce; free admission for the necessaries of life which we do not produce; reciprocity agreements of mutual interests which gain open markets for us in return for our open market to others. Protection builds up domestic industry and trade, and secures our own market for ourselves; reciprocity builds up foreign trade, and finds an outlet for our surplus. ”

“ We hold that the constitution follows the flag, and denounce the doctrine that an executive or Congress, deriving their existence and their powers from the constitution, can exercise lawful authority beyond it, or in violation of it.
We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home. ”

“ Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States; and that, laying aside all differences of political opinion, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated by a common sentiment and aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power to aid the government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. ”

“ CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM. The men who abandoned the Republican Party in 1884, and continue to adhere to the Democratic Party have deserted not only the cause of honest government, of sound finance, of freedom, of purity of the ballot, but especially have deserted the cause of reform in the civil service. We will not fail to keep our pledges because they have broken theirs, or because their candidate has broken his. ”

“ We reaffirm the belief avowed in 1876, that the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor American labor; that no further grants of the public domain should be made to any railway or other corporation; that slavery having perished in the states, its twin barbarity—polygamy—must die in the territories; that everywhere the protection accorded to a citizen of American birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption ”

“ No blow has been struck except for liberty and humanity, and none will be. We will perform without fear every national and international obligation. The Republican Party was dedicated to freedom forty-four years ago. It has been the party of liberty and emancipation from that hour, not of profession, but of performance. It broke the shackles of 4,000,000 of slaves and made them free, and to the party of Lincoln has come another supreme opportunity which it has bravely met in the liberation of 10,000,000 of the human family from the yoke of imperialism. ”

“ That we recognize the great principles laid down in the immortal Declaration of Independence as the true foundation of democratic government; and we hail with gladness every effort toward making these principles a living reality on every inch of American soil.
Nominations now being in order, John A. Logan, in a few words remarkable for their force and beauty, nominated Ulysses S. Grant for President. After the enthusiasm had abated the roll of the States was called, and the unanimous vote of the delegates, 650 in number, was given to Gen. Grant, and the audience went wild with delight. ”

“ PROTECTION POLICY REAFFIRMED. We renew our faith in the policy of protection to American labor. In that policy our industries have been established, diversified, and maintained. By protecting the home market, competition has been stimulated and production cheapened. Opportunity to the inventive genius of our people has been secured and wages in every department of labor maintained at high rates—higher now than ever before, and always distinguishing our working people in their better conditions of life from those of any competing country. ”

“ We are in favor of extending the republic's influence among the nations, but believe that influence should be extended, not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable example.
The importance of other questions now pending before the American people is in no wise diminished, and the Democratic party takes no backward step from its position on them, but the burning issue of imperialism growing out of the Spanish war involves the very existence of the republic and the destruction of our free institutions. We regard it as the paramount issue of the campaign. ”

“ We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose valor saved the Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt of the nation, and the widows and orphans of those who died for their country are entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people. We favor such additional legislation as will extend the bounty of the government to all our soldiers and sailors who were honorably discharged, and who in the line of duty became disabled, without regard to the length of service or the cause of such discharge. ”

“ And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican Party to use all legitimate means to restore all the states of this Union to the most perfect harmony which may be possible, and we submit to the practical, sensible people of these United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country at this time to surrender the administration of the national government to a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy under which we are now so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there is now order, confidence and hope. ”

“ CONCLUDING PLEA TO THE PEOPLE. Believing that our most cherished institutions are in great peril, that the very existence of our constitutional republic is at stake, and that the decision now to be rendered will determine whether or not our children are to enjoy those blessed privileges of free government which have made the United States great, prosperous, and honored, we earnestly ask for the foregoing declaration of principles the hearty support of the liberty-loving American people, regardless of previous party affiliations. ”

“ That the new dogma—that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States—is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provisions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition, and with legislative and judicial precedent; is revolutionary in its tendency and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country. ”

“ We are not opposed to territorial expansion when it takes in desirable territory which can be erected into states in the Union and whose people are willing and fit to become American citizens.
We favor trade expansion by every peaceful and legitimate means. But we are unalterably opposed to the seizing or purchasing of distant islands to be governed outside the constitution and whose people can never become citizens. ”

“ Against the so-called economic system of the Democratic party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard, we enter our earnest protest.
The Democratic Party has failed completely to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary taxation, by a wise reduction of the surplus.
The Republican Party pledges itself to correct the inequalities of the tariff and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate process of horizontal reduction, but by such methods as will relieve the tax-payer without injuring the laborer or the great productive interests of the country. ”

“ We charge upon the Democratic Party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and patronage; that to obtain possession of the national government and control of the place, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of the sufferage, and have devised fraudulent ballots and invented fraudulent certification of returns; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Congress, to secure at all hazards the vote of a majority of the states in the House of Representatives ”

“ FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND SPEECH. The ultimate reliance of free popular government is the intelligence of the people and the maintenance of freedom among all men. We therefore declare anew our devotion to liberty of thought and conscience, of speech and press, and approve all agencies and instrumentalities which contribute to the education of the children of the land; but while insisting upon the fullest measure of religious liberty, we are opposed to any union of church and state. ”

“ We denounce the fraud and violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern States, by which the will of a voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free institutions; and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the guilty recipient of the fruits of such fraud and violence. ”

“ Thomas Jefferson was the most urgent against slavery of all the founders of the nation. His statesmanship foresaw the evils negro slavery would bring upon the nation's social and political development, and his nature was stirred by the great moral wrong. Long before the Declaration of Independence he worked untiringly in Virginia to bring about a sentiment against the slave trade, and his efforts met with success. ”

“ The Republican Party having its birth in a hatred of slave labor and a desire that all men may be true and equal, is unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in competition with any form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. In this spirit spirit we denounce the importation of contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as an offense against the spirit of American institutions; and we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law restricting Chinese immigration, and to provide such further legislation as is necessary to carry out its purposes. ”

“ We profoundly deplore the untimely and tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the accession of the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, who has acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the cause he was pledged to support; who has usurped high legislative and judicial functions; who has refused to execute the laws; who has used his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the laws; who has employed his executive powers to render insecure the property, the peace, the liberty and life of the citizen ”

“ TRUSTS. We recognize the necessity and propriety of the honest co-operation of capital to meet new business conditions, and especially to extend our rapidly increasing foreign trade; but we condemn all conspiracies and combinations intended to restrict business, to create monopolies, to limit production, or to control prices, and favor such legislation as will effectively restrain and prevent all such abuses, protect and promote competition, and secure the rights of producers, laborers, and all who are engaged in industry and commerce. ”

“ In the spirit of those great leaders, and of our own devotion to human liberty, and with that hostility to all forms of despotism and oppression which is the fundamental idea of the Republican Party, we send fraternal congratulations to our fellow-Americans of Brazil upon their great act of emancipation, which completed the abolition of slavery throughout the two American continents. We earnestly hope that we may soon congratulate our fellow-citizens of Irish birth upon the peaceful recovery of home rule for Ireland. ”

“ The largest diversity of industry is most productive of general prosperity, and of the comfort and independence of the people.
We therefore demand that the imposition of duties on foreign imports shall be made, "not for revenue only," but that in raising the requisite revenues for the government such duties shall be so levied as to afford security to our diversified industries and protection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that active and intelligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring man his full share in the national prosperity. ”

“ FREEDOM OF THE BALLOT. We demand that every citizen of the United States shall be allowed to cast one free and unrestricted ballot in all public elections, and that such ballot shall be counted and returned as cast; that such laws shall be enacted and enforced as will secure to every citizen, be he rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or black, this sovereign right, guaranteed by the Constitution. ”

“ It has involved the republic in unnecessary war, sacrificed the lives of many of our noblest sons, and placed the United States, previously known and applauded throughout the world as the champion of freedom, in the false and un-American position of crushing with military force the efforts of our former allies to achieve liberty and self-government. The Filipinos cannot become citizens without endangering our civilization; they cannot become subjects without imperiling our form of government, and we are not willing to surrender our civilization or to convert the republic into an empire ”

“ How slavery became established in the United States, how it dominated the first attempts of the Colonies to organize a strong Federal Government, and how, after a series of compromises, seeking to settle a question which could only be settled by its abolition, it resulted in the organization of a great opposition political party, the first success of which was followed by the bloodiest civil war in all history, will now be the direct subject of our inquiry. ”