(No. 2.)                                         

PHILADELPHIA PLATFORM OF JUNE, 1855.

Referred to in the foregoing report, and the identical one produced
and marked, and acknowledged by the majority of the Committee to be
the Platform of principles adhered to by them and their associates.

PLATFORM AND PRINCIPLES OF THE AMERICAN ORGANIZATION.

I.—The acknowledgment of that Almighty Being who rules over the
Universe,—who presides over the Councils of nations,—who conducts
the affairs of men, and who, in every step by which we have advanced
to the character of an independent nation, has distinguished us by some
token of Providential agency.

II.—The cultivation and development of a sentiment of profoundly
intense American feeling; of passionate attachment to our country, its
history and its institutions; of admiration for the purer days of our
national existence; of veneration for the heroism that precipitated our
Revolution; and of emulation of the virtue, wisdom and patriotism that
framed our Constitution, and first successfully applied its provisions.

III.—The maintenance of the Union of these United States as the

paramount political good; or, to use the language of Washington, "the

primary object of patriotic desire." And hence—                               

1st.—Opposition to all attempts to weaken or subvert it.               

2d.—Uncompromising antagonism to every principle of policy that
endangers it.

3d.—The advocacy of an equitable adjustment of all political differ-
ences which threaten its integrity or perpetuity.

4th.—The suppression of all tendencies to political division, founded
on "Geographical discriminations, or on the belief that there is a real
difference of interests and views" between the various sections of the
Union.

5th.—The full recognition of the rights of the several States, as ex-
pressed and reserved in the Constitution; and a careful avoidance, by
the General Government, of all interference with their rights, by legis-
lative or executive action.

IV.—Obedience to the Constitution of those United States as the su-
preme law of the land, sacredly obligatory upon all its parts and mem-
bers; and steadfast resistance to the spirit of innovation and its principles,
however specious the pretexts. Avowing that in all doubtful or dis-
puted points it may be only legally ascertained and expounded by the
judicial power of the United States.           

And, as a corollary to the above:

1 A habit of reverential obedience to the laws, whether National,
State or Municipal, until they are either repealed or declared unconsti-
tutional by the proper authority.

2. A tender and sacred regard for those acts of statesmanship which
are to be contradistinguished from the acts of ordinary legislation, by
the fact of their being of the nature of compacts and agreements; and
so to be considered a fixed and settled national policy.

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