DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

The Democratic party, in National Convention assembled, reposing its trust in the intelligence, patriotism, and discriminating justice of the people, standing upon the Constitution as the foundation and limitation of the powers of the Government and the guarantee of the liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the questions of slavery and secession as having been settled for all time to come by the war or the voluntary action of the Southern States in Constitutional Conventions assembled, and never to be revived or re-agitated, do, with the return of peace, demand:

1. The immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the Union under the Constitution of the civil Government and the American people.

2. Amnesty for all past political offenses; the regulation of the elective franchise in the States by their citizens.

3. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable, all money drawn from the people by taxation, except so much as is requisite for the necessities of the Government economically administered being honestly applied to such payment, and where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon their face or the law under which they were issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States.

4. Equal taxation of every species of property according to the value; reducing Government bonds and other public securities.

5. One currency for the Government and the people, the laborer and the office-holder, pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder.

6. Economy in the administration of the Government; the reduction of the standing army and navy; the abolition of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy; simplification of the system and discontinuance of inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue, that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened, and the credit of the Government and the currency made good; the repeal of all enactments for enrolling the State militia into a national force in time of peace; and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports and such equal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manufactures as well, without impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the country.

7. Reform of abuses in the Administration; the expulsion of corrupt men from office; the abrogation of useless offices; the restoration of the rightful authority to and the independence of the Executive and Judicial Departments of the Government; the subordination of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpation of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease.

8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native born citizens at home and abroad; the assertion of American nationality, which will command the respect of foreign powers, furnish an example and encouragement to people struggling for national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights; and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance and the claims of foreign powers to punish them for alleged crimes committed beyond their jurisdiction. In demanding these measures and reforms, we arraign the radical party for its disregard of right and the unparalleled oppression and tyranny which have marked its career, after the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the Government and the preservation of the Union under the Constitution. It has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under which was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to victory. Instead of restoring the Union it has, so far as it is in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States in time of peace to military despotism and negro supremacy. It has nullified there the right of trial by jury; it has abolished the writ of habeas corpus, that most sacred writ of liberty; it has overthrown the freedom of speech and of the press; it has substituted arbitrary seizures and arrests, military trials, secret star chambers and inquisitions for constitutional tribunals; it has disregarded, in time of peace, the right of the people to be free from search and seizure; it has entered the post-office and telegraph office, and even the private rooms of individuals and seized there their private papers and letters, without any specification or notice of affidavit, as required by the organic law. It has converted the American Capitol into a bastile; it has established a system of spies and official espionage to which the constitutional monarchies of Europe never dare to resort. It has abolished the right of appeal on important constitutional questions to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatens to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested by the Constitution; while the learned Chief Justice has been subjected to the most atrocious calumnies merely because he would not prostitute his high office to the support of the false and partisan charges against the President. Its corruption and extravagance have exceeded any thing known in history, and by its frauds and monopolies it has nearly doubled the burden of the debt created during the war. It has stripped the President of his Constitutional power of appointment even of his own Cabinet. Under its repeated assaults the pillars of the Government are rocking to their base; and should it succeed in November next, and inaugurate its President, we will meet as a subjected and conquered people amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of the Constitution; and we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the United States threw off all subjection to the British crown, the privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, and have been granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the political power of each State respectively, and any attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this right, or interfere with this exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power which can find no warrant in the Constitution, and if sanctioned by the people will subvert our form of Government, and can only end in a single, centralized and consolidated Government, in which the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, and an unqualified despotism then be established in place of a Federal Union of coequal States, and that we regard the reconstruction acts so-called of Congress such usurpations and unconstitutional, revolutionary and void: that our soldiers and sailors who carried the flag of our country to victory against a most gallant and determined foe must ever be gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favor must be faithfully carried into execution; that the public lands should be distributed widely among the people and should be disposed of either under the preëmption of the homestead lands and sold in reasonable quantities, and to none but actual occupants, at the price established by the Government. When the grants of the public lands may be allowed necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be so applied; that the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, exercising the power of his high office in resisting the aggressions of Congress on the constitutional rights of the States and the people, is entitled to the gratitude of the whole American people, and on behalf of the Democratic party, we tender him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that regard.

Upon this platform the Democratic party appeal to every patriot, including all the conservative element, and all who desire to support the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past differences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle for the liberties of the people; and that to all such, to whatever party they may have heretofore belonged, we extend the right hand of fellowship, and hail all such coöperating with us as friends and brothers.