The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1865-08-31
The Democratic Platform.

A A"'0 Otoeo OonfeutioHi dVopteO the
following Platform
ResolDed, That we, the Democracy of
pennsylvania, are now, as we have always
been, faithful to the Union of the States,
opposing the secession of the South with
all our influence, and having no sympathy
or association whatever with any party in
the North which plotted against the u
nion and pronounced the Constitution ga
covenant with, death and an agreement
with hell"
Second, That if the counsels of the
Democratic party lad prevailed, the
Union would have been saved in
all its integrity and honor, without the
slaughter, debt and disgrace of a civil
war But when the formation OF sectional
parties In the North and in the South.
and the advent of one Of these parties into
the seats of power made war fact which
we could not counteract, we sustained the
Federal authorities in good faith, asking
nothing at their hands except decent
respect for our legal rights and some show
OF common honesty in the management
of our financial affairs, but in both these
particulars We were disappointed and be-
trayed.
Third, That the Constitution establish
ed by our revolutionary fathers is entitled
to our unqualified respect and obedience !;
the oath to support it is binding, religious
ly, morally, legally, at all times, under all
circumstances, and in every part of the
country; upon all public officers, from the
highest to the lowest, as we'll as upon pri-
vate citizens it is only by strict obser-
vance OF It's provisions, and rigid en-
forcement of its obligations in all the
States, that we can hope for union, liberty
or peace. He who wilfuly violates it, or
counsels violation by others, Is a public
enemy and dishonest man.
Fourth, That among the rights guar
anteed to US by the plainest words of the
Constitution are these: Free press, free
dom from arbitrary arrest and illegal i'm
prisonment, trial by jury, the writ of Eabeas
corpus, the perfect immunity OF all per-
sons not In the army or navy from any
species of punishment for crime or pre-
tended crime which is not the legal con-
sequence of legal conviction by an i'm
partial jury, the absolute subordination of
all military power to the civil authority,
and the privilege of white citizens to
vote at the State elections, according to
laws of the State.
Fifth, That we fully concur with Pres
ident johnson In the conviction expressed
by him in 1860 and repeated several times
since, that the Federal Government is
sovereign within its proper sphere that
it acts not through or upon the States but
directly upon individuals; that the States
could not absolve the people from their
federal obligations; that the State ord-
nances OF secession were utilities, and,
therefore, when the attempted revolution
Uame to an end by the submission of the
the States were as much a
part of the Union as they had been be-
fore. Their people were bound to the
same duties and clothed with the same
rights, excepting, of course, such rights
as individuals had legally forfeited by
their own acts in the meantime, and we
hereby declare that so far as we can pre-
vent it,a the resumption of their proper
places in the Union by those States, some
Of whose citizens were lately in rebellion,
shall not be impeded or delayed by the
Interference of that faction at
the North which was always hostile to the
Union, which now pronounces it legally
desolated, and which is Indignantly LABOR
ing to prevent its restoration.
Sixth, That the effort now making by
certain persons to use the power of the
Federal Government with Wow to force
negro suffrage on the States against the
will of the people and contrary to existing
laws, is not only high crime against the
but deliberate and wicked
attempt to put the States of this Union
|all of them more or less and some of
them entirely) under the domination of
negroes, to Atricanize large portion of
the country, and degrade the white race,
morally and socially, as well as politically
TO the low level of the black We will
not acknowledge the incapacity of our
own race to govern itself, nor surrender
he destinies OF the country into the hands
of negroes, nor put themselves under their
guardianship, nor give up to them the
political privileges which we Inherited |
rom our fathers, and we exhort our
brethren in other States to take up the |
same attitude and maintain it firmly.
Seventh, That we will support Presi- |
lent johnson in every just effort he may
make to place all the States in their proper |
positions, to give to them fair represen-
alton in Congress, to save them from the
curse of negro-equality he shall have
,ur hearty approval when he inficts legal I
punishment by means of legal tribunals
'pon offenders against the United States,
md we will BE with him in every means
which look to the maintenance of the
public credit But our full approval of