The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1866-07-20
A Patriotic Letter.
WASHINGTON, ID. c., July IA, 1sG,


call for a National Convention, to be
held at Philadelphia on the l4th day
of August next. You request, in case
the call and the principles enunciated
in it meet my approval, that reply
at my earliest convenience. This
language would seem to imply that
no answer is desired, if do not ap-
prove the call and the principles
avowed in it. In other words, that
a failure to reply may be interpreted
as disapproval not only of the call
but of each and all of the principles
announced in it. ...
This is a position III which ! am
unwilling to he placed, when l ap
prove OF many of the principles set
forth in the call, aud yet do not ap
prove of the call itself. | will brief
y state my reasons, first promising
that do not recognize the very res
pectablc gentlemen who have made
this call, as the acknowledged organs
OF the great Union party of the coun.
try. Since the outbreak OF the
terrific struggle, from winch the
country has now emerged, we have
had n National Union party that has
exhibited more devotion, made great
er sacrifices, and manifested more
unseliish patriotism, than any party
ever did previously in the history OF
the world. That party is still in
being, with its organization intact
and its organs known; and as that
party, by its faith, its doctrines and
its excrtions, has, in the face of the
prophecies Of half the New and all
the Old World, saved the Govern.
mcnt and the republican institutions
of our common country from dc.
moralization, and indeed from utter
ruin, by vindicating at all hazards
the primordal theory of the eternal
indissolublc union of the States,
through which only can n particle of
the theory of State rights ever be
maintained and carried out, it would
appear to me still the only, or at any
rate the most eficctual means, rs far
rs party cap do it, of finally adjust
ing all the remaining minor and un-
settled matters of reconstruction
consistently with the requirements
OF the theory mentioned This party
is the same to-day rs it was in the
days of its trial; the same party now
as when, but few short months ago,
it elected Lincoln and johnson and
the majority of the present Congress-
and rs acted with itthen for para
mount reasons my sense of duty de
mands that 1 remain and act with i,
now.
The pith and marrow of the pres
cnt call, / should say, tends towart
n convention to form a party for sus
tanning, not the Government in its
entirety, as has been the mission o
the Union party, but department
and here l must take the liberty o.
adding that l can hardly conceive o
any saddcr spectacle under the crisis
of present circumstances than that O
the tried Union party of this countr,
becoming dislocated and broken W
by diversions, or that of one brancl
, of the Government of the country
taking an isolated position upon qucs
tions of deep and common interest
and placing itself in hostile conflic
. with coordinate departments. Fol
+ these, and other reasons which might
: be mentioned, l cannot join in the
call for the Convention in Philadel.
phia.
have said that many of the prin.
ciples stated in the call, are, in my
view, unobjcctionable. / will not stop
TO criticise those which are objection-
able, but content myself with stating
that the call fails to take any notice
of one of the great issues now before
the American people. allude to the
question whether the several States
shall ratify or reject the last amend.
ment proposed by Congress to the
Constitution of the United States
This is a grave and all important
questions; the issue upon it canuot be
avoided. 1t should be placed fairly
and squarely before the people. The
failure to take ground upon so mpor
tant and all.absorbing question must
be attributed either to n desire to
avoid the issue, or as declaration of
belief and policy against the adoption
of the amendment. Being myself
earnestly and decidedly in favor of
the adoption of the amendment by
the States, cannot 90 into an organ
ization that would either openly op.
pose that measure, or would smother
it by avoiding its discussion. must
also add, that no man is more desir-
ous than / am, to attain the entire
restoration of the American Union,
with its practical workings in more
perfect harmony and concord than
ever, and the surety, as far rs mortal
affairs can be made sure, of endless
perpetuity in the future.
The blessings to flow from such a
Union are countless and incstimable
But such Union, consistent within
itself, maintained by the universal
consent of all classes and sections,
and laughing to scorn both the as.
saults OF foes internal or external,
and the ravages of time and change,
will only be obtained by sternly re
tracing every departure from or com,
promise with the supreme and gen.
eral idea of the American lundalnen.
tai law--the Constitution. That gen.
eral idea consists, in brief, of the po-
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