Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-05-10
THE CLEVELAND CONVENTION
Call for n Mass Convention OF Repub.
licans to Nominate a Presidential
Candidate in Opposition to tho
Nominee of the Baltimore
Convention.
A Political Flank Movement.

To the People Of the United States:
After having labored Intellectually to defel
as far as was in our power the critical mo.
ment when the attention of the people mus
inevitably be fixed upon the selection of &
candidate for the chief magistracy of thf
| country; after having interrOgated our con-
| science and consulted our duty as citizens
obeying at once the sentiment of mature
| conviction and profound affection for the
| common country, we feel impelled on oul
own responsibility to declare to the people
that the time has come for all Independent
men, jealous of their liberties and of the
national greatness, to confer together and
unite to resist the swelling invasion of al
open, shameless, and mrestrained patron
age which threatens to engulf under its de-
structive wave the rights of the people, the
liberty and dignity of the nation.
Deeply impressed with the conviction
that, in a time of revolution, when the
public attention Is turned exclusively to
the success of armies, and is consequently
less vigilant of the public liberties, the pat
ronage derived from the organization of an
army of million of men, and an admins
tration of affairs which seems to control the
remOtest parts Of the country in favor of its
supreme chief, constitute danger seriously
threatening to the stability of republican
institutions; we declare that the principle
of one term, which has now acquired nearly
the force of law by the conservation of time.
ought to be infeXibly adhered to in the ap-
preaching elections. We farther declare
that we do not recognize in the Baltimore
Convention the essential conditions of a
truly national convention. Its proximity
to the center of all interested influences Of
the administration, its distance from the
center of the country, its mode of con-
vocation, the corrupting practices to which
1t has been and inevitably will be
subjected, do not permit the people
to assemble there with any expectation of
being able to deliberate at full liberty. Con-
vinced as we are, that in presence of the crit
ical circumstances in which the nation is
placed, it Is only in the energy and good
sense of the people that the general safety
can be found; satisfied that the only way to
consult is to indicate central position to
which every one may go without too much
expenditure of means and time, and where
the assembled people. far from all admins
trative influence, may consult freely and dc
liberate peaceably with the presence of the
greatest possible number of men whose
known principles guarantee their sincere
and enlightened devotion to the rights of
the people and to the preservation of the tue
bases of republican government; we earn
estly invite our fellow-citizens to unite at
Cleveland, Ohio, on Saturday, the thirty
first of May next, for consultation and con-
cert of action in respect to the approaching
presidential election.
B. GRATz Brown, United States Senator
from Missouri, is the first signer to this call.
His name is followed by long list Of dis
tinguished Republican names, from Massa-
chusetts, New York, Ohio, Maine, Missouri,
Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Colorado,
Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, New
Jersey, and Iowa, who compose what is
termed the Peoples Committee.