8. We charge upon the Democratic Party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and patronage; that to obtain possession of the national government and control of the place, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of the sufferage, and have devised fraudulent ballots and invented fraudulent certification of returns; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of Congress, to secure at all hazards the vote of a majority of the states in the House of Representatives; have endeavored to occupy by force and fraud the places of trust given to others by the people of Maine, rescued by the courage and action of Maine's patriotic sons; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, attached partisan legislation to appropriation bills upon whose passage the very movement of the government depended; have crushed the rights of the individual; have advocated the principles and sought the favor of the rebellion against the nation, and have endeavored to obliterate the sacred memories and to overcome its inestimably valuable results of nationality, personal freedom, and individual equality. The equal, steady, and complete enforcement of the laws and the protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all the privileges and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first duties of the nation. The dangers of a "Solid South" can only be averted by a faithful performance of every promise which the nation has made to the citizen. The execution of the laws, and the punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured and genuine prosperity established throughout the South. Whatever promises the nation makes the nation must perform. A nation cannot with safety relegate this duty to the states. The "Solid South" must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter must be protected against terrorism, violence or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican Party to use all legitimate means to restore all the states of this Union to the most perfect harmony which may be possible, and we submit to the practical, sensible people of these United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country at this time to surrender the administration of the national government to a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy under which we are now so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there is now order, confidence and hope.