Washington telegraph., 1865-09-27

a WHEREAS, 1t is the imperative duty.
and should be the exclusive desire of ev-
cry American citizen intrusted with the
power of controlling public affairs by his
vote or otherwise, to see that they are
administered with a single eye TO the
great objects which our forefathers had
in view when they laid the foundations
of the Republic, viz: To form more
perfect union; provide for the common
defence; promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity. ., 80.
WHEREAS, The men and the party
administering the Federal Government
since 1861 have betrayed their trust, vio-
lated their sacred obligations, disregard
ed the commands of the fundamental
law, corruptly squandered the public mo-
ney, denied Justice TO the people, per-
verted the whole Government from its
original purpose, and have brought there,
by untold calamities upon the country;
therefore be it
ResOlred, That we, :he Democracy of
Pennsylvania, are now, and always have
been, faithful to the union of the States,
opposing the secession of the South with
all our influence, and having no sympa-
thy or association whatever with that
party in the North which plotted against
the Union, and pronounced the Constitu-
ton ga covenent with death and an agree
ment with hell'
Second, That if the eounsels of the
Democratic party had prevailed the
Union would have been saved in all its
integrity and honor, without the slaugh-
ter, debt and disgrace of civil war
But when the formation of sectional par
ties in the North and in the South, and
iho advent of one OF these parties into
the seats of power, made war a fact
which We could not .counteract, we sus-
tanned the Federal authorities in good
faith, asking nothing at their hands ex-
cept decent resp ct 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 betrayed.
Third, That the Constitution estab-
lished by our revolutionary fathers is en-
titled to our unqualified respect and ODE
dience; the oath to support it is binding,
religiously, morally and legally, at all
times, under all circumstances, and in
every part OF the country; upon all pub
lie officers, from the highest to the low
est, as well as upon private citizens; it
is only by strict observance of its pro-
visions, and Il rigid enforcement of its
obligations in all the States, that we can
hope for union, liberty and peace. He
who wilfully violates it, or counse1s vio-
lation by others, is a public enemy and
dishonest man. (Applause)
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 ha-
beas corpus, the perfect immunity of all
persons not in the army or navy from any
species of crime or pretended crime which
is not the legal consequence of Il legal
conviction by an impartial jury, the alb
solute subordination of all military pow
er to civil authorities, and the privilege
of white persons to vote at the State
elections, according to the laws of the
State.
Fifth, That we fully concur with Pres
idsnt johnson i'll the conviction express
ed by him in 1850, 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
ordinances of secession were nulities,
and, therefore, when the attempted revo-
luton came to an end by the submission
of the insurgents, the States were as
much part Of the Union as they had
been before. Their people We're bound
to the same duties and clothed with the
same rights, excepting, of course, such
rights as individuals among them had le-
gally forfeited by their own acts in the
meantime, and we hereby declare that
so far as we can prevent it, the resump-
ton of their proper places in the Union
by those States, some of whose citizens
were lately in rebellion, shall be imped-
ed or delayed by the unlawful interfer-
ence of that faction at the North which
was always hostile to the Union, which
now pronounces it legally dessolated, and
which is still Indignantly laboring to
prevent its restoration.
Sixth, That the effort now making by
certain persons to use the power of the
General Government with view to force
negro suffrage on the States against the
will of the people and contrary to exist
ing laws, is not only high crime against
the Constitution, but deliberate and
wicked attempt to put the States of this
Union (all of them more OF less and some
of them entirely) under the domination
of the negroes, to Africanize large por-
ton of the country, and degrade the
white race, morally and socially as we'll
as politically, to the low level of the
black We will not acknowledge the
incapacity of our own race to govern it
self, nor surrender the destinies of the
country into the hands of the negroes,
nor put themselves under their guardian
ship, nor give up to them the political
privileges which we inherited from our
fathers, and we exhort our brethren in
other States to take up the same attitude
and maintain it firmly. (Cheers.)
Seventh, That we win support Presi-
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