Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-07-14
Call for a Convention Of Southern
Radicals.
THE WAR UPON THE PRESIDENT.
stokes and Fowler.

The following call is issued by a knot Of
politicians from the Southern States who
have joined themselves to STEVENS & Co
Their convention is proposed to be held al
Philadelphia, on the first Monday in Sep
tember:
The great issue is upon u.s. The majority
in Congress and its supporters firmly declare
| that therightso Of the citizen enumerated in the
Constitution and established By the supreme
law must be maintained inviolate. Rebels
and rebel sympathizers assert that the rights
Of the citizens must belong to the States, and
undersuch regulations as the respective States
! choose voluntarily to prescribe. We have
seen this doctrine Of State sovereignty car
ried out in its practical results until all au-
thority in Congress was denied, the Union
temporarily destroyed, the constitutional
rights of the citizens of the South nearly
annihilated, and the land desolated by civil
war. The time has come when the structure
Of the Southern States Governments must
be laid on constitutional principles, or the
despotism grown up under an atrOcious
leadership permitted to remain.
We know of no other plan than that Con-
gress, under its constitutional power, shall
now exercise its authority to establish the
principle whereby protection is made coex-
tensiye with citizenship. We maintain that
a State, either by its organic law or legisla-
ton, can make transgression on the rights
Of the citizen legitimate. We demand, and
ask you to concur in demanding, protection
to every citizen of the great Republic on
the basis of equality before the law; and
further, that no State government should
recognize as legitimate under its Constitu-
ton, in so far as it does not, by its organic
law, make impartial protection full and COM
plete, the doctrine of State sovereignty.
With rebels in the foreground, controlling
Southern Legislatures, and embittered by
disappointment 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 Congress and the great
Union party that has stood and is standing
by the nationality, by the constitutional
rights of the citizen, and by the benefcent
principles Of free government
For the purpose of bringing the loyal
Unionists of the South into coniunctive ac-
ton with the true friends Of Republican
Government of the North, we invite you to
send delegates in goOdly numbers from all
Southern States, including Missouri, Ken
lucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Della
ware, to meet at Independence Hall, in the
city Of Philadelphia, on the first Monday Of
September next. 1t is proposed that we
should meet at that time to recommend
measures for the establishment Of such gov
eminent in the South as accords with and
protects the rights of all citizens.
We trust this call will be responded to by
numerous delegations of such as represent
the true loyalty of the South, and that kind
of government which gives full protection
to all the rights of the citizen, such as our
fathers intended and we claim a. our birth
right. The lovers of constitutional liberty
must rule the nation, or rebels and their
sympathizers be permitted to misrule it.
Shall loyalty or disloyalty have the keeping
of the destinies of the nation? Let the
responses to this call, which is now in circu-
lation for signatures, and is being numerous
ly signed, answer.
Notice is given that gentlemen at a dis
lance have their names attached to it by
sending a request by letter addressed B. w.
BINGHAM, Washington, D. c. Signed:
w. 3. Stokes, Tenn; Jos. $. Fowler, Tenn;
A. J. Hamilton, Texas Geo. w. Paschal,
Texas; L. Sherwood, Texas; G. w. Ash
burn, Ca; Henry G.. Cole, Ga; j. w.
McClurg, Missouri; J. R. Kelso, Mis-
souri, ]. F. Beng, Missouri; George
w. Anderson, Mo-; J. B. Tooth, Fairfax
comfy, Va; J. NJ. Stuart Alexandria,
Va; A. c. Hartman, Alexandria, Va;
Lewis Mckenzie, Va; J. w. Hunnicott,
Va; J. c. Underwood, Va; Burnham
Wordwell, Va; Alex. NJ. Davis, Va;
Byron Latin, n. c.; Geo. Reese, Ala; d.
H. Bingham, Ala; NJ. J. Safold, Ala: J.
II. Larcombe, Ala.