Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-08-08
NIr. Speeds Reply.

AOg-OOhOAoA SPOOO " Tx AhpOAlAuSnt Sdl
upon him to endorse the Philadelphia
Convention of August IA:
WASHINGTON, D. c., July IA, 1866
To Hon. j. Z. Do0liHle, Chairman, dc,
SRI have the honor to acknowledg,
the receipt of your note of the 10th inst.
with a printed copyof a call for a Nation.
al Union Convention, to be held in Phila
delphia on the 18th day of August next.
Your request, in case the call and the
principles enunciated in it meet my ap.
proval, that l reply at my earliest conve'
nience. This language would seem &c
imply that no answer is desired if / dc
not approve the call and the principles
avowed in it in other words, that a fail,
ure TO reply may be interpreted as a dis
approval, not only of the call, but of each
and all of the principles announced in it.
This is a position in which l am unwilling
to be placed, when l approve of many OF
the principles set forth in the call and
yet do not approve of the call itself.
l will briefly state my reasons, first
promising that l do not recognize the
very respectable gentlemen who have
made this call as the acknowledged or
gans of the great Union party of the
country. Since the outbreak of the ter
rife struggle from which the country has
now emerged, we have had a national
Union party that has exhibited more de.
~votion, made greater sacrifices and mani.
tested more unselfsh patriotism than any
party eyer did previously in the history
of the world. That party is still in be.
ing, with its organization intact and its
organs known; and as that party, by Its
faith, its doctrines, and its exertions has,
in the face of the prophecies of half the
New and all the Old World, saved the
Government and the republican institu-
tions of our common country from de
moralization and indeed from utter ruin,
by indicating at all hazards the primer
dial theory of the eternal, indissoluble
union of the States, through which only
can a particle of the theory of State
Rights ever be maintained and carried
ont, it would appear to me to be still the
only, or at any rate the most, effectual
means, as far as u party can do it, fol
finally adjusting all the remaining minor
and unsettled matters of reconstruction
constantly 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
nov as when, but a few short months ago
it elected Lincoln and johnson, and the
majority of the present Congress; and as
I acted with it then for paramount reas'
ons, my sense of duty demands that
remain and act with it now.
The pith and marrow of the present
call, I should say, tends toward a conVen-
ton to form a party for sustaining, not
the Government entire,-"as has been
the mission of the Union party,"-but a
department of the Government; and here
l must take the liberty of adding that !
can hardly conceive of any sadder spec
tacle under the crisis of present circum-
stances than that of the tried Union par
ty of this country becoming dislocated
and broken up by divisions, or that of one
branch of the Government of the coun-
try taking an isolated position upon ques.
tions Of deep and common interest, and
placing itselfin hostile conflict with a CO.
ordinate department.
For these and other reasons which
might be mentioned, 1 cannot join in the
call for the convention in Philadelphia.
/ have said that many of the principles
stated in the call are in my view unob.
Jectionable. l will not stop to ~criticise
those which are Objectionable, but con-
tent myself with stating that the call
fails to take any notice of one of the
great issues now before the American peo-
pie. I allude to the question whether
the several States shall ratify or reject
the last amendment proposed by Con-
gress 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
squarely before the people. The failure
to take ground upon so important and
all-absorbing a question must be attribu-
ted either TO desire to avoid the issue, OF
as q declaration of belief and policy
against the adoption of the amendment.
Being myself earnestly and decidedly in
favor of the adoption of the amendment
by the States, l cannot 60 into an organi-
zation that would either openly oppose
that measure, or that would smother il
by avoiding its discussion.
Unjust also add, that no man is more
DESTROYS than l am, 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
a union, are countless and inestimable
but such a union, CONSTANT within itself,
maintained DO the universal consent oil
all classes and sections, and laughing to
scorn both the assaults of foes internal OF
external and the raYages of time and
change, will only be obtained by sternly
retracting every departure from or com.
promise with the supreme and general
idea fundamental to the American Con.
stitution. That 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 nation.
ality, that will put in from the magnif,
cent and lofty dreams of the American
continental mind, and fulfil in the future
the highest efforts of the present and
past. 1t is not the vague delusion that
the rights of the States need doctoring
The American theory eliminates prop.
erly in the sacredness of the rights o.
individuals,-of each single individual
That after all is what Washington carved
out with the sword, and Jefferson. fl
teTing ii 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 or compromises of the
hluu dlluuOO W nave OcSA luOSc III l1e
interests of slavery and of its manifold
incidents. l do not, of course, propose
TO go over the thousaod-time e. told tale oil
the past sixty years; to-day slavery, as a
confessed legality, is. as We all know, nc
more but some of the most important
of its incidents or compromises still re
main, blots and incongruities upon the
law. What equitable reason can be Civ.
en- 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 Constitution the rule ofan unequal
and unfair basis of representation is peril
GUS to the future peace of the country
and will surely cause a chatting sense Of
injustice as long as it continues. Further
more, the high mission of the Union
party, as avowed in the Baltimore Con
Vention,-to extirpate slaYery,-include: