The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-20
WASHINGTON, d. c..
Address Of the Republican Convention
CONVENED IN THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH
On the 22d of February, 1866.
The ReopIs IF de United States:

Pittsburgh, IN the State OF PENNSYLVANIA, this
22d day of February, 1856, as the representa-
tives Of the people in various sections of the
Union, to consult upon the political evils by
which the country is menaced, and the political
&c ION by which those evils may be averted, we
address 10 you this Declaration of our Princi-
Iles, and of the Purposes which we seek to
promote.
We declare, in the first place, our fixed and
nnalterabie devotion to the Constitution of the
United States, TO the ends for which it was es.
tablished, and to the means which it provided
for their attainment. We accept the solemn
protestation Of the People Of the United States
that they ordained il, ain order to form more
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defence
promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings OF liberty to themselves and their pos
ferity." We believe that the powers which il
confers upon the Government Of the United
States are ample for the accomplishment o.
these objects; and that if these powers are ex
ercised in the spirit of the Constitution itself
they cannot lead to any other result. We re
spect those great rights which the Constitution
declares to be inviolable, freedom of speech
and of the Press, the free exercise Of religious
belief, and the right of the people peaceably te
assemble and to petition the Government for q
great safeguards of civil freedom, the haJea,
corpus, the right of trial by Jury, and the righ
of personal liberty, unless deprived thereof fol
crime by due process of law. We declare oui
purpose to obey. in all things, the requirements
of the Constitution, and of all laws enacted IN
pursuance thereof We cherish profound
reverence for the wise and patriotic men by
whom it was framed, and a lively sense of the
blessings it has conferred upon our country,
and upon mankind throughout the world. In
every crisis of difficulty and of danger, we shall
invoke its spirit, and proclaim the supremacy
of its authority.
Iu the next place, we declare our ardent and
mistaken attachment to this Union of Ameri-
can States, which the Constitution created, and
has thus far preserved. We revere it as the
purchase of the blood Of our forefathers, as the
condition of our national renown, ard as the
guardian and guarantee Of that Liberty which
the Constitution was designed TO secure. We
will defend and protect it against all its enemies.
We will recognise no geographical divisions,
no local interests, no narrow or sectional pre-
JUDGES, IN our endeavors TO preserve the Union
OF these States against foreign aggression and
domestic strife. What we claim for ourselves,
we claim for all. The rights, privileges, and
liberties, which we demand as our inheritance,
we concede as their inheritance to all the citi-
zens of this Republic.
Holding these opinions, and animated by
these sentiments, we declare our conviction
that the Government of the United States is
not administered in accordance with the Con
stitution, or for the preservation and prosperity
of the American Union; but that It's powers
are systematically welded FOR THE PROMOTION
AND EXTENSION OF THE INTEREST OF SLAVERY
In direct hostility to the letter and spirit of the
Constitution, in fragrant disregard of other great
interests of the country, and in open contempt
of the public sentiment of the American people
and of the Christian world. We proclaim our
belief that the policy which has for years past
been adopted in the administration of the Gen.
eral Government, tends to the utter subversion
of each of the great ends for which the Consti-
tuition was established; and that, unless it shall
be arrested by the prompt interposition of the
People, the hold of the Union upon their loyalty
and affection will be relaxed, the domestic tran
guilty will be disturbed, and all constitutional
securities, for the blessings of liberty to our
selves and our posterity, will be destroyed.
The slaveholding interest cannot be made per-
manently paramount in the General Govern
ment, without involving consequences fatal to
free institutions. We acknowledge that it is
large and powerful; that in the States where it
exists, it is entitled under the Constitution, like
all other local interests, to immunity from the
interference of the General Government, and
that 1t must necessarily exercise, through its
representatives, a considerable share of poiti-
cal power. Bot there is nothing in its position,
as there is certainly nothing In its character,
TO sustain the supremacy which it seeks TO es-
tablish. There is not State in the Union in
which the shareholders number One-tenth part
of the free white population-nor in the aggre-
gate do they number oRe.fftieh part of the
white population of the United States. The
annual productions of the other classes in the
Union, far exceed the total value of all the
slaves. To say nothing, therefore, of the ques
tons of natural justice and of political economy
which Slavery involves, neither its magnitude
nor the number of those by whom it is repre-
scented entitle it to One-fenth part of the politi
cal powers conferred upon the Federal Govern
ment by the Constitution. Yet we see it seek
ing, and at this moment welding, all the func
hons of Government-executive, legislative
and judicial-and using them for the augment
alton of its powers and the establishment of it,
ascendency.
From this ascendency, the principles of tn,
Constitution, the rights of the several States
the safety of the Union. and the welfare of tn,
People of the United States, demand that j
should be dislodged.
Historical Outline Of the Progress of SLAYER,
towards Ascendency in the Federal Government
1t is not necessary for us to rehearse in detail
the successive steps by which the slaveholdiny
interest has secured the influence it now exert
in the General Government. Close student
of political events will readily trace the path O
its ambition through the past twenty-five year
bf our national history.
1t was under the Administration Of Presiden
TYLER, and during the negotiation which pre-
ceded the annexation of Texas, that the Fed
eral Administration for the first time declared
in its diplomatic correspondence with foreign
nations, that Slavery in the United States wa
"PoLITIcAL INSTITUTION, ESSENTIAL TO tn
PEACE, SAFETY. AND PROSPERITY OF rHOs
STATES OF THE UNION IN WHICH 1T EXISTS !;
and that the paramount motive of the America
Government, in apnexing Texas, was two-folA-
first, to prevent the abolition of Slavery with
its limits; and secondly, to render Slavery NOR
secure and more powerful within the slavehold
ing States of the Union. Slavery was thus ia
ken under the special care and protection of tn
Federal Government. 1t was no longer to b
left as State institution. to be controlled ez
ciusively by the States themselves; it was to b
defended BY the General Government, not onl
against the invasion or instruction of srme
enemies, but against the moral sentiment {
humanity, and the natural development Of poi
ulstion and material power.
Thus was the whole current Of our nations
history suddenly and unconstitutionally reversed
The General Government, abandoning the pr
sision it had always held, declared its purpos
TO protect and perpetuate what the great fount
ers of our Republic had regarded as an evil
as at variance with the principles on which on
institutions were based, and as a source of veal
ness, social and political, to the communities i
which it existed. At tbs time of the Revolution
c.zvery existed in ell the colonies; but, neithe
L,1f m oonfnrv off rds had