 This is Classics of Liberty from Libertarianism.org and the Cato Institute, narrated by Caleb Brown. Today's classic is The Locofoco Declaration of Principles. On the evening of October 29th, 1835, a mass of radical liberal conspirators poured into Tammany Hall, fulfilling their meticulous plans to overtake the local Democratic Party-nominating conventions from the conservatives who controlled the hall. The outnumbered conservatives feared losing their grasp on the nominating process and did everything possible to maintain it. Overpowered and shouted down by the throng of rowdy and boisterous equal rights Democrats, as the radicals called themselves, the conservatives finally gave up, feebly declared the convention closed without nominations, and shut off the gas lights throughout Tammany Hall before abandoning their hijacked proceedings. The rump of radicals came prepared to handle these sorts of dirty tricks and emptied their pockets. The conspirators lighted their newly invented friction matches popularly called Locofocos, illuminating their second-class convention with candles. The radicals nominated their own slate of candidates, representing what they considered the true principles of the Democratic Party. The following morning, the hostile press condescendingly referred to the conventioneers as the Locofoco Party, a name which they adopted as a badge of honor in their quest to ideologically purify Jackson's democracy. On February 9, 1836, the Locofoco or Equal Rights Party met for its first county convention in New York City where they drafted a Declaration of Principles. The document defined much of the movement, its ideology, intentions for American government, and political strategy. It became the litmus test for equal rights candidates during the party's two-year existence. By late 1837, Locofocos gained preeminence in the Van Buren administration and Tammany itself adopted the Declaration of Principles. For the next decade, Locofoco Democrats steered politics in many northern and western states. The Locofoco movement as such lasted until the 1870s, impacting American life in profound and understudied ways. The Declaration of Principles, therefore, stands as a clear articulation of radical liberal ideas and the first blast in a decades-long war on monopoly. Declaration of Principles. We, whose names are hereunto affixed, do associate ourselves and unite for the purpose of affecting constitutional reform in legislation and to bring into practice the principles of which the governments of these United States were originally founded. We utterly disclaim any intention or design of instituting any new party, but declare ourselves the original Democratic Party, our whole object being political reformation by reviving the landmarks and principles of democracy. We therefore hold with the revered Jefferson that, first, the true foundation of Republican government is the equal rights of every citizen in his person and property and in their management. Second, the rightful power of all legislation is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the law ought to restrain him. Every man is under the natural duty of contributing to the necessities of society, and that is all the law should enforce on him. When the laws have declared and enforced all this, they have fulfilled their functions. Third, the idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society, we give up any natural rights. Fourth, unqualified and uncompromising hostility to banknote and paper money as a circulating medium because gold and silver is the only safe and constitutional currency. Fifth, hostility to any and all monopolies by legislation because they are a violation of the equal rights of the people. Sixth, hostility to the dangerous and unconstitutional creation of vested rights by legislation because they are a usurpation of the people's sovereign rights. And we hold that all laws or acts of incorporation passed by one legislature can be rightfully altered or repealed by their successors. Preamble and resolutions of the Equal Rights Party Convention. Whereas when on the ever memorable 4th of July 1776, the 13 colonies of North America renounced all political connection or subjection to the government of Great Britain, they founded their Declaration of Independence on the natural, equal, inalienable rights of man. And when subsequently it became necessary to form constitutions and governments for themselves, the democratic principle of the paramount sovereignty of the people was constantly and emphatically set forth. Hence, it was only as a matter of convenience that the plan of legislating by representatives was adopted. But the worst prerogative of despotism, that of vesting privileges and divesting of rights, never could have been delegated to any government in the Union. Ours are governments of derived and specified powers and not of original or independent authority. And like the leaves of the forest, they are only of annual duration. Had the framers of our constitutions considered it right in itself, consistent with the just rights of the people, or with our political system for legislators to enact laws specifying any number of years or a perpetuity of existence, would they have established annual elections and annual governments? If a legislature can enact any law to continue in force for as long a term of years as it chooses to designate, it can also reasonably hold office and exercise power so long as it can pledge the public faith to its acts and bind future generations. It is well argued and demonstrated by Thomas Jefferson that every generation of mankind has the sovereign right of changing the government and constructing a new constitution. He averaged a generation at twenty years. Can a legislature therefore make laws more sacred than the constitution, more binding on the people? Is the servant greater than his master? Is the legislature greater than the people, the paramount sovereign? Is a charter more irrevocable than the constitution? And in short, can they alter, repeal, or remake the one, and dare they not interfere with or repeal the other? If so, then is the paramount sovereignty in chartered companies and not in the hands of the people? Resolved, as the deliberate belief and solemn sentiment of this convention that it is usurpation of the worst and most dangerous character for any legislature in the union to grant charters of privileges or immunities for any specified term of years, because legislatures cannot rightfully grant that to others which they never possess themselves, and because they have no prospective authority as to futurity. They have no power, ability, competency, or means to add to or increase the rights of the great mass of the people, and therefore no authority to take from, limit, or diminish those rights. They have no right to tie up the hands of their successors on any subject of legislation that concerns or affects the community. The natural, the equal, inalienable, civil, and social rights of the people are always invaded where privileges are granted to individuals or companies. In fact, the people are not sovereign nor freedom does not truly exist when governments assume such prerogatives and exercise such injustice and despotism. Our annual elections are an absurdity. The prohibition of privileged orders in the Constitution is a mere sounding brass and tinkling symbol so long as our legislative halls are charter manufacturers. Resolved, that our principles and measures are strictly democratic in accordance with the theory of our government and the happiness of our country. We require nothing exclusive for ourselves, no advantage, but what we are desirous should be extended to each and every citizen of the Republic. We ask nothing but what is manifestly right, nor will we submit tamely to those abuses of legislation which are clearly wrong. We ask that the blessings of government, like the dues of heaven, should descend equally on the high and the low, the rich and the poor. We ask the repeal of all unequal, unjust, unconstitutional laws, granting powers or privileges to portions of the community, to the divesting of the rights and manifest injury of the majority. We ask that the state legislatures will confine themselves to their proper sphere of action, as respects the currency, and that they will cease to usurp from the general government a power granted by the Constitution. We demand that the state governments will no longer authorize the issuing of bills of credit, commonly called banknotes, in open violation of the Constitution of the United States. We ask that our legislators will legislate for the whole people and not for favored portions of our fellow citizens, thereby creating distinct aristocratic little communities within the great community. It is by such partial and unjust legislation that the productive classes of society are compelled by necessity to form unions for mutual preservation and because they are not equally protected and respected as the other classes of mankind. We ask to be reinstated in our equal and constitutional rights according to the fundamental truths in the Declaration of Independence and as sanctioned by the Constitution of the United States, because it is self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure those rights, governments are instituted among men. In short, we ask nothing but what is consistent with Christian democracy, for in the Declaration that God is no respecter of persons all are equal in His sight, we behold the universal equality of man. In the denunciation of woe unto you ye lawyers, for ye bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born upon men's shoulders, we see the strongest forms of command against unequal laws or monopolies. In the precept of do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you is the divine doctrine of equal justice, and in the injunction be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect, we behold the great law of progress. That was the Loco Foco Declaration of Principles. Find more classics of liberty at libertarianism.org.