Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of government, besides the accruing interest on the public debt, and has disbursed annually more than $30,000,000 for soldiers' and sailors' pensions. It has paid $880,000,000 of the public debt, and, by refunding the balance at lower rates, has reduced the annual interest charge from nearly $150,000,000 to less than $89,000,000. All the industries of the country have revived, labor is in demand, wages have increased, and throughout the entire country there is evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. Upon this record the Republican Party asks for the continued confidence and support of the people, and the convention submits for their approval the following statement of the principles and purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts. 1. We affirm that the work of the Republican Party for the last twenty years has been such as to commend it to the favor of the nation; that the fruits of the costly victories which we have achieved through immense difficulties should be preserved; that the peace regained should be cherished; that the Union should be perpetuated, and that the liberty secured to this generation should be transmitted undiminished to other generations; that the order established and the credit acquired should never be impaired; that the pensions promised should be paid; that the debt, so much reduced, should be extinguished by the full payment of every dollar thereof; that the reviving industries should be further promoted, and that the commerce, already increasing, should be steadily encouraged. 2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and not a mere contract. Out of confederated states it made a sovereign nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others are denied to the states; but the boundary between the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the national, and not by the state tribunal. 3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several states, but it is the duty of the national government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional ability. The intelligence of the nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence in the several states, and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the genius of any one state, but by the average genius of all. 4. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting the establishment of religion, but it is idle to hope that the nation can be protected against the influence of secret sectarianism which each state is exposed to its domination. We therefore recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon the legislature of each state, and to forbid the appropriation of public funds for the support of sectarian schools.