Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-07-18
LETTER OF Ex.ATTORNFY GENERAL.
SPEED.

14o''. =. L. DVvstttc, Ciio3THldH, etc Sir /.
have the honor to acknowledge the receipt
Of youi. note of the 10th inst, with d printed
copy Of call for National Convention. to
be held at Philadelphia on the 18th day of
August next You request, in case the call
and principles enunciated in it meet my APP
provaI, that | reply at my earliest eonve-
nience. This language would seem to imply
that no answer Is desired, if do not approve
the call and 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 in which am unwilling
to be placed, when approved many of the
| principles set forth in the call, and vet do
not approve of the call itself / viii briefly
state my reasons, first promising that do
not recognize the very respectable gentlemen
who have made this call, as acknowledged
organs of the great Union party of the coun-
try.
Since the outbreak Of the terrific struggle.
from which the country has now emerged.
we have had a National Union party that
has exhibited more devotion, made greater
sacrifices, and manifested more unselfsh
patriotism, than any party ever did pre-
viously 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 exer-
tiOns, has, in the face of the prophecies of
half the New and all the Old World, saved
the Government and the republican institu-
tons Of our common country from democrat
ization, and indeed from utter ruin by
indicating at all hazards the primOrdal
theory of the eternal indOssOluble union of
the States, through which only can parti-
Gle ofthe theory of State rights ever can be
maintained and carried out, it would APP
pear to me to be still the only, or at any rate
the most effectual means, as far as a party
can do it, of finally adjusting all the remain
ing minor and unsettled matters of recon-
structiOn, consistently with the requirements
of the theory mentioned. This party is the
same to-day as it was in the days of its trial;
the same party now as when, but few short
months ago, it elected LINCOLN and JOHN
SON and the majority of the present Con-
gress; and as ! acted with it then for para
mount reasons, my sense of duty demands
that l remain and act with it now.
The pith and marrow of the present call,
l should say, tends toward a convention to
form party for sustaining, not the Govern
ment in its entirety, as has been the mission
of the Union party, but department of the
Government; and here must take the lib
erty of adding that can hardly conceive of
any sadder spectacle under the crisis of pre-
sent circumstances than that of the tried
Union party of this country becoming dis
located and broken up by diversions, or that
of one branch of the Government of the
tulr cd
questions of deep and common interest, and
placing itself in hostile conflict with co-or-
dinate departments. For these, and other
reasons which might be mentioned cannot
join in the call for the Convention in Phila-
delphia.
| have said that many of the principles
stated in the call, are, in my view, unobjec-
tiOnable. l will not stop to criticise those
which are Objectionable, 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 ques-
ton whether the several States shall ratify
or reject the LAST amendment proposed by
Congress to the Constitution of the United
States. This IS a grave and all important
question; the issue upon it cannot be
avoided. 1t should be placed fairly and
sQudr6lY D6IOfe the people.
The failure to take ground upon so i'm
pOrtant aud all-absorbing question must be
attributed either to a desire to avoid the
issue or as declaration of belief and policy
against the adoption of the amendment.
Being myself earnestly and decidedly in ia
vor of the adoption of the amendment by
the States cannot go into an organization
that would either openly oppose that mea-
sure, or would smother it BY avoiding dis
cussion. must also add, that no man is
more DESTROYS than l am, to attain the en-
tire restoration Of the American Union, with
its practical workings in more perfect har-
mOny 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 inestimable. But such a
Union, consistent within itself maintained
by the universal consent Of all classes and
sections, and laughing 70 sc0rn both the as
salllts Of foes internal or external, and the
raVages If time and change, viii only be
obtained by sternly retracting every depart
ure from or compromise with the supreme
and general idea Of the American funda-
mental law-the Constitution. The general
idea consists, in brief, of the political liberty
and equality of mankind under the law.
Such, and such only, can be the Union, |
the nationality that will put in form the |
magnificent and lofty dreams of the Ameri- |
can continental mind, and fulfill in the fu- |
ture the highest efforts Of the present and |
the past. 1t is not the vague delusion that
the rights of the States need doctoring. The |
American theory eliminates properly in the |
sacredness of the rights of individuals-of |
each single individual. I'll 1t after all is |
what WASHINGTON carved out with his |
sword, and JEFFERSON, filtering it through |
his subtle and free mind, drew up and put |
on record with the pen.
1t is well known that in the political and |
legal history of the United States, the only |
departures on compromises of the kind al
luded have been those in the interests of |
slavery and of its manifold incidents ] do |
not, of courss, propose to go over the thousand
times told tale of the past sixty years, to-day.
Slavery as confessed legality, is, as We all
know, no more, but some Of the most i'm
portant of its incidents or compromises still
remain, blols and incongruities upon the
law. What equitable reasons 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 nerves still existed.
The persistent attempt to keep in the Con-
stitution the rule ofan unequal and unfair
basis of representation is perilous to the fu-
ture peace Of the country, and will surely
cause chatting sense of injuries as long az it
is continued furthermore, the high mission
Of the Union party, as avowed in the Balti-
more COnyentiOn-to extirpate slavery-in-
cludes the removal of all the hate, and anti
popular exerescences, engrafted by that in
stitution for its own selfish ACKNOWLEDGMENT
upon our free national laws and policy.
That high mission and obligation cannot be
until all which slavery has so
sngrafted is cut out for until then slavery is
not extirpated.
Earnestly sympathizing with the men who
look upon law of equal representation as
the only guaranty for popular rights, /
should feel myself out Of place in a party
that showed basis Of representation giving
peculiar and unjust advantages to a portion
Of the body polite, to the detriment and
of the whole. /,
United with you and all good men in the
soulfelt desire that peace, prosperity, and
smicable brotherhood, which is more than
any worldly prosperity, may soon prevail,
and continue unbroken through our COM
mon country that the former enmity shall
lie out and be forever lost, and that all over
he broad domain of America equal laws
shall protect equal rights TO all men,
/ have the honor to subscribe myself your