.

has

failure, for all these eleven years of peace, to make good the promise of the legal-tender notes . . . . and the improvidence which taken . . . . in Federal taxes thirteen times the whole amount of the legal-tender notes, and squandered four times their sum. . . . The financial imbecility .. which . . . . has made no advance to

ward resumption.

We demand a judicious system of preparation

[for resumption]. . Reform is necessary in the sum and modes of Federal taxation. We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly four thousand articles, as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality and false pretense. . . . Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense. To put a stop to the profligate waste of public lands.

.

as shall

[As to] the

Even

To correct the omission of a Republican Congress, and the errors of our treaties. which have stripped our fellow-citizens of foreign birth of the shield of American citizenship . and demand such modifications of the treaty with the Chinese empire prevent further importation of the Mongolian race. false issue with which they [the Republicans] would enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the public schools. . . . [And] light anew the dying embers of sectional hate. . . . In the civil service. more, in the higher grades of the public service, President [etc.] . these and all others in authority are the people's servants. these abuses, wrongs and crimes, the product of sixteen years ascendency of the Republican party, create a necessity for reform, confessed by the Republicans themselves. . . Reform can only be had by a peaceful civic revolution. . . . Do cordially indorse the action of the present house the expenses of the Federal government. . .. have a just claim upon the care

. in reducing

The soldiers and sailors

of their fellow-citizens."

All

INDEPENDENT OR GREENBACK.

PLATFORM." Called into existence by the necessities of the people for financial reform and industrial emancipation. . . . Demand repeal of the Specie Resumption act. . . . A United States note . . 3.65 interest . . . . the best circulating medium ever devised. . . Paramount duty of the government . . . . the full development of all legitimate business.. .. Protest against any further issue of gold bonds for sale in foreign markets. . . . Against sale of bonds for purchasing silver to be used as a substitute for . . . . fractional currency. .

.

AMERICAN NATIONAL, OR ANTI-SECRET SOCIETY.

a perma

PLATFORM OF 1875: "Ours is a Christian and not a heathen nation. . . . God requires and man needs a Sabbath. . . . Prohibition . . . the true policy on the temperance question. . . . Charters of all secret lodges. . . . should be withdrawn. . . . Our amended Constitution should be preserved inviolate. . . . Arbitration. [between] nations is the most direct and sure method of securing nent peace. . . . The Bible should be associated with books of science and literature in all our educational institutions. . . . Land and other monopolies shall be discountenanced. . . . The government should furnish . . . an ample and sound currency and a return to specie payment. . . . Maintenance of the public credit, protection to all loyal citizens and justice to Indians are essential to the honor and safety of the Nation. . . . We demand the abolition of the electoral college. . . .'

PROHIBITION.

PLATFORM.-Substantially the same as in 1872, with some of the religious planks from the American National of 1875.

REPUBLICAN.-1881 TO 1885.

PLATFORM." The Republican party . . . . at the end of twenty years since the Federal government was first committed to its charge, submits . . . . its brief report. . . . It suppressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men. It reconstructed a union of the states with freedom, instead of slavery, as its corner-stone. It transformed four million of human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the infamous work of hunting fugitive slaves, and charged it to see that slavery does not exist. It has raised the value of our paper currency from thirty-eight per cent. to the par of gold. It has restored. . . . payment in coin and has given us a currency absolutely good. . . . Railways have increased from 31,000 miles in 1860 to more than 82,000 miles in 1879. Our foreign trade has increased from $700,000,000 to $1,150,000,000 . . . . and our exports, which were $20,000,000 less than our imports in 1860, were $264,000,000 more than our imports in 1879. Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of government . . . . the interest on the public debt . . annually over $30,000,000 for soldiers' pensions

$888,000,000 of the public debt, and by refund

.

.

inthan

ing the balance at lower rates has reduced the annual interest charge from nearly $151,000,000, to less than $89,000,000. All the industries . . revived, labor in demand, wages creased. . . . evidences of a coming prosperity greater. ever. . . . Upon this record. . . . asks for continued support and confidence. We affirm that the work of the last twenty years has been such as to commend itself to the favor of the Nation, and that the fruits of the costly victories . . . . should be preserved. The Constitution. a supreme law, not a mere contract . . . . the boundary between the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the national, and not by the state tribunals. It is the duty of the national government to aid that work [education by the state] to the extent of its constitutional ability. . . . That the Constitution be so amended as to forbid the appropriation of

.

public funds to the support of sectarian schools [by any state]. . . The duties. . . . for revenue should be so discriminated as to favor American labor. no further [land] grant to any railway or other corporation . . the twin barbarity, polygamy, must die . everywhere protection

.

to

to citizens. . . . The duty improve water courses and harbors. . . To do them, who preserved the republic in the day of battle, perpetual honor, is . . . the . . . sacred duty of the American people. . . . The unrestricted immigration of the Chinese . . . an evil of great magnitude. . . The purity and patriotism of . . . . [President] Hayes . [his] efficient, just and courteous discharge of the public business. ... We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and patronage [here follows a lengthy arraignment of that party]. The reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical and complete."

DEMOCRATIC.

PLATFORM.-"We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Democratic party the platform of the last national convention.

embodied in Opposition to cen

separation of Church

and state. . . . common schools fostered and protected. Home rule

. . . honest money tenance of public faith

nation of the military to the civil power, and a general and thorough reform of the civil service. The right to a free ballot is a right pre