USA > Iowa > Hardin County > History of Hardin county, Iowa, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 22
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6. The early revision of the State constitu- tion, so as to free it from those features which render it justly obnoxious to the people.
7. The amendment of our banking laws so as to throw reasonable restrictions upon the operations of the banks, and to secure the peo- ple against the frauds and swindling which, un- der existing laws, enacted by Republican legis- lators, in the interests of the banks, may be practiced by bank officers, of which the system has already furnished its fruits in two important cases.
8. That we are in favor of removing the stocks or other securities, pledged for the prompt redemption of the issues of the banks, from the the custody and control of the State Bank to the custody of the Treasurer of the State.
9. The increase of these securities to such an extent as will furnish ample protection to the people in using the issue of the banks, which is imperatively demanded as the officers of the State Bank themselves admit that at the present time there is no real security for the redemption of the notes of the banks.
10. The entire separation of the finances of the State from the banks, and a repeal of all laws authorizing either State or county officers to deposit public money with the branches of the State Bank, save at their own risk.
Resolved, further, That the Democratic party is opposed to any and all attempts to create an enormous State debt, in violation of the consti- tution, for the purpose of promoting the schemes of plunder, of railroads or other speculators.
2. That the system inaugurated by the Re- publican party of erecting unnecessary and use- less offices for the purpose of providing for the politically lame, halt or blind, and that we hold the revenues of the Government should be ap- plied strictly and economically to the legitimate wants of the Government.
3. That while we are in favor of fostering popular education, until the means of liberal education be placed within the reach of every child in the State; that while we are in favor of providing liberally and justly for all the benev olent institutions of the State, and for all classes
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of the unfortunate, which humanity demands shall be protected and cared for, -- we are op- posed to enormous appropriations of public money for uncalled for purposes, or placing large sums of money in the hands of men, poli- ticians or unscrupulous persons, to be wasted in promoting private and political interests, instead of applying the same to the purpose for which the appropriations were made.
For Secretary of State the official vote was as follows :
Elijah Sells, Rep. . 70,706-13,670 J. M. Corse, Dem. .57,036
When the campaign of 1861 was inau- gurated the war for the Union was in progress. The Republicans met in con- vention, and placed in nomination Samuel J. Kirkwood for Governor; John R. Needham, for Lieutenant-Governor; Ralph P. Lowe, for Supreme Judge. The fol- lowing platform was adopted:
1. Renewing our declarations of unalterable devotion to the constitution and Union of the States, to the doctrine of the Declaration of In- dependence, and to the law of submission to the will of the majority, constitutionally expressed, we again commend each and all of these corner- stones of our government to the unchanging affection of the people of Iowa.
2. That this convention, in behalf of its own immediate constituency, of all patriotic citizens, acknowledges, with profound gratitude, the prompt dedication of life and fortune by our gallant volunteers, in response to the appeal made to a loyal people by a patriotic President, and in this action, creditable alike to the admin- istration and to the people, we witness a return of the noble spirit of the revolution.
3. That the new doctrine of secession is a wicked abomination, as abhorrent to patriotism, as it is alien to the constitution, demoralizing in its principle, and destructive in its action, a dis- guise to treason, and an apology for traitors, the ruin of commerce, and the dissolution of politica! society, the mother of all political crimes and the
sum of all villainies, and as such we utterly re- ject and hold it in absolute detestation .
4. That government always means coercion when its lawful authority is resisted, and those who oppose " coercion," necessarily oppose gov- ernment itself, and deny to it the o: ly power by which it can be maintained. Anti-coercion, therefore, is only another of their disguises of treason, by which they hope so to weaken the government at present as to overthrow it in the future, and we brand it as hypocrisy and repu- diate it.
5. Having, by our first war of 1776, won our independence and established our glorious con- stitution and Union, and having, by our second war of 1812, maintained our national integrity against the :nost formidable of foreign foes, it now remains for us to establish that integrity for all years to come against internal foes, and in this third and last great trial of our country's history, in its struggle to maintain that system of government which has been the admiration of the world, whoever hesitates or falters should receive the execration of mankind, as he surely will the reproaches of posterity.
6. The value of the constitution and the Union cannot be measured by dollars and cents, nor by the span of a human life, and there should be no limit to appropriations of men and money for their preservation, except the amount requi- site for certain success. We therefore cordially approve both the action of the President in call- ing for men and money, and the action of Con- gress in placing at his disposal more of both than he demanded, thus giving assurance to the world of the unalterable determination of this government to perpetuate its existence as estab- lished by our fathers, to crush out the foulest rebellion known to history, and liberate the loyal people of the rebellious States from the odious despotism and terrorism which have wrenched from them the blessings of peace and prosperity in the Union of the States, and we demand the prosecution of the war until the insults to our national flag and authority are avenged by the restoration everywhere of law and order, and the supremacy acknowledged on its own terms.
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7. In the State affairs we demand all the economy consistent with the public safety, and all the liberality required for the comfort and efficiency of our volunteers, and for the protec- tion of the State against invasion. To that end we approve the action of the General Assembly, at its special session, in making appropriations for war purposes.
8. We heartily invite co-operation with us of men of all parties, whatever their former politi- cal ties, who adhere to these sentiments, and who unite in the patriotic support of the present loyal administration of the government.
The Democrats nominated William H. Merritt for Governor; Maturia L Fisher, for Lieut .- Governor; James L. Elwood, for Supreme Judge. Their platform was as follows:
The people of the State of Iowa who regard the constitution of tl:e United States in its judi- cial relation to the States and people as inter- preted by the Supreme Court, and its political principles as enunciated from time to time by the Democratic party, and as applied by several successive administrations in carrying on the government of the United States, being assem- bled by their delegates in convention, in the Capitol at DesMoines, on the 24tl: day of July, 1861, do make and proclaim to their fellow citi- zens of the sister States of the Union, the follow- ing declaration:
WHEREAS, In the vicissitudes which are inci- dent t : all governments, to human safety, and to civiliza ion, the government and the people of the United States have become involved in a civil war, which threatens alike to be disastrous to the form of government which experience has proved to be the most conducive to the happi- ness of mankind, and to result in imposing upon the present and future generations onerous burdens, which it should be the duty of a gov- ernment having any regard for the well being of the people to avoid, it becomes the incumbent duty upon the people for whose benefit alone government is instituted, and who, having the right to either alter or abolish it when it ccases
to be administered for their happiness and pros- perity, have also the right to determine and direct how it shall be administered when they find it departing from the principles upon which it was founded, and to be precipitating into waste and ruin the fabric of civil society, instead of preserving the people in peace, promoting their prosperity, and securing their rights. Viewing, therefore, dispassionately, the present condition of our distracted country, and with the single purpose of making an effort to avert impending and other threatened calamities, and of restoring peace, founded upon that fraternal patriotism which gave birth to the American Union, and which preserved its integrity till the election of a President upon a principle which was hostile to the constitution of the United States and antagonistic to the vested right of the people of nearly half the States of the Union, do declare-
1. That we regard the present condition of the country, the civil war in which the people are engaged, the effort to dismember the Union and all the concomitant evils which afflict us as a nation, as the legitimate result of the success- ful teaching of the doctrine and policy of the "irrepressible conflict;" a doctrine and a policy which arrayed northern sentiment in antagonism to the constitutional rights of the people of the slave States, and which proclaim an "irrepres- sible" and unceasing hostility to the domestic institutions of our brethren of the South.
2. That, notwithstanding the provocation given to the people of the South by the mani- festation of hostility toward their institutions, by a majority of the people of the North, we unequivocally condemn the course they have pursued to obtain a redress of their grievances, believing, as we do, that, aided by the conserva- tive people of the Northern States, their griev- ances would have been redressed, and their rights and interests respected and secured in a constitutional manner and by constitutional . means.
3. That we are heartily opposed to the doc- trine of secession, a political heresy, unwar- ranted by the constitution, detrimental to the
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best interests of the whole country, and destruc- tive of the Union and that glorious heritage of liberty bequeathed to us by our fathers.
4. That our obligations to the government, the duty we owe to posterity and the advance- ment of political freedom throughout the world, alike, command of us the preservation and per- petuity of our federal Union, and we hereby pledge the whole power of the Democratic party to every just and constitutional means to main- tain the same, whether its destruction be at- tempted by the insidious teachings of the higher law doctrine of the Abolition Republican party, or by the open attacks of men in armed rebellion against it.
5. That, as we were taught and admonished by tbe experience of every free people whose political existence was extinguished by the assumption of arbitrary power and the violation of fundamental principles, to resist the encroach- ment of executive prerogatives, we therefore emphatically and unequivocally condemn the assumption of unauthorized power by the Ex- ecutive of the United States, or by any other officers of the government.
6. That our Union was formed in peace, and can never be perpetuated by force of arms, and that a republican government held together by the sword becomes a military despotism.
7. That the Democratic party are in favor of a convention of the different States of the entire Union, as soon as the same can be properly had, for such legislation as may secure equal and full rights to all sections of this Union, and a full representation of all the States, and a removal of the agitation of the question of slavery from the halls of Congress and the States of the Union.
8. That we repudiate the modern heresy that the States of this confederacy never had an independent existence distinct from the federal government, and are indebted for their present position in the Union to that government, as a gross insult to the common sense of the country, and a shameless falsification of historical facts, unworthy of the source from whence it emin- ated, and unless promptly met with a stern re-
buke on the part of the people, fraught with consequences fatal to the liberties of the country,
9. That we are irreconcilably opposed to all paper money banking, as being a system of legalized swindling, to be indulged in only by the designing capitalist, and are opposed to every species of paper, except commercial pa- per, for the transaction of business and trade, and in favor of a speedy return to a specie cur- rency; and, if for a time we must submit to the banking system, we recommend that the bank law be so amended as to make each stockholder individually liable (to the fill extent of his property not exempt from execution) for the debts of the bank, and to subject their corpora- tions to such restraints as to make them amen- able to law.
10. That we are opposed to a tariff of duties upon imports, for the purpose of protection, as creating monopolies, and that, in the present crisis of affairs, when the laborer is poorly paid and the products of agriculture are almost worthless, it is the interest of the people that the present burdens imposed upon these articles which enter into the consumption of the poorer classes of our citizens be at once removed.
The official vote for Governor was as follows:
S. J. Kirkwook, Rep .59,853 - 16,608 William H. Merritt, Dem. 43,245
The Democratic convention was held at the Capitol in 1862, and the following ticket nominated: Secretary of State, Richard H. Sylvester; Auditor, John Browne; Treasurer, Samuel H. Lorab; Attorney-General, Benton J. Hall; Regis- ter of Land Office, Fred. Gottschalk. The following is the platform adopted:
1. That the constitution and the Union and the laws must be preserved and maintained in all their rightful supremacy, and that rebellion against them must be suppressed and put down; and that we are in favor of the employment of all constitutional means for that purpose, not merely by force of arms, but by such other
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measures as common sense, reason and patriot- ism will readily suggest to the governing powers.
2. That the true interests of the country, as well as the dictates of humanity, require no more war or acts of war should be prosecuted or done than are necessary and proper for the prompt and complete suppression of the rebel- lion.
3. That the present war, as avowed by the President and Congress, and understood by the people, was commenced and prosecuted for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion, and pre- serving and vindicating the constitution of the Union and the laws, and for that purpose only.
4. That the doctrines of the secessionists and of the abolitionists, as the latter are now repre- sented in Congress, are alike false to the consti- tution and irreconcilable with the unity and peace of the country, the first have already involved us in a cruel civil war, and the others (the abolitionists) will leave the country but little hope of the speedy restoration of Union or peace, unless the schemes of confiscation, eman . cipation, and other unconstitutional measures, which have been lately carricd and attempted to be carried through Congress, be revoked by the people.
5. That the doctrine of State necessity is unknown to our government or laws, but the constitution and the laws are sufficient for any emergency, and that the suppression of the free- dom of speech and the press, and the unlawful arrest of citizens, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, in violation of the constitution in States where the civil authorities arc unim- pedcd, is most dangerous to civil liberty, and should be resisted at the ballot-box by every freeman of the land.
6. That this is a government of white men, and was established exclusively for the white race; that the negroes are not entitled to and ought not to be admitted to political or social equality with the white race, but that it is our duty to treat them with kindness and considera- tion, as an inferior and dependent race; that the right of the several States to determine the position and duties of the race is a sovereign
right, and the pledges of the constitution require us, as loyal citizens, not to interfere therewith. That the party fanaticism or the crime, which- ever it may be called, that secks to turn the slaves of the Southern States loose to overrun the North, and into competition with the white laboring classes, thus degrading their manhood by placing them on an equality with negroes in their occupation, is insulting to our race and meets our emphatic and unqualified condemna- tion.
7. That the purchase of the slaves by the government, as proposed by the President, will impose an enormous and unendurable burden upon the present generation, and entail upon posterity grievous exactions.
8. That Congress, in the enactment of the late tariff and tax bills, and the President by his avowal, have imposed unfair and unjust enact- ments upon the people at large, by discriminat- ing in these acts in favor of the comparatively wealthy, and against those who are least able to bear the burdens of taxation.
9. That we recur with patriotic pride to the bravery and valor of the officers and soldiers of all the Iowa regiments exhibited in the struggle upon the many bloody fields in which they have been engaged; and that this convention, in be- half of the Democracy of this State, tenders to them a united testimony to their valor, and devotion to the constitution and the Union, and offer to the friends and families of those who have fallen upon the field, its sincere sympathy and condolence.
10. That viewing the glories of the past and contemplating the realities of the present, we believe there is no hope in the future for the perpetuity of our government, but by preserving the constitution inviolate and in respecting it by both government and people as a sacred deposit of individual and State rights; in an economical and systematic administration of the govein- inent by which corruption will be prevented, extravagance restrained, expenditures reduced, and heavy taxation rendered unnecessary; in cultivating among the people that spirit of American fraternity which once knew no North,
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no South, no East, no West, except as parts of one unbroken Union; in submitting questions which might arise hereafter, effecting the legal rights of States to the judicial tribunals and not to the executive or legislative branch of the government.
And firmly believing in the efficiency of the principles herein enunciated, we implorc the blessing of God upon our efforts to have them applied to the administration of the government, and we appeal to our fellow citizens who love the constitution and Union as it was before its harmony was disturbed by abolition fanaticism, and its bonds broken by rebellion.
The Republicans met at DesMoines and nominated as follows: Secretary of State, James Wright; Auditor of State, Jona- than W. Cattell; Treasurer of State, Wm. H. Holmes; Attorney-General, Charles C. Nourse; Register of the State Land Office, Josiah A. Harvey. The platform adopted read as follows :
We, the delegates of the Republican party of Iowa, assembled to declare anew our political belief, and to select candidates for important official positions, present to the people the fol- lowing as our articles of faith:
1. That the constitution of the United States is the fundamental law of the land; that it was adopted by our fathers to establish justice and securc the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity; that in accordance with the forms prescribed by that instrument, and by the laws of Congress, Abraham Lincoln was clected by the voluntary suffrages of the people as the Chief Magistrate of the United States for the term of four years; that before he had taken the oath of office or exercised any of the powers with which he had been clothed, certain Statcs of the Union passed ordinances of secession, assuming thereby to be no longer a part of, nor subject to the laws of, the United States; that soon afterward they organized a separate con- federation, proclaimed their independence of and hostility to the federal government, and from that time to the present have waged cause-
less, merciless and barbarious warfare against the republic, to which they owe perpetuai grati- tude and allegiance.
2. That for the maintenance of the govern- ment, in this the hour of its peril, it is the duty of every citizen to devote time, labor, property, lifc; that we, as the representatives of an organ- ized association of citizens, publiely pledge all our energies and substanee, should they be needed, for the governmental defense.
3. That we have undiminished confidence in the President of the United States, that he is faithful to his pledges, is honest and determined in his purposes to crush the rebellion and main- tain the union of the States, and that we earn- estly endorsc the action of our Representatives in Congress in aiding to pass laws for the aboli- tion of slavery in the District of Columbia; for the perpetuation of freedom in all the Territo- ries of the republic; for the confiscation of the property of rebels, and clothing the President with authority to use the slaves of traitors for all military purposes.
4. That we abhor all sympathizers witli seces- sion, who, to cover their treasonable sentiments, raise the cry of abolitionism; but that, on the contrary, we will honor any loyal citizen, what- ever may have been his former political associa- tions, who will sustain, with all bis power, the struggle of Democratic Republicanism against traitorous aristocracy, North or South.
5. That, extending a hearty welcome to those who are present with us in this convention who have left the so-called Democratic party, we in- vite all loyal citizens, regardless of former political associations, and who are in favor of giving the national administration their honest support, to co-operate, with us, and we commend to all of such the patriotic words of the lamented Douglas, who said: "There is only two sides to this question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrality in this war-only patriots or traitors."
6. That we reiterate the demand for an eco- nomical administration of our national and Statc government, and for a punishment of fraudu- lent contractors and plunderers of the public treasury.
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1
7. That the valor of our soldiers and sailors, and especially those of our own State, on every battlefield to which they have been called, has earned for them a lasting gratitude, and com- mended themselves and their families to our practical sympathy and aid.
8. That the State of Iowa will promptly fur- nish her quota of troops called for by the recent proclamation of the President, and any addi- tional number which the public service may require.
9. That the voluntary enlistment of our adopted citizens in the army and navy, and their tried valor on our battle-fields, have demon- strated the warmth of their patriotism and an appreciation of liberty and good government which have earned for them the proud name of American citizens and soldiers.
10. That as citizens of a loyal State, whose patriotism, both at home and upon foreign battle-fields, has spoken for itself, we earnestly appeal to the incumbents of the legislative and executive departments of the government, to use every legitimate means in their possession to crush the rebellion, and if, as a last measure for the preservation of the republic, it shall become necessary to blot out the institution of slavery from the soil of every State, we will say Amcn, letting the consequences fall upon the wicked authors of the war, and leaving the final issue with God.
The official vote on Secretary of State was as follows:
James Wright, Rep 66,014-15,205 Richard H. Sylvester, Dem. . 50,809
In 1863 the Democrats met in conven- tion at DesMoines, and nominated Maturin L. Fisher for Governor. Mr. Fisher sub- sequently declining, Gen. James M. Tuttle was substituted; John F. Lumcombe was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor, and Charles Mason for Supreme Judge. The following was the platform adopted:
In view of the circumstances that have brought us together, we hereby resolve:
1. That the will of the people is the founda- tion of all free government. That to give effect to this will, free thought, free speech and free press are absolutely indispensable. Without free discussion there is no certainty of sound judgment; without sound judgment there can be no wise government.
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