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Show Tfcs Mtklng of Pirty Fktfomi. Proba.bly in no conyentions of American political politi-cal parties in all their history was so. much attention atten-tion given to the details of. platform declarations a will be given this year. It haa come to be recognized recog-nized that in their statement of principles the great parties go before the people asking for support, and in the event of success it is their purpose to carry out the lines of policy, in so far as made in the great conventions which precede the Presidential campaign. cam-paign. . , - , The mating of platform resolutions by the great political parties has been in vogue for more than half the period covered by the life of the Republic. ! In the earliest days of party organization the principles prin-ciples of the parties were set forth in sets of resolutions reso-lutions prepared by the leaders, of which the most striking known to history are the famous Kentucky-Virginia Kentucky-Virginia resolutions said to have been drawn by Thomas Jefferson. Down to 1830 there were no real party platform declarations, and only on two occasions did conventions conven-tions adopt resolutions which were accepted as party par-ty creeds. In 1830 the Democrats and Whigs adopted in their conventions statements of party principles, and almost every national and State convention con-vention of the different political organizations since that time have followed this plan. It is only since about the time of the war, when there came to be the most manifest line-up of the parties on the great principles of government, that the parties have made special efforts to set forth their principles in contention resolutions. |