ittee reported in favor of adding the following:
"but if exception is taken by any delegate to the correctness of such
announcement by the chairman of his delegation, the President of the
Convention shall direct the roll of members of such delegation to be
called, and the result shall be recorded in accordance with the votes
individually given." This amendment was designed to protect the vote
of the individual delegate. It was a final blow at the Unit Rule, and
aimed to reduce the precedents and decisions of former conventions to
plain and unambiguous language.

The minority of the Committee, representing eleven States, reported
against any change of rule. As soon, however, as the two reports
were submitted to the Convention, and before they were discussed,
General Sharpe of New York, who led the minority, moved that the
Convention proceed at once to ballot for candidates for President and
Vice-President. This was urged upon the plea of saving time, and
upon the ground that nothing else remained to be done, but General
Garfield pointed out, with his habitual clearness, that such action
would leave the Convention without any regulations to determine the
method of procedure or to decide controversies. Under the influence
of his forcible argument General Sharpe's proposition was lost by a
vote of 479 to 276. The rules, as reported by the majority, were then
adopted, with an amendment that "the National Committee shall prescribe
the method or methods for the election of delegates to the National
Convention to be held in 1884, provided that nothing in the method
or rules so prescribed shall be construed to prevent the several
districts of the United States from selecting their own delegates to
the National Convention." The overthrow of the Unit Rule and the
establishment of district representation were thus finally secured.

Mr. Pierrepont of New York reported the platform. It recounted the
achievements of the party and re-affirmed its accepted principles.
No one issue was treated as overmastering. Protection, which became
the controlling question of the campaign, was presented only by
repeating the avowal of 1876. The restriction of Chinese immigration
was approved. The Democratic party was charged with sustaining
fraudulent elections, with unseating members of Congress who had been
lawfully chosen, with viciously attaching partisan legislation to
Appropriation Bills, and with seeking to obliterate the sacred
m