triotic convention over which you presided, and the resolutions which so happily supplement it, so entirely agree with my views as to a just national policy, that my thanks are due to the delegates, as much for this clear and auspicious declaration of principles as for the nomination with which I have been honored, and which I gratefully accept. When a great rebellion, which imperilled the national existence, was at last overthrown, the duty of all others devolving on those intrusted with the responsibilities of legislation evidently was to require that the revolted States should be readmitted to participation in the Government against which they had warred, only on such a basis as to increase and fortify, not to weaken or endanger, the strength of the nation. Certainly no one ought to have claimed that they should be readmitted under such rules that their organization as States could ever again be used, as at the opening of the war, to defy the national authority, or to destroy the national unity. This principle has been the pole star of those who have inflexibly insisted on the congressional policy your convention so cordially endorsed. Baffled by executive opposition, and by persistent refusals to accept any plan of reconstruction proffered by Congress, justice and public safety at last combined to teach us that only by an enlargement of suffrage in those States could the desired end be attained, and that it was even more safe to give the ballot to those who loved the Union than to those who had sought ineffectually to destroy it. The assured success of this legislation is being written on the adamant of history, and will be our triumphant vindication. More clearly, too, than ever before does the nation now recognize that the greatest glory of a republic is, that it throws the shield of its protection over the humblest and the weakest of its people, and vindicates the rights of the poor and the powerless as faithfully as those of the rich and the powerful. I rejoice, too, in this convention, to find in your platform the frank and fearless avowal that the naturalized citizens must be protected abroad at every hazard, as though they were native-born." Our whole people are foreigners or descendants of foreigners. Our fathers established by arms their right to be called a nation. It remains for us to establish the right to welcome to our shores all who are willing by oaths of allegiance to become American citizens. Perpetual allegiance, as claimed abroad, is only another name for perpetual bondage, and would make all slaves to the soil where first they saw the light. Our national cemeteries prove how faithfully these oaths of fidelity to their adopted land have been sealed in the life blood of thousands upon thousands. Should we not then be faithless to the dead if we did not protect their living brethren in the enjoyment of that nationality, for which, side by side with the native born, our soldiers of foreign birth laid down their lives. It was fitting, too, that the representatives of a party which had proved so true to national duty in time of war, should speak so clearly in time of peace for the maintenance untarnished, of national honor, national credit, and good faith as regards its debt, the cost of our national existence. I do not need to extend this reply by further comment on a platform which has elicited such hearty approval throughout the land. The debt of gratitude it acknowledges to the brave men who saved the Union from destruction-the frank approval of amnesty based on repentance and loyalty-the demand for the most thorough economy and honesty in the Government-the sympathy of the party of liberty with all throughout the world who long for the liberty we here enjoy-and the recognition of the sublime principles of the Declaration of Independence, are worthy of the organization on whose banners they are to be written in the coming contest. Its past record cannot be blotted out or forgotten. If there had been no Republican party, slavery would to-day cast its baleful shadow over the Republic. If there had been no Republican party, a free press and free speech would be as unknown from the Potomac to the Rio Grande as ten years ago. If the Republican party could have been stricken from existence when the banner of rebellion was unfurled, and when the response of "no coercion " was heard at the North, we would have had no nation today. But for the Republican party daring to risk the odium of tax and draft laws, our flag could not have been kept flying on the field till the long-looked-for victory came. Without a Republican party, the civil rights bill, the guarantee of equality under the law to the humble and the defenceless as well as to the strong, would not be to-day upon our national statute book. With such inspirations from the past, and following the example of the founders of the republic, who called the victorious general of the Revolution to preside over the land his triumphs had saved from its enemies, I cannot doubt that our labors will be crowned with success. And it will be a success that will bring restored hope, confidence, prosperity and progress South as well as North, West as well as East, and above all, the blessings under Providence of national concord and peace. 69 1st. 2d. 3d. 4th. 5th. 145 165 186 541 170 178 206 38 144 139 144 114 101 87 45 40 80 25 Schuyler Colfax, Ind... 115 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PLATFORM, AT *Unanimously reported from this Committee on Resolutions: Alabama-Charles C. Langdon. Arkansas-A. H. Garland. California-A. H. Rose. Connecticut-Til patriotism, and discriminating justice of the peo- 7. Reform of abuses in the administration, ple, standing upon the Constitution as the foun- the expulsion of corrupt men from office, the dation and limitation of the powers of the Gov-abrogation of useless offices, the restoration of ernment, and the guarantee of the liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the questions of slavery and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by the war or the voluntary action of the Southern States in constitutional conventions assembled, and never to be renewed or re-agitated, do with the return of peace, demand: 1. Immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the Union under the Constitution, and of civil government to the American people. 2. Amnesty for all past political offences, and the regulation of the elective franchise in the States by their citizens. 3. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, except so much as is requisite for the necessities of the Government, economically administered, being honestly applied to such payment, and where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States. 4. Equal taxation of every species of property according to its real value, including Government bonds and other public securities. 5. One currency for the Government and the people, the laborer and the office-holder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder. 6. Economy in the administration of the Government; the reduction of the standing army and navy; the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy; simplification of the system and discontinuance of inquisitorial modes of assessing and collecting internal revenue, so that the burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened; the credit of the Government and the currency made good; the repeal of all enactments for enrolling the State militia into national forces in time of peace; and a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and such eqnal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manufactures, and as will, without impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the country. ton E. Doolittle. Delaware-James A. Bayard. Florida -Wilkerson Call. Georgia-Henry S. Fitch. IllinoisWilliam J. Allen. Indiana-Joseph E. McDonald. Iowa -John H. O'Neil. Kansas-George W. Glick, Kentucky-William Preston. Louisana-James B. Eustis. Maine-Richard D. Rice. Maryland-Stevenson Archer. Massachusetts-Edward Avery. Michigan-Charles E. Stuart. Minnesota-James J. Green. Mississippi-Ethelbert Barksdale. Missouri-Charles Mansur. NebraskaCharlas F. Porter. Nevada-J. A. St. Clair. New Hampshire-J. M. Campbell. New Jersey-Jacob R. Wortendyke. New York-Henry C. Murphy. North Carolina Robert Strange. Ohio-William G. Gilmore. Oregon R. D. Fitch. Pennsylvania-Franklin W. Hughes. Rhode Island-Thomas Steere. South Carolina-Wade Hampton. Tennessee-Edmund Cooper. Tezas-George W. Smith. Vermont-Charles N. Davenport. Virginia Thomas S. Bocock. West Virginia-John Davis. Wisconsin-James A. Mallory. rightful authority to, and the independence of, the executive and judicial departments of the Government, the subordination of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease. 8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born citizens at home and abroad, the assertion of American nationality which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and furnish an example and encouragement to people struggling for national integrity, constitutional liberty, and individual rights, and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance and the claims of foreign powers to punish them for alleged crime committed beyond their jurisdiction. In demanding these measures and reforms, we arraign the Radical party for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression and tyranny which have marked its career. After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the Government and the preservation of the Union under the Constitution, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to victory. Instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy. It has nullified there the right of trial by jury; it has abolished the habeas corpus, that most sacred writ of liberty; it has overthrown the freedom of speech and the press; it has substituted arbitrary seizures and arrests, and military trials and secret star-chamber inquisitions, for the constitntional tribunals; it has disregarded in time of peace the right of the people to be free from searches and seizures; it has entered the post and telegraph offices, and even the private rooms of individuals, and seized their private papers and letters without any specific charge or notice of affidavit, as required by the organic law; it has converted the American Capitol into a bastile; it has established a system of spies and official espionage to which no constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to resort; it has abolished the right of appeal on important constitutional questions to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatens to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevocably vested by the Constitution, while the learned Chief Justice has been subjected to the most atrocious calumnies, merely because he would not prostitute his high office to the support of the false and partisan charges preferred against the President. Its corruption and extravagance have exceeded anything known in history, and, by its frauds and monopolies it has nearly doubled the burden of the debt created by the war. It has stripped the President of his constitutional power of appointment, even of his own cabinet. Under its repeated assaults, the pillars of the Government are rocking on their base, and should it succeed in November next and inaugurate its President, we will meet as a subjected and patriotism, and discriminating justice of the peo- 7. Reform of abuses in the administration, ple, standing upon the Constitution as the foun- the expulsion of corrupt men from office, the dation and limitation of the powers of the Gov-abrogation of useless offices, the restoration of ernment, and the guarantee of the liberties of the citizen, and recognizing the questions of slavery and secession as having been settled, for all time to come, by the war or the voluntary action of the Southern States in constitutional conventions assembled, and never to be renewed or re-agitated, do with the return of peace, demand: 1. Immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the Union under the Constitution, and of civil government to the American people. 2. Amnesty for all past political offences, and the regulation of the elective franchise in the States by their citizens. 3. Payment of the public debt of the United States as rapidly as practicable; all moneys drawn from the people by taxation, except so much as is requisite for the necessities of the Government, economically administered, being honestly applied to such payment, and where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States. rightful authority to, and the independence of, the executive and judicial departments of the Government, the subordination of the military to the civil power, to the end that the usurpations of Congress and the despotism of the sword may cease. 8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born citizens at home and abroad, the assertion of American nationality which shall command the respect of foreign powers, and furnish an example and encouragement to people struggling for national integrity, constitutional Hiberty, and individual rights, and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citizens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegiance and the claims of foreign powers to punish them for alleged crime committed beyond their jurisdiction. In demanding these measures and reforms, we arraign the Radical party for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression and tyranny which have marked its career. After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the Government and the preservation of the Union under the Constitution, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag 5. One currency for the Government and the to victory. Instead of restoring the Union, it people, the laborer and the office-holder, the pen-has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subsioner and the soldier, the producer and the bondholder. 4. Equal taxation of every species of property according to its real value, including Government bonds and other public securities. jected ten States, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy. It 6. Economy in the administration of the Gov- has nullified there the right of trial by jury; it ernment; the reduction of the standing army and has abolished the habeas corpus, that most sanavy; the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau cred writ of liberty; it has overthrown the freeand all political instrumentalities designed to dom of speech and the press; it has substituted secure negro supremacy; simplification of the arbitrary seizures and arrests, and military trials system and discontinuance of inquisitorial modes and secret star-chamber inquisitions, for the conof assessing and collecting internal revenue, so stitntional tribunals; it has disregarded in time that the burden of taxation may be equalized and of peace the right of the people to be free from lessened; the credit of the Government and the searches and seizures; it has entered the post currency made good; the repeal of all enact- and telegraph offices, and even the private ments for enrolling the State militia into nation- rooms of individuals, and seized their private al forces in time of peace; and a tariff for reve- papers and letters without any specific charge or nue upon foreign imports, and such eqnal tax- notice of affidavit, as required by the organic ation under the internal revenue laws as will af- law; it has converted the American Capitol into ford incidental protection to domestic manufac-a bastile; it has established a system of spies tures, and as will, without impairing the revenue, impose the least burden upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the country. and official espionage to which no constitutional monarchy of Europe would now dare to resort; it has abolished the right of appeal on important constitutional questions to the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatens to curtail or deDelaware-James A. Bayard. Florida stroy its original jurisdiction, which is irrevoHenry S. Fitch. Illinois- cably vested by the Constitution, while the learneph E. McDonald. Iowa ed Chief Justice has been subjected to the most rge W. Glick, Kenatrocious calumnies, merely because he would -James B. Eustis. -Stevenson Archer. not prostitute his high office to the support of the chigan-Charles E. false and partisan charges preferred against the Mississippi-Ethel- President. Its corruption and extravagance ansur. Nebraska- have exceeded anything known in history, and, Acob R. Worten- by its frauds and monopolies it has nearly doub North Carolina led the burden of the debt created by the war. Gilmore, Oregon It has stripped the President of his constitutionanklin W. Hughes. al power of appointment, even of his own cabinet. Under its repeated assaults, the pillars of the Government are rocking on their base, and should it succeed in November next and inaugu rate its President, we will meet as a subjected and lair. New Hamp th Carolina-Wade per. Tezas-George conquered people, amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered fragments of the Constitution. And we do declare and resolve that ever since the people of the United States threw off all subjection to the British crown, the privilege and trust of suffrage have belonged to the several States, and have been granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the political power of each State respectively, and that any attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of this right, or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power which can find no warrant in the Constitution, and, if sanctioned by the people, will subvert our form of government, and can only end in a single centralized and consolidated government, in which the separate existence of the States will be entirely absorbed, and an unqualified despotism be established in place of a Federal union of co-equal States. And that we regard the reconstruction acts (so called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void. That our soldiers and sailors, who carried the flag of our country to victory against a most gallant and determined foe, must ever be gratefully remembered, and all the guarantees given in their favor must be faithfully carried into execution. before the final adjournment, and was carried by acclamation.] SOLDIERS AND SAILORS, AT NEW YORK, JULY. Whereas, a mutual interchange of views between members of this convention and delegates to the Democratic National Convention, has fully confirmed us in our previously entertained opinion of the purity and patriotism of that body, and fully justifies the belief that in the selection of candidates and in the construction of a platform the convention will be governed by the spirit of the address adopted by this body on the 6th inst.; therefore, relying upon this belief, Resolved, That we will support its nominees for President and Vice President of the United States, and that on our return home we will induce our late comrades in arms to unite with us in yielding to them a united support. [Reported from the Committee on Resolutions and adopted-yeas 287, nays 7] Resolved, That the declaration of principles adopted by the Democratic National Convention be, and the same is hereby ratified and approved, and that the secretary communicate to that convention a copy of this resolution forthwith. Resolved, That the President of the convenThat the public lands should be distributed as tion appoint a committee of five to wait upon widely as possible among the people, and should General George B. McClellan, and assure him be disposed of either under the pre-emption of that although we are called upon by duty to suphomestead lands, or sold in reasonable quanti-port the nominee for the Presidency of the Naties, and to none but actual occupants. at the minimum price established by the Government. When grants of public lands may be allowed, necessary for the encouragement of important public improvements, the proceeds of the sale of such lands, and not the lands theinselves, should be so applied. That the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, in exercising the power of his high office in resisting the aggressions of Congress upon the constitutional rights of the States and the people, is entitled to the gratitude of the whole American people, and in behalf of the Democratic party we tender him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that regard. Upon this platform the Democratic party appeal to every patriot, including all the Conservative element and all who desire to support the Constitution and restore the Union, forgetting all past differences of opinion, to unite with us in the present great struggle for the liberties of the people; and that to all such, to whatever party they may have heretefore belonged, we extend the right hand of fellowship, and hail all such co-operating with us as friends and brethren. Resolved, That this convention sympathize cordially with the workingmen of the United States in their efforts to protect the rights and interests of the laboring classes of the country. [Offered by Mr. Vallandingham, and adopted the last day of the convention.] Resolved, That the thanks of the convention are tendered to Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, for the justice, dignity, and impartiality with which he presided over the court of impeachment on the trial of President Andrew Johnson. [This last was offered by Mr. Kernan, of New York, after the nominations, and immediately tional Democratic party now in convention, our confidence in him is unimpaired, and that our love for him is as ardent as ever, and that the highest honor that this convention could confer upon him would but poorly express our esteem for him. Also, that the said committee be requested to ask him to come and assist us with all his ability during the coming campaign. Resolved, That the thanks of this convention, and of all patriotic and right-minded citizens. are due to the President of the United States for the removal of E. M. Stanton from the War Department of the Government, a position which the said Stanton had disgraced and dishonored ever since his appointment to that office, by his many acts of cruelty-both to the Union and Confederate soldiers-and by his official acts of tyranny; and that the soldiers and sailors should, on all occasions, meet him with the same feelings of outraged dignity and patiotism that he was received with, on an ever memorable occasion, in the city of Washington, from that great and glorious soldier- General William Tecumseh Sherman. [The last three resolutions were offered in the convention, and adopted unanimously, under a suspension of the rule requiring the reference of all resolutions to the Committee on Resolutions.] Pending the resolutions reported from the committee above, General Thomas Ewing, jr., of Kansas, offered this resolution : Resolved, That the faith of the republic to its creditors, as pledged in its laws, is inviolable, and the public burdens should be lightened by vigilant economy in expenditures and never by repudiation; that all the bonds of the United States issued after the passage of the legal tender act, and not by law expressly payable in coin, should be paid when redeemable in legal tender |