Litchfield enquirer., 1866-07-19
CONVENTION .oFsLoYALzseURHERNERs.

CONVENTION a0F 0YAL1s s0UPHER
 meeting. of the Southern -loyalists now in Washington, was held on Wednesday, at which the following call was unanimously adopted and signed :: ses 755gs.g
 To tAe, loyaz Unionists of the South: .s,. <
 The great issue is upon us The majority in Congress and it's supporters firmly declare that the rights of the citizen. enumerated in the constitution and established by supreme law, must be maintained inviolate. Rebels and rebel sympathizers assert that the rights of the citizen must belong to the Sta!es alone, and under such regulations as the respective States choose voluntarily to prescribe. We have seen this doctrine of State sovereignty carried out in its practical results, until all authority in Congress was denied, the Union temporarily destroyed, the constitutional rights of the citizens ofthe South nearly snni- hiated, and the land desolated by civil war The time has come when the structure of south ern States governments must be laid on con stitutional principles, or the despotism grown up under an atrocious leadership be- permit ted to remain. We know of no other plan than that Congress, under it's constitutional powers, shall now exercise it's authority to -es- tablish the principle whereby protection is made coextensive with citizenship. Wen tain that no State, either by.its organic law or legislation, can make transgression on the rights efthe citizen legitimate. We demand. and ask you to concur in demanding, protec- ton to every citizen of the great Republic on the basis of equality before the law, ,and fur ther, that no State government should be re- cognizei as legitimate. under the constitution in so far as it does not by its organic law make impartial protection full and complete. Under the doctrine of State sovereignty. with rebels in the foreground controlling southern legislatures, and embittered by disappeint- ment in their schemes to destroy the Union, there will be no safety for the loyal element of the South. Our reliance for protection is now on Congress, and the great Union party that has stood, and in standing by the nation alisy, by the constitutional rights of the citi- zen. and by the benifcent principles of free government. For the purpose of~bringing the loyal Unionists of the South into conjunc- tive action with the true friends of the Re publican government of the North, we invite you to send delegates in goodly numbers from all the Southern States, including Mis- souri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, to meet at Independence Hall, in the city of Philadelphia, on the first Mon day of September next It is proposed that we should meet at that time to recommend measures TOT the eSVaDIlSQmonI or Sucn~ gov ernment in the South as accords with and
 protects the rights of all citizens. WeTtrust
 this call will be responded to by numerous delegations of such as represent the true loy
 atty of the South-that kind of government
 which gives full protection to all the rights | of the citizens, such as our fathers intended,
 and we claim as our birthright.- Either the | lovers of constitutional liberty must rule the
 nation, or rebels a'd their sympathizers be
 permitted to misrule it. Shall loyalty or dis
 loyalty have the keeping of the destinies 6 of
 the nation? Let the responses to this c.ll, (which is now in circulation for signatures,
 and is being nunaerously- signed. answer. Mo-
 tice is given that gentlemen at a distance can have their names attached to it by sending 8 | request by letter. directed toD W Bingham, Esq.,, Washington, D G. fagag aar TOE. ao W B Stokes, Tenn, J l, Fowler, Tenn. l J A Hamilton, Texas, G W,Paschal, Texas.
 L Sherwood, Texas, Henry Cole, Ga.
 G W Washburn, Ga., John D Kelso, Mo.
 J W McClurg, Mo, , CIV Anderson. Mo. :. ) Benjamin. Mo; J c Underwood, Va, D Wardwell, Va, Lewis Mckenzie, Va. ! John B Troth, Va, J NJ StewartfVa.
 Wm N Berkley, Va,, Allen c Harmon, Va J " Hunnicutt, Va, Alex M Davis. Va.
 Geo Reese, Ala, D H Bingham. Ala.
 M Suffold, Ala, " Byron Lafin. N c.
 D R Goodloe, c.; J, H Larcomer, Alas, | James Getty Tennessee, ,,..t, s..