The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-10-30
ADDRESS OF THE DEMOCRATIC MA
TIONAL COMMITTEE TO THE CON-
SENTATIVE VOTERS OF THE
UNITED STATES.
f,EW YORK. October q


and duty to address you on the eve of
the great battle which we are to fight,
and which is to decide whether the
Government of this Republic is to re-
main four years more in the hands of
the Radical party, or whether by an
energetic, united, and last effort you
will wrest the power from its grasp,
and give to us, under a Democratic
Conservative administration, a Gov
ernment based upon principles of JUS
tice, economy, and constitutional lib
erty.
The issues of the present campaign
are plain and seIf-evident. They ap-
peal to the intelligence and patriotism
of fevery voter in the most unmistaka-
bic terms. They have been ably dis
cussed by distinguished orators and
leaders of our party since the NOM
ination of our candidates.
What the Democratic party intends
to do, if placed in power by your suff-
RACES, is to restore peace and union to
our country to heal the wounds and
sufferings caused by the rebellion; to
give to the people of the South the
rights to which they are entitled I'M
der the Constitution, and by which a
lone we can bring back prosperity
and quiet to that distracted section to
reduce materially our military and
naval establishments, kept up now on
an immense scale and at an enormous
cost, to introduce in every department
of Government the strictest economy,
and to develope, by an equitable sys-
tenn of imposts and taxation, the grow
ing resources of our country, and thus
to place the Federal finances on a solid
and stable footing and to pave the way
to gradual and safe return to specie
payments. We are charged by the
Radical party, the party of violence
and usurpation, which for the last four
years, to prolong its own existence,
has set at nought the Constitution and
and the fundamental principles of our
Government, that we intend revOlu-
ton and defiance of established laws.
The accusation is unfounded and alb
surd it cannot be entertained for mo-
ment by any intelligent voter, who
has even the most superficial knowl-
edge of the history of his country
The Democratic party can proudly
point to every page of Its record. 1t
has never violated single obligation
of the fundamental compact by which
these United States entered into the
family of nations. Its watchWOrd, in
peace as in war, has been and will al
ways be the Union, the Constitution,
and the Laws. And no man nor any
set of men, however high they might
be placed by the suffrages of their fell
low-citizens. can ever expect to receive
the support of this great Conservative
party in any revolutionary attempt
against established laws. The ballot
box and the supreme will of the A
merican people are the only means Of
redress to which we look.
Fellow Democrats! You are fighting
for good and righteous cause. You
have for your leader tried statesman;
a patriot who stood by the Union in
its darkest hour; man equally be-
loved for the purity of his private
character as honored for his public vir-
tues.
Opposed to you are the men who
have subverted the structure of our
system of representative self-govern-
ment, vindicated to the world by more
than half century of prosperity and
greatness the men who have increased
our enormous debt by profigacy and
corruption unparalleled; the men
who in two successive Congresses have
demonstrated their incompetency to
diminish our burdens by economy or
apportion them with equity the men
who have so distributed our burdens
so as that they press with excessive
weight upon the labor and industry
of the country, marking rich men
richer by making poor men poorer.
Opposed to you are the men who
have denied for three years of peace,
and will continue to deny until your
votes arrest them, self-goyernment to
the people of ten States the men who
have taken away the power of our
Chief Magistrate to insure a faithful
execution of the laws, or to command
the army and the navy of the United
States the men who did their worst
to expeI the President from the White
House for obeying faithfully the be-
hests of your supreme law; the men
who, being conscious of their crimes,
dreaded to have the Supreme Court de-
clare their quality, and therefore a.