The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-15 00:00:00

THE DEMOCRATIC PLA7FORAL

(From the Anglo-American Times)
On Thursday evening, the 25th June, HORATIC
SEYMOUP. addressed the Jackson Central Associa-
tion, New York. While his tone was highly parti-
san, he uttered the sentiments of a gentleman and
of an honest politician. He appealed to the whola
country for a united effort to drive from power the
disciplined and desperate office-holders, the com-
mon enemies of liberty, human rights, the Consti-
tution, and the laws. Recognizing the difficulty, he
spoke of the total change in political feeling coming
over the people. The ablest Republicans, he said,
refused to go with the party which tramples upon
the judiciary, usurps power, at is unsettling all
ideas of politic a morality and unhitiging all the
business machinery of the land. "We are labour-
ing under some embarrassments from the great vio-
lence of the change in our favour. Those who are
rallying around the standard of constitutional
rights have heretofore held conflicting views with
regard to the events of the past eight years, and the
question is, How can we set this great majority in
the field ?" After rapidly sketching the nature of
the policy which ought to be adopted, and alluding
to the hope and fear with which men looked for the
action of the Convention on the 4th of July,
he added :—" It will, in the present condition of
our country, be an unholy thing to go into the July
Convention with any purpose which shall not have
in view the rescue of our Government from the
men who now have it in hand." Last week we gave
what had been announced as the Platform drawn
up by Chief Justice CHASE, and he is the candidate
supported by Mr. SEYMOUR. With such names
added to those of HANCOCK, HENDRICKS, ADAMS,
with the growing strength of the party, as alluded
to by Mr. SEYMOUR, we might well be forgiven for
looking hopefully to the Platform to be erected on
Independence Day, and it may be that the cable
does but scant justice to the principles declared
The Convention assembled on Saturday, and on
Tuesday published the result of the deliberations.
It favours taxation of the United States Bonds and
the payment in currency of the bonds of all public
debts, except where payment in coin is expressly
stipulated. It declares that naturalized American
citizens abroad have equal rights with native-
born subjects of the United States. This
being interpreted means an appeal to the dis-
honesty and rowdyism of the country. To array
the growing strength of the Democrats, embarrass-
ing in its vastness—they must unfurl the banner of
Repudiation. To marshal the hosts flocking to their
standard, to turn out of office the " common ene-
mies of liberty and human rights," an appeal must
be made to Fenianism. The nation is to be re-
deemed from that desperate and disciplined band
of office-holders, by greenbacks, by buncombe, and
threats to Foreign Powers. It is premature as yet
to discuss the platform as a whole, for we have only
caught a glimpse of one or two of its planks. Pre-
suming, however, on the truth of what we have
seen the structure cannot but be rotten. It looks
absolutely like the resolve of desperate, almost hope-
less, men. The respectability of the country, in-
dependent of party, must be arrayed against it,
and the framers knew that they would turn from
their ranks, even such men as Mr. SEYMOUR him.
self. What, then, did they expect to gain when
making so heavy a sacrifice. The mass of every
country is composed of the ignorant and unreflect-
lug. Even in the United States where education
is so generally diffused this is the case, though
mainly owing t 3 the monthly influx of thousands
of the uneducated of Europe. What the Democrats
have so bitterly complained of in the South is the
very action of which they have themselves been
guilty in the North. They denounce the white men
who find their way down South, and trade politi-
cally on the ignorance of the blacks ; there they be
hold in its glaring deformity and bitterly condemn the
alliance of knavery with ignorance. Yet if the pro-
gramme of the party assembled in National Council
does not foreshadow this action as that on which
they intend to fight the battle, we cannot see what
it does portend. Taxation of the Bonds can only
be effected by a direct infringement of the contract.
Whether wisely or not, it was enacted that such
Bonds should be exempt from taxation by or under
State or municipal authority, and it was on these
terms they were taken up. Revenue Commissioner
lIAvEs proposed to levy a special national tax on
the holders by Federal authority, and to distribute
the proceeds among the States and municipalities,
whereby the strict letter of the law would be 'ob-
served, and an amount equal to that paid on other
property would be raised from the bondholders. It
is possible that this is the course the Convention
considers correct, as it desires to comply with legal
forms. This can be seen in the proposal to pay in
currency the Benda of all Public Debts, except