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[No. 3.]                                       

PHILADELPHIA PLATFORM OF FEBRUARY, 1856.

1st. An humble acknowledgment to the Supreme Being who rules

the universe for his protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in their

successful revolutionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their

descendants, in the preservation of the liberties, the independence and

the union of these States.

2d. The perpetuation of the Federal Union, as the palladium of our
civil and religious liberties, and the only sure bulwark of American
independence.

3d. Americans must rule America; and to this end native born cit-
izens should be selected for all State, Federal and municipal offices or
government employment, in preference to naturalized citizens; never-
theless,

4th. Persons born of American parents, residing temporarily
abroad, should be entitled to all the rights of native born citizens; but

5th. No person should be selected for political station, (whether of
native or foreign birth,) who recognizes any allegiance or obligation of
any description to any foreign prince, potentate or power, or who re-
fuses to recognize the Federal and State Constitutions (each within its
sphere) as paramount to all other laws as rules of political action.

6th. The unqualified recognition and maintenance of the reserved
rights of the several States, and the cultivation of harmony and frater-
nal good will between the citizens of the several States; and to this
end, non-interference by Congress with questions appertaining solely to
the individual States, and non-intervention by each State with the affairs
of any other State.

7th. The recognition of the right of the native born and natural-
ized citizens of the United States, permanently residing in any Terri-
tory thereof, to frame their Constitution and laws, and to regulate their
domestic and social affairs in their own mode, subject only to the provis-
sions of the Federal Constitution, with the right of admission into the           

Union whenever they have the requisite population for one representa-
tive in Congress; provided always, that none but those who are citizens
of the United States, under the Constitution and laws thereof, and who
have a fixed residence in any such Territory, ought to participate in the
formation of the Constitution or in the enactment of laws for said Ter-
ritory or State.

8th. An enforcement of the principle that no State or Territory can
admit others than native born citizens to the right of suffrage, or of
holding political office, unless such persons shall have been naturalized
according to the laws of the United States.

9th. A change in the laws of naturalization, making a continued
residence of twenty-one years, of all not heretofore provided for, an
indispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding all pau-
pers and persons convicted of crime from landing upon our shores; but
no interference with the vested rights of foreigners.

10th. Opposition to any union between Church and State; no in-