Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-08-22
A TExTExpouNDED.s

A TEXT TExpOuJNDIsD. -
The following is what the Democratic
party, in their platform, first Of all demano
uFirst. Immediate restoration of all the
States 10 their rights in the Union unoer
the Constitution, and of civil government
to the American people," =.
IT, sounds well but before approving 1t,
there are reasons for wishing to know exact.
To- what ia meant by each of it's general
terms. What, in the Democratic view, Is
Reconstruction 2" What are the rights OF
the states9" What do they understand by
! "civil govsrnmentW
For while the Democratic party in New
York we're making this platform and de-
manding immediate restoration, the Dem
ocra.ic party in Congress was working un-
apimously to defeat the bill for restoring
the rebel States. 1t is clear, therefore, that
they do not mean by restoration" the same
thing that the people mean by it.
The difficulty seems to be satisfactorily
met by the comments Of the Democratic
leaders. The kind of restoration they dc.
mand is thus described by Frank P. Blair,
their candidate for Vice President, in the
letter which he wrote for the Convention
ave must have aPresident who will exc
cute the will of the people by trampling
into dust the usurpations Of Congress,
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
declared:
II want you all 10 register an oath that
when they do vote their vote shall be count
ed, and if there is majority of white votes,
that you will place Seymour and Blair in
| the White House in spite of oil the bayonets
that shall 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 Go 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 "he could talk
more familiarly of the wrongs of the South
here than at the North" Accordingly, he
| declared himself still "a REBEL" and argued
at length that "whst the Confederacy fought
for would be won by the election of Sey-
mour and 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,
Ex Governor Wise, in his eloquent way,
reasoned that since the candidates were ac
ceptable to tho rebels, the platform was of
no account at all.
He did not care for the platform. 1t
told lie in its first resolution. 1t said Sc
cession was dead that was not so /; seces-
sion was more alive than ever. He sup.
ported the nominees, and especially Blair,
because he 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.. Buckaew is wrong. He stands entire
ly alone, and must either retract all this,
and adopt Blair and anarchy, or leave his
party.
That party deliberately oppose the whole
process of legal reconstruction. They de-
mand immediate restoration" instead. Mr..
Blair alone points out a means of accom-
plishing this, and 80 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 cmphatically, in New York, in
the presence of the Convention itself, aud
by Democratic speakers throughout the
country.
Nor is the Democratic platform itself
without very plain declaration on this
| hat M m
be plain, the style of the whole document
being SO loose, ungrammatical, and extra
VACANT tina. there are few sentences in it
which are really ineligible throughout. 1t
declares:
1--WE regard the reconstruction acts $50
calleD of Congress, as such, as usurpation
and unconstitutional, 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 a
Congress, since those bright lights of Demo.
cracy-J. Davis, Toombs, and Rhett-have
left it. But however this may be, there is
no doubt that the sentence is direct ap-
proval of Mr.. Blsir's letter.
If the acts be which Congress has recon
structed the Southern States are "unconsti
tutlonai, revolutionary, ana VOld, IL ls sure
ly not the duty of the President to obey and
enforce them. What can he do but "dis
perse" the State governments, and "trampl.
under foot" Congress itself, as Mr.. Blair de
clares it his purpose to do2
If there be any men of peace among the
, Democrats, like Mr.. Buckalew-any men o
thought or of patriotism who are not ready
to fight for the Confederacy under changed
name-the party will doubtless quietly lei
them leave it, rather than abate one jot o.
its revolutionary doctrine.-N. y. Ecenins
Post.
Montgomery Blair, making speech to tn,
Alexandria Rebels for Seymour and Frank
thus places himself on the stool of repen
tance for having once seemed to be Re