Turning neither to the right nor to the left, moving ever onward, we adopt into our ranks all who adopt our principles.

These are gifts which, without parting with, we can yet bestow, as from the burning candle other candles may be lighted without diminishing the original flame.

Resolved, That we adopt, as the only safe and stable basis of our State, as well as our National policy, the great principles of Equal Rights for All, guarantied and secured by Equal Laws.

Fellow-citizens,--Another year has gone round, and you are once more called to bear testimony at the polls to those truths which you deem vital in the government of the country.

By votes you are to declare not merely predilections for men, but devotion to principles.

With less passion, the people are more under the influence of reason.

Truth may be heard over the prejudices of party.

Candor, kindly feeling, and conscientious thought may take the place of embittered, unreasoning antagonism, or of timid, unprincipled compliance.

The Great Issue which has already convulsed the whole country presents itself anew in a local sphere.

Our Party a permanent National Party.--We make our appeal as a National party, established to promote principles of paramount importance to the country.

In assuming our place as a distinct party, we simply give form and direction, in harmony with the usage and the genius of popular governments, to a movement which stirs the whole country, and does not find an adequate and constant organ in…

In the spirit of these examples, the friends of Freedom have come together, in well-compacted ranks, to uphold their cherished principles, and by combined efforts, according to the course of parties, to urge them upon the Government, and…

Here are men from the ancient Democracy, believing that any democracy must be a name only, no better than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, which does not recognize on every occasion the supremacy of Human Rights, and is not ready to do…

Here also are men who have come out of the Whig party, weary of its many professions and its little performance, and especially revolting at its recent sinister course with regard to Freedom, believing that in any devotion to Human Rights…

Here also, in solid legion, is the well-tried band of the Liberty Party, to whom belongs the praise of first placing Freedom under the guardianship of a special political organization, whose exclusive test was opposition to Slavery.

Associating and harmonizing from opposite quarters to promote a common cause, we learn to forget former differences, and to appreciate the motives of each other,--also how trivial are the matters on which we disagree, compared with the…

Even the rancors of political antagonism are changed and dissolved, as in a potent alembic, while the natural irresistible affinities of Freedom prevail.

We have become a party distinct, independent, permanent, under the name of the Free Democracy, thus in our very designation expressing devotion to Human Rights, and especially to Human Freedom.

Professing honestly the same sentiments, wherever we exist, in all parts of the country, East and West, North and South, we are truly a NATIONAL party.

And the reason is, because our party, unlike the other parties, is bound together in support of fixed and well-defined principles.

It is not a combination fired by partisan zeal, and kept together, as with mechanical force, by considerations of political expediency only,--but a sincere, conscientious, inflexible union for the sake of Freedom.

Devotion to Freedom impels us; Providence itself seems to open the path for our triumphant efforts.

Let the amount which is requisite for an economical administration of the government, when we are not engaged in war, be raised exclusively on foreign imports; and in adjusting a tariff for that purpose, let such discriminations be made as…

In adjusting the details of a revenue tariff, I have heretofore sanctioned such moderate discriminating duties as would produce the amount of revenue needed, and at the same time afford reasonable incidental protection to our home industry.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.