The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-07-16
ATTORNEY-GENERAL SPEED.
HIS Reply Go she DOOIittIe- Randall Cir.
cular, Asking Him to Participate I'm
the AuRmst COnNentInn.

WASHINGTON, July Ia, 1S66.-To Hon. J. r.
Doolttle, Chairman, etc.-Sir:-I have the honor
to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the
lOth INST, with printed copy of a call for a
National Union Convention, to be held at Phila-
delphla on the l4th day of August next You
request in case the call and the PRINCIPLES
enunolated In 1t meet my approval, that reply
at my earnest convenience. This language would
seem to imply that no answer is desired if do
not approve the call and the principles avowed
in it; In other words, that failure to reply NAV
be interpreted as a disapproval, not only of the
CALL but OF each and all of the principles an.
nounced in 1t.
This Is a position in which / am unwilling to
be placed, when approve of many of the princi.
pies set forth in the call, and yet do not approve
OF the call ITSELF l will briefly state nv
reasons first promising that do not recognize
the very respectable gentlemen who have made
this call as the acknowledged organs of the
great Union party of the country.
Since the outbreak of the terrific struggle
fromt. which the country has now emerged we
have had a National Union Party that has
exhibited more devotion, made greater sacrI-
fees, and manifested more unselish 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 It's exertions, has, in
he face of the prophecies of half the New
nd all the Old World, saved the Government
nd the republican institutions of our
ommon country from Generalization, and
deed from utter ruin, by vindicating at all
hazards the primordial theory of the eternal.
1ndlssoluble union of the States through which
only can particle of theory of State rights
ever be maintained and carried out. it wouId
appear 70 me to be still the only or at any rate
the most effectual means as far as party can do
IT, oil finally adjusting all the remaining minor
and unsettled matters of reconstruction CON
mentioned.
This party is the same to-day as it was in the
days OF its Trial; the same party now as when
out few short months ago, it elected Lincoln
ana johnson and the majority of the present
Congress-; and as acted with it then, for para.
mount reasons, my sense OF duty demands that
remain and act with it now.
The ptlh and marrow of the present call I
should say, tends towards a convention to form
a party Tor sustaining, not the Government in
It's entirety (as has been the mission of the
Union party, but a department of the Govern.
ment And here must take the liberty of add.
ing, that can hardly conceive OF any sadder
spectacle under the crisis of present circum-
stances, than that OF the tried Union party of
this country becoming dislocated and broken
up by divisions, or that of one branch of the
Government of the country taking an isolated
position upon questions of deep and common
interest, and placing itself in hostile confict
with coordinate departments
For these and other reasons which might be
mentioned, cannot JOIN in the call for the con.
vention in Philadelphia.
L have said that many of the principles stated |
In the call are, in my view, unobjectIon able / |
VIII not stop to criticize those winch are obiec-
tonable, 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 amendment
proposed by Congress to the Constitution of the
United States. This is grave and all-important |
question. The issue upon it cannot be avoided.
It should be placed fairly and squarely before |
the people. The failure to take ground upon so |
important and all-absorbipg a question must be |
attributed either to desire to avoid the issue |
or as a declaration of belief and policy against |
the adoption of the amendment Being m myself |
earnestly and decidedly in favor of the adop-
tion OF the amendment by the States, cannot |
60 into an organization that would either |
openly oppose that measure or that would |
smother it by avoiding its discussion.
must also add, that no man is more desirous |
than an 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 as mortal affairs can be |
made sure, of endless perpetuity in the future. |
The blessings to flow from such Union are |
countless and inestlmable. But such Union, |
consistent within ITSELF maintained by the univer-
sal consent of all classes and sections and laugh
ing to scorn both the assaults OF foes inter-
nal or external, and the ravages of time and |
change, will only be obtained by sterny re- |
sisting every departure from, or compro- |
mise with, the supreme and general idea of the |
\ American fundamental law, the Constitution, |
Chat general idea consists, in brief of the po- |
Lucal liberty and equality of mankind under |
th>N >Nlaw. Such, aud such only, can be the Onion |
the nationality that will put in form the mag.
nificent and lofty dreams OF the American CONT.
mental mind, and fulfil in the future the highest
efforts OF the present and the past 1t is not the
doctoring. The American theory eliminates |
properly in the sacredness of the rights of indi-
viduals-Of each single individual. That after |
all, Is what Washington carved out with the |
sword and jefferson, tilering 1t through his /
subtle and free mind, drew up and put on record |
with the pen. d. |
1t is well known that in the political and |
legal history of the United States, the only de- |
paTtures or compromises of the kind alluded to |
have been those in the interests of slavery, and |
OF its manifold incidents. / do not, of course,
propose to go over the thousand-times-told tale |
OF the past sixty years. To-day, slavery, as q |
confessed legality, is, as we all know, no more.
But some OF the most important of IT'S Incl
dents or compromises still remaln-blots and |
incongrutties upon the law. What equitable |
reason can be given why these incidents also |
should not be erased Time was that when the |
brains were out the man would die; but now we
see the limbs demanding to live and move as If
the nervous centre still existed.
The persistent attempt to keep in the Consti-
tuition the rule OF an unequal and unfair basis
of representation is perious to the future peace
ofthe country, and will surely cause chafng |
sense OF injustice as long as II is continued.
Furthermore, the high mission of the Union |
party, as avowed in the Baltimore Convention,
20 'eXtlrpate slaVery,O includes the removal of |