_Resolved_, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican
electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in the
discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite
in the following declarations:
_First_—That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has
fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and
perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes which called
it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more than
ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph.
_Second_—That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the
Declaration of Independence, and embodied in our federal Constitution,
is essential to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and
that the federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the Union
of the States must and shall be preserved.
_Third_—That to the Union of the States this nation owes its
unprecedented increase in population; its surprising development of
material resources; its rapid augmentation of wealth; its happiness
at home and its honor abroad, and we hold in abhorrence all schemes
for disunion, come from whatever source they may; and we congratulate
the country that no Republican member of Congress has uttered or
countenanced a threat of disunion, so often made by Democratic members
of Congress, without rebuke and with applause from their political
associates; and we denounce those threats of disunion, in case of a
popular overthrow of their ascendancy, as denying the vital principles
of a free government, and as an avowal of contemplated treason, which
it is the imperative duty of an indignant people strongly to rebuke and
forever silence.
_Fourth_—That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States,
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own
domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively,
is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and
endurance of our political faith depend, and we denounce the lawless
invasion by armed force of any state or territory, no matter under what
pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.
_Fifth_—That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded
our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the
exactions of a sectional interest, as is especially evident in its
desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton Constitution upon
the protesting people of Kansas—in construing the personal relation
between master and servant, to involve an unqualified property in
persons—in its attempted enforcement everywhere, on land and sea,
through the intervention of Congress and the federal courts, of the
extreme pretensions of a purely local interest, and in its general and
unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a confiding people.
_Sixth_—That the people justly view with alarm the reckless
extravagance which pervades every department of the federal government;
that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable
to arrest the system of plunder of the public treasury by favored
partisans; while the recent startling developments of fraud and
corruption at the federal metropolis show that an entire change of
administration is imperatively demanded.
_Seventh_—That the new dogma that the constitution of its own force
carries slavery into any or all 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.
_Eighth_—That the normal condition of all the territory of the United
States is that of freedom; that as our republican fathers, when
they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained
that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law, it becomes our duty, by legislation,
whenever legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of
the constitution against all attempts to violate it; and we deny
the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any
individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the
United States.
_Ninth_—That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave trade,
under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial
power, as a crime against humanity, a burning shame to our country and
age, and we call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient measures
for the total and final suppression of that execrable traffic.
_Tenth_—That in the recent vetoes by their federal governors of the
acts of the Legislature of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery
in those territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted
Democratic principle of non-intervention and popular sovereignty,
embodied in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and a denunciation of the
deception and fraud involved therein.
_Eleventh_—That Kansas should of right be immediately admitted as a
State under the constitution recently formed and adopted by her people,
and accepted by the House of Representatives.
_Twelfth_—That while providing revenue for the support of the general
government, by duties upon imposts, sound policy requires such an
adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the
industrial interest of the whole country, and we commend that policy
of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal wages,
to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an
adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the
nation commercial prosperity and independence.
_Thirteenth_—That we protest against any sale or alienation to others
of the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of
the free homestead policy, which regards the settlers as paupers or
supplicants for public bounty, and we demand the passage by Congress
of the complete and satisfactory homestead measure, which has already
passed the house.
_Fourteenth_—That the National Republican party is opposed to any
change in our naturalization laws, or any State legislation by which
the rights of citizenship, hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign
lands shall be abridged or impaired; and in favor of giving a full and
efficient protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether
native or naturalized, both at home or abroad.
_Fifteenth_—That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor
improvements of a national character, required for the accommodation
and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the
constitution, and justified by an obligation of the government to
protect the lives and property of its citizens.
_Sixteenth_—That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively
demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the federal
government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its
construction, and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail
should be promptly established.
_Seventeenth_—Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles
and views, we invite the co-operation of all citizens, however
differing on other questions, who substantially agree with us in their
affirmance and support.