Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1868-09-23
A LETTER
NEW YORK, August 18th, 1865.
f-Om Peter Cooper to Horatio Seymour.

or to address 10 you, nau the pieaSui0 "
thank you for the prompt answer to a for
NOR letter. and for the assurance L received
,bat I'VE agreed in the end to be realized,
namely, the restoration of the Union and
the preservation of the Constitution. You
will reccIIect that | then stated that L was
50 deeply IMPRESSED with the absolute neces-
sity of maintaining the Union and the Con-
stitution that desired TO see all the pow
ers that God and nature had given to US
broueht into requisition to save our country
from being discovered and made the sport
Of foreign and domestic Saracens-
| feared then, as | fear now, the danger
Of our being drawn into error by men who
have no faith in a real democratic form of
government In that letter | stated that |
was then, and have still continued, to the
18th year Of nv age, 10 be a firm belierer in
a truly democratic form of governmental
mean government founded on those eter-
nal principles of truth and justice which
our fathers declared were selt-evident, name
ly: That all men We're created equal;
that they are endowed by their creator with
eerta inahenable rights; that among these
are life, EJeFty, and the pursuit cf happiness
that to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just
powers form the consent of those that are
governed
In the very first words of the Constitu-
ton, formed by our fathers. it is declared
that I'VE, the people of the United States,
In order to form u mere perfect union, es-
tablish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defence. promote
the general welfare, and secure the bless
ings of liberty to ourselves and our posteri-
ty, do 0rolIin and establish his Constitu-
foa far the United States Of america.
Our fathers, in forming for US this Con
stitution, believed that they had embodied
in the forms of law, the highest wisdom,
virtue, and intelligence Of a ,chole people
They meant to make the wisdom, the virtue
and the intelligence of the people the means
to insure all the blessings required TO make
US nation with all the powers necessary
ITO establish justice, =" and to promote the
general welfare.
To enable the people to do this in he mos:
convenient manner, they declared. in the first
article Of the Constitution, that ''All iegis-
lative powers herein granted shall be rested
IN a Congress of tie United States, rh,cA
shat consist Of a Senate and House Of Rep
reseatatires. y
They then describe the mode aud manner
by which the people, representatives shall
be chosen, who are to make all laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying
into execution the powers of Congress, and
all other powers vested by the Constitution
IN the Government of the United States, or
In any department thereof.
Among these powers there is nothing
palmer than the intention of the trainers of
the Constitution to vest in the people, rep
reSentatlves the right to suspend tile writ
OF hdteas corpus whenever in their Judgment
the public safety may require it, - to sup
press rebellion or repel invasion.
| have been led to address this letter to
you as standing at the head of the Demo
cratic party-a party with which continued
to act 50 long as | believed 1t was laboring
TO promote the greatest good of our com
mon country; but when | became convinc-
ed that the Democratic party, with which [
mad been so long connected, was lending It's
power and influence to sustain men and
measures that had SO far perverted the
constitution of our country as to deny the
rights OF manhood to 1000, 600 of human
oeIngs-and when | saw that | was acting
with party which vas lending its influence
70 men and measures that were raising up
IN our country the vilest form of an aristoc-
facy-an aristocracv that claimed it as
tight that property should own labor"
and claimed the right to mix their blood
WITH the black race, and then sell their
children TO be enslaved with all their poster
ny Then consider it my duty to my coun
ny 70 abandon party that had abandoned
>le great principles of truth and justice.
What tongue can describe the horros of
system that allowed father to sell his child,
]eo may have had seven eights of white
-'"ca In his veins to brutal master, who
-'@1 Tue power to oconfne him on plantation.
Saief more brutal overseer; perhaps a
'ofthern man, with his conscience eallous
=" every human feeling, and whose principal
'e7'mmedatiOu might be that he could whip
%
os,ol unprotected slave the greatest amount
AOoF. Thomas Jefferson might well say
- - '.eE Of such state of things, Il trem-
C'e 'or my country when l remember that
Tod isjust"
'onh Wesley has well declared that such a
%s'e'A contains within itself the sum of all
'.,@iny' The enorIuity of human slavery
"Haphear from the following advertisements,
p'ei from The Georgia -Hessen ger. Run
A"ay-My man, Fountain; has holes in his
sars scar on the right side OF his forehead.
.-H> oeen shot in the hind parts of his legs,
:, marked on his back with the whip. Ap-
PS 70 Robert Beasly, Macon"
we might well have said, in view of a sys
.n that allowed such cruelty, as God is
JUS mat the time must come when those
s'eat principles of our Declaration of Inde-
re"aence that all men are created equal,
'nat they are endowed hv ,ha;r Craator