recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon the Legislature of each State, and to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools.

5. We affirm 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; that we deem it the duty of Congress to develop and improve our sea-coast and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to private persons or corporations must cease; that the obligations of the Republic to the men who preserved its integrity in the day of battle are undiminished by the lapse of the fifteen years since their final victory, To do them honor is, and shall forever be, the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the American people.

6. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Congress of the United States and the treaty-making power, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as a matter of grave concernment, under the exercise of both these powers, would limit and restrict that immigration by the enactment of such just, humane and reasonable laws and treaties as will produce that result.

7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the earlier career of Rutherford B. Hayes, in peace and war, and which guided the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to him for a Presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as Chief Executive; and that history will accord to his administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his vetoes interposed between the people and attempted partisan laws.

8. 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 suffrage, and have devised fraudulent ballots and invented fraudulent certifications 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; have endeavored to occupy by force and fraud the places of trust given to others by the people of Maine, rescued by the courage and actions of Maine's patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, attached partisan legislation to appropriation bills, upon whose passage the very movement of the Government depended; have crushed the rights of the individual; have advocated the principles and sought the favor of the Rebellion against the Nation, and have endeavored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to overcome its inestimably valuable results of nationality, personal freedom and individual equality.

The equal, steady and complete enforcement of laws, and the protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and immunity guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first duties of the Nation. The dangers of a solid South can only be averted by a faithful performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the

citizen. The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South. Whatever promises the Nation makes the Nation must perform. A Nation cannot safely relegate this duty to the States. The solid South must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter must be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud. 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 that 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 so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there is now order, confidence and hope.

EDWARDS PIERREPONT, Chairman.

T. D. EDWARDS, Secretary.

The PRESIDENT. The question is on the adoption of the resolutions.

CIVIL SERVICE.

Mr. BARKER, of Massachusetts. I desire to move an amendment to the resolutions, by adding an additional resolution, which I will send to the Chair—a resolution touching the civil service.

The PRESIDENT. The gentleman from Massachusetts moves to amend the resolutions by adding the following:

"The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed by its last National Convention, of respect for the constitutional rules governing appointment to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, that the reform in the civil service shall be thorough, radical and complete. To that end it demands the co-operation of the Legislative with the Executive Departments of the Government, and that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service. That the tenure of administrative offices, except those through which the distinctive policy of the party in power is carried out, shall be made permanent during good behavior, and that the power of removal for cause, with due responsibility for the good conduct of subordinates, shall accompany the power of appointment."

Mr. BARKER. I have no desire, Mr. President, to delay this Convention in making an argument upon the position which the Republican party now

Mr. VAN HORN, of Missouri. Mr. President: I rise to a point of order..

The PRESIDENT. The gentleman from Missouri will state his point of order.

Mr. VAN HORN. Under the rules just adopted that resolution should go to the Committee on Resolutions without debate.

The PRESIDENT. The Chair overrules the point of order. It is an amendment to the report of the Committee.

A DELEGATE. I move to lay the resolution on the table. The PRESIDENT. The gentleman has not the floor for that purpose. Mr. BARKER. As I said, I have no desire to delay this Convention in order to argue this point. Every member of this Convention, every

member of the Republican party, every voter in these great United States, has his opinion upon the civil service. From the eminent man whom many of us desire to nominate, the man who introduced by his message as President a reform in the civil service, down to every man who is an humble voter, our minds are made up about that. But, sir, I take the position here-I take the position before the country-that it is not fitting for the Republican party, the party of principles in this country, to pass over, without mention, such a subject as this at this time. There have been four divisions, or periods, in the history of the civil service. One of these periods was under the administration of that great man whose portrait overlooks us [Washington], and of his successor, when the civil service needed no reform; for it had never been corrupted. The next was the period when the party whom we attack to-day brought that vicious principle into practice, that "To the victors belong the spoils." The. third period was the period when Gen. Grant, having saved this country by his military genius, sought also to save it by his statesmanship and his patriotism; and attempted, by his messages, by recommending the enforcement of civil-service reform, to save it in that direction; and he only was compelled to desist that because he was not supported in Congress. The fourth period is the period which was inaugurated in our last Convention; and at that time a plank was adopted which I ask that the Secretary may read-the fifth plank of the platform, under which we marched to victory four years ago. I ask that it may be read. It is on the fifty-sixth page of the proceedings of the last National Convention.

The Secretary read as follows:

"Under the Constitution, the President and heads of depart ments are to make nominations for office; the Senate is to advise and consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives is to accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the public service demands that these distinctions be respected; that Senators and Representatives who may be judges and accusers should not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule for appointments should have reference to the honesty, fidelity and capacity of appointees, giving to the party in power those places where harmony and vigor of administration require its policy to be represented; but permitting all others to be filled by persons selected with sole reference to the efficiency of the public service and the right of citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful service to their country.'

Mr. BARKER. Now, we mean, Mr. President, just what we say when we speak for Massachusetts in this Convention. The point in the civil service which needs amendment - the point practically where the reform has failed, if it has failed, though I deny that it has failed, is, that legislation is needed in Congress. From a Democratic Congress, to be sure, we have to ask for it; but let us demand it. That is the point And, sir, I cannot let this time pass without having an opportunity to record my vote in favor of this principle, and also of extending to every gentleman here an opportunity, if he shall so desire, so to record his vote. I, therefore, have moved this amendment.

Mr. FLANAGAN, of Texas. Mr. President: Texas has had quite enough of the civil service. During the last four years, sir, out of 1,400 officers appointed by the President of the United States, 140

represented the Republican party. We are not here, sir, for the purpose of providing offices for the Democracy. There is one plank in the Democratic party that I have ever admired, and that is, "To the victors belong the spoils." After we have won the race, as we will, we will give those who are entitled to positions office. What are we up here for? I mean that members of the Republican party are entitled to office, and if we are victorious we will have office. I, therefore, move to lay the amendment on the table.

The PRESIDENT. The Chair desires the gentleman from Texas to give his attention to the Chair.

A DELEGATE. I move to postpone the amendment.

The PRESIDENT. No motion can be made which will separate the amendment from the general subject before the Convention.

Mr. Houck, of Tennessee. Will it be in order to move to refer this resolution to the Committee on Resolutions?

The PRESIDENT. The Chair is of opinion that it would carry with it the whole pending subject.

Mr. Houck. Well, the sooner we get rid of it in some way the better. If it can be voted down, of course that will do.

Mr. CESSNA, of Pennsylvania. I move you, sir, that the whole platform; together with the amendment, be recommitted to the Committee on Resolutions, with instructions to report back the platform forthwith without the amendment.

Mr. CODMAN, of Massachusetts. Mr. President: The gentleman from Pennsylvania, if his motion pass, will not get out of the difficulty. For, sir, if the Committee report back the platform without the amendment proposed by my colleague, we shall, I hope, be here, and we shall propose it again. We want a vote on this subject, and I think we shall have it. We may not be numerous, or we may be, that advocate this resolution, but we shall have a vote on it.

I am impressed, Mr. President, with the good opinion which the gentleman from Texas entertains of his associates on this floor. He tells us that we have come up here to arrange for getting the offices. I protest, for one, against having come here for any such purpose. I thought I came here, and so did my colleagues, to help to nominate a man for President of the United States who would see, so far as he had anything to do with the offices, that the right men were put in the right places. I hope we will nominate here somebody who will not peddle out offices as a reward for services. I know this Convention is weary and desires to proceed to business. But let me tell my friend from Texas that if he thinks that the men of Massachusetts here will not have a vote on that proposition he is vastly mistaken.

Mr. CESSNA. I did not make my motion with any intention to deprive my friend from Massachusetts of a vote. He can get it upon my motion as readily as he can get it in any other way. And when he informs me that he will see that, when it comes back, we will have a vote-have it offered again, I simply reply that I made my motion for the purpose of ascertaining the sense of the Convention on that proposition, and if it is upon my side on this question, we will see if the previous question will bring us to a direct vote, and he will not have the pleasure of making it again. But if the Convention should be in favor of the proposition introduced by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Barker] they can so indicate it by voting down my motion. I opposed the motion, not on account of any feeling whatsoever, but for other reasons. We come here to our Convention for the purpose of gathering Republican views, and the Republican doctrine, and the Republican policy, from all the States and Territories of

this Union, and in order to accomplish that purpose and to promote unity and harmony, which are the foreleaders and harbingers of success, we select one gentleman from every delegation from every State and Territory in this Union as a Committee on Platform; and to that Committee we refer the difficult task of making that platform. I assume that they made it in good faith, that they deliberated and discussed all these questions with judgment and discretion, and that they-Massachusetts being represented there with the rest of the States-after due deliberation, being by themselves, embodied what was supposed to be good and necessary, and that they have brought out nothing upon which the whole party of this country is not united. And it is because I did not like to see any attempt to tamper with or interfere with the action of that Committee that I made the motion I did, because if we have a right to so act upon one subject, other members might do so upon other subjects. But, while I am on the floor (I did not intend to say a word if it had not been for the remarks of the gentleman from Massachusetts) I will go one step further. He knows, and I know, that the offices at Washington are half full of men who were placed there by the Democratic party of this country, when in power, and they are incrusted like rats in their holes, and we cannot get them out. They are full of rebels-rebel soldiers; some of them rebel officers; and I, for one, do not want this civil service to be put too strongly upon us until we are allowed to turn out the rebel brigadiers and rebel captains and put in Union soldiers. I simply want to get them out and make way for our onelegged and one-armed Union soldiers.

Mr. WARNER, of Alabama. I would not have offered this resolution, but it is here, and I suggest to the Republicans of the United States, in National Convention assembled, that we cannot, we ought not and we dare not to vote it down. I say I would not have offered it; but the suggestion of my friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Cessna] amounts to this-that when we get all our men in office we are ready to have civil service reform; and, if we are beaten four years hence, the Democratic party will say, when they turn all our men out and get all theirs in, they are in favor of civil-service reform. Now, I say I would not have offered this resolution, but it is here, and the Republican party of the country-the great body of good citizens who hold the balance of power and who will elect the next Presidentare in favor of it. I am in favor of it myself. A good deal of contumely has been thrown upon the civil-service rules because of their lax enforcement. The same might be said of the Ten Commandments. It has taken a good while to enforce the Ten Commandments. It will take a good while to get real civil-service reform in this country, but unless we begin we will never get it done. dent Hayes has done some good work. There is evidence enough here in this Convention that the work is not all done, and, if a vote is to be taken on this question, I would suggest to the Chair, in mercy to the civil service, that Federal officeholders be not required to vote.

Presi

Mr. CARTER, of Mississippi. I am in favor of the motion made by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Cessna] to re-commit the report to the Committee on Resolutions, not on the ground of civil service, but upon the ground that it sets forth, in the first few words, that the Republican party had made out of chattels, citizens. Sir, it is true that we were in chains of physical bondage when the procla mation was made by the immortal Lincoln, but we are still slaves. We are not free in the South. We come here to your city, and, when we visit this great Northwest, and look upon the manner in which