Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-07-25
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The following is what the democratic
party in their platform, frst of oil, demand
nFirst Immediate restoration 0: all the states
TO their rights in tho Union under the CONSTITUTION,
and Of civil government to tho American people
It sounds well but before approving it,
there are reasons for wishing to know ex.
actly what is meant by each of its general
terms. What, in the democratic view, is
reconstruction Z" What are the rights OF
the statesi" What do they understand by
''civil government !"
For, while tho democratic party in New
York were making this platform and de-
manding "imnicdiato restoration" the defn-
ocratic party in Congress were working
unanimously to defeat tho bill for restoring
the rebel states. It is clear, therefore, that
thew do not mean by restoration" the same
thing that the people mean by 1T.
The difficulty seems to be satisfactorily
mot nv the comments of the democratic
leaders The kind of restoration they de-
nand is thus described by Frank i. Biai-,
their candidate Tor Vice President, in the
letter which he wrote for the Convention:
awe must have President who will execute tho
will OF tho people by trampling iHto dust the usur
pations of Congress, known as the reconstruction
acts"
But how to get President who will dis.
perse and overthrow Congress, is previous
! question. This is answered by Mr.. Wade
Hampton, who declared at the ratification
meeting in this city, on Thursday last, that
his party must seize the polls in the South,
and have the white vote cast alone. He de-
clared:
IL want you all to register an oath that when tbey
do yoto their vote shall be counted, and if there s
majority Of whito votes, that you will place Soy
our and Blair in the White House in spite of all
the bay onets that%hall be brought against them"
OF course he means that the mob thus to
be raised shall decide who has "a majority
OF white votes |"
| But this language was evidently carefully
adapted to the latitude and to the some
what sensitive ears of Governor Seymour's
friends" Mob law has its charms for them !;
but they do not like secession. But when
the delegates get to Richmond they tell the
people more plainly what they mean.
Thus Ex Confederate Governor Vance, of
North Carolina, there said she could talk
moro familiarly of the wrongs of the South
here than at the North" Accordingly, he
declared'himsef still ia rebel" and argued
at length that "what the Confederacy fought
for would be won by the election of Sey-
mour aud Blair"
| Indeed, in the Richmond atmosphere
there is disposition to simplify the canvass
to this one issue-Seymour and the rebel
| lion against Grant and the Union. Thus
reasoned that since the candidates were ac-
ceptable to .he rebels, the platform was of
no account at all.
| "He did not care for the platform. It told lie
in its first stresolution said secession toas drad;
that tcaS not so I; secession attus than
erer. He supported the nominees, and especially
Blair, because ho had declared that he would as
sumo military power"
Now Mr. Buckalew, Senator from Penn.
sylvania, rashly denounces Mr.. Blair and
his letter, and protests that the democratic
party does not, and cannot, mean to sustain
him, and to make war against the southern
state governments and against Congress.
Mr.. Buckalew is wrong. He stands entire
ly alone, and must either retract all this,
and adopt Blair and anarchy, op leave his
party.
That party deliberately oppose the whole
process of legal reconstruction. They de-
mand immediate restoration" instead. Mr..
Blair alone points out means of accom-
plish:ng this, and so makes the platform
practical. He did it in letter which pre-
sented this as his claim to nomination,
and the party nominated him at once. His
Interpretation of its doctrines is sustained,
clearly and emphatically, in New York, in
Tue pIeStuCt VI tuc SOhScutlOu ltSSii, auu
by democratic speakers throughout the
country.
Nor is the democratic platform itself
without q very plain declaration on this
point; or, at least, one that seems meant to
be plain, the style of the whole document
being so loose ungrammatical and extrava-
giant that there are few sentences in it which
are really ineligible throughout. 1t &C.
clares
two regard the reconstruction acts (socalled) of
Congress as such, us usurpation and unconstituton
al, revolutionary and void"
Now, the phrase "acts, so called, of Con-
gress, as such, may mean much or little.
Perhaps the writer wanted to hint that the
body now acting "as such" is not really
Congress, since those bright lights of demo
cracy-J. Davis, Toombs and Rhe.t--have
left it. But however this may be- there is
no doubt that the sentence is a direct ap.
proval of Mr. Blairs letter.
If the acts by which Congress has recon-
structcd the southern states are 'unconsti-
tutional, revolutionary and void" it is sure
ly not the duty of the President to obey and
enforce them. What can he do but "dis-
perse" the state governments, and "trample
under foot" Congress itself, as Mr. Blair
declares it has the purpose to dol
If there be any men of peace among the
democrats, like Mr.. Buckalew- any men of
thought or of patriotism who are not ready
to fight for the confederacy under changed
name-the party will doubtless quietly let
them leave it, rather than abate one jot of
its revolutionary doctrine.-N. Y. Eeening
Post, July l6.