Nebraska advertiser., 1868-06-11

I|%
Colfax TO the committee announcing hi:
nomination by the Chicago Convention
WASHINGTON, May SOTO Hon. J.
R. Hawley, President of the Nationa
Union Convention - Dear Sir: The
platform adopted by the patriotic conven.
ton over which you presided, and the
resolutions which so happily supplement
it, entirely agrees with my views of a
just and national policy, and my thanks
are due TO the delegates as much for
their clear and auspicious declaration of
principals as for the nomination with
which | gratefully accept. When a
great rebellion which imperiled the ma
tional existence was at last overthrown,
the duty devolving on those entrusted
with the responsibilities of Legislation
evidently was to require thatthe revolted
States should be readmitted to parlicipa-
ton in The government against which
they had erred, only on such a basis as 10
increase and fortify, not to weaken and
end2nger the strength and power Of the
natiOn. Certainly no n ought to have
claimed that they should be re-admitted
under such rule that their organization
as States could ever again be used, as at
the opening of the war, to defy the ma
tional authority or to destroy the national
unity. This principle has been the polar
Star of those who have infexIbiy insisted
on the Congressional policy your COnven-
ton SO cordially endorsed. Bifled by
executive opposition and by persistent
refusal to accept any plan of reconstruc-
ton proposed by Congress, justice and
public safety al last combined to teach US
that only by an enlargement of suffrage
in those States could the desired end be
attained, and that it was even more safe
to give the ballot to those who loved the
Union, than to those who had sought in
effeetually to destroyIt Ii. The assured sue.
cess Of this Legislation is being written on
the adamant of history, and will be our
triumphant vindica,ion. more clearly,
too, than ever before does the nation now
recognize that the greatest glory of a
Republic is that it throws the shield of
protection over the humblest and weakest
of its people, and vindicates the rights of
the poor and powerful. l rejoice, too, in
this connection, to find in your platform
the frank and fearless avowal, that nat
uralized citizens must be protected abroad
at every hazard, as though they were ma
I've born. Our whole people are foreign
ers. Our fathers Established by arms their
right TO be called a nation. II remains
for US to establish the right, and welcome
to our shores all who are willing. by oath
of allegiance, 10 become American citi-
e Perpetual allegiance, as claimed
abroad, is only another name for perpet-
ual bondage, and would make all slaves
to the soil where first they saw the light.
Our cemeteries prove how faithfully
these oaths of fidelity to their adopted
land have been sealed in the life blood
of thousands upon thousands. Should we
not then be faithless TO the dead if we
did not protect their living brethren in
the full enjoyment OF that nationality for
which, side by side with the native born,
our soldiers of foreign birth laid down
their lives? Il was fitting, too, that the
representatives OF a party which had pro-
we'd so true 10 the national duty in time
Of war, should speak so clearly in time of
peace for the maintenance unlarnished of
the national honor, credit and good faith
as regards the debt, the cost of our ma
tional existence. ! do not need to extend
this reply by further comment the plat.