American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-07-25
Proposals for a New Party.

d emoeratic Senators, have issued propo-
sails for a new party They invite the
assembly ola Convention in Philadelphia
on the I4th of August, to consult upon
the state Of the Union. In their call
these gentlemen state several principles
upon which all patriotic men agree, and
they omit several which are peculiar TO
the Union party. The proposals for the
new party are plainly hostile to the action
of Congress, which was elected by an
enormous majority of the Union party,
and may Mrly be supposed to represent
its views more faithfully than Senators
Hendricks of Indiana and Nesmith of
Oregon, who opposed that party last year
at the polls, and who oppose its measures
in Congress .H fsg. n
The effort to represent this call as vir-
tually an act of the great Union party of
the country is simply dishonest. Mr..
Hendricks and Mr.. Nesmith have never
assumed to belong to that party. That
party, moreover, has its organization and
Executive Committee, and its Conven-
tions are legitimately called only by that
Committee. The officers of the National
Union Club of Washington have exactly
as much right to speak for the Democratic
as for the Union party; and the fact that
they have hitherto acted with the Union
party OILY shows that they now consider
themselves to have withdrawn from it !;
for why, otherwise, should they seek sep
arate and Independent actionS
1t is only against false pretenses that
we wish to warn our readers. The gen.
tlemen in question have an undoubted
right to their opinions upon all subjects,
and an equal right to call conventions of
those who sympatbize with them. II
they ore alarmed by prospect of "usurp.
alton" and Capitalization of power" by
the National Legislature, and are indif-
ferent to the same danger from the Ex-
ecutive, they may not be very wise, but
they have certainly a right to hold and
express that view. Buff we may judge
from the resolutions of Union -Conven-
tions, from the speeches of successful
Union candidates, from the almost uRan-
imous tone of the Union press, and from
the impressions of private intercourse with
representative Onion men, Congressional
usurpation is not feared by the Union
party; and to represent Convention call
ed under such an apprehension move
ment for the read justment of that party
is gross and dangerous misrepresenta-
ton. Such a Convention can be only a
bridge by which those Union men who
hold with Alexander II. Stephens that a
State which has been in rebellion has "a
continuing right" to resume its relations
with the Union without delay or condi
ton, may pass over to the camp in which
Mr. Stephens principles upon that sub
ject prevail. But can Senator Doolitte,
who signs the call, be supposed to speak
the sentiments of the Union party in
Wisconsin, whose Legislature, controlled
by that party, has asked him to resign ?
Or does Senator Dixon speak for the
Union men of Connecticut, who elected
General Hawley Governor, and whose
Legislature made General Terry Senator,
and adopted--frst of all the STATE the
Constitutional Amendment to which all
the signers of this call are opposed
The new party, if it is ever born, can
act, of course, stand upon its own legs
1t will be at once taken to the breast of
the party which opposed the war for the
Union, and which denounced Mr.. Lin
coin and Mr. johnson as usurpers and
tyrants, and it will be carried, helpless,
wherever that party chooses. There will
! not be thFSe parIiSS ih inc cVhihS Nou-
gressional elections; and even if the par
ty of the Washington Club should at
tempt for time to stand as third, it
could be only to the detriment of the
Union party, not of the Copperheads.-
The contest will finally be between those
who support the amendment and those
who oppose it. Those who oppose it are
the late rebels, not the Union men at the
South, aud our friends the Chicago Cop
perheads at the North. The members Of
the Washington Club party must join
these, or they must vote with their old
allies of the Union party. They may
disable the latter, but they can not injurC
the iormer, and we should really like f
know whether Mr.. Randall aud Senators
Dixon and Doolittle sincerely believe tina
union and liberty, in this country, are
safer in the hands of the late rebels ant
the opponents of the war than in thos'
of the Union party, however qnwise som'
of its measures may haye been, and how
ever foolishiv some of its Conpressiona