The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1868-10-14

| sacred writ of, liberty it has overthrow
the freedom of speech and press; 1t has
substituted arbitrary seizures and arrests
and militsry trials and secret star chamber
| inGnisitions for constitutional tribunals
it has disregarded in times of peace the
right of the people to be free from searches
and seizures; it has entered the post and
telegraph offices, and even the private
rooms of individuals, and seized their pri
vate papers and letters without any speci
fcation or notice of affidavit as required
! by the organic law; it has converted the
American capitol into a bastile ; it has es
tablished system of spies and official es
pionage to which no constitutional mon
archy of Europe would dare to resort ii
has abolished the right of appeal on i'm
portant constitutional questions to the SUI
preme judicial tribunals, and threatens ia
curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction
which is irrevocably vested by the Consti
tuition, while the learned Chief Justice has
been subjected to great and atrocious cal
umnies, merely because he would not pros.
titute, his high Office to the support of the
false and partisan charges preferred against
the President. Its corruption and extrav.
agance have exceeded anything known in
history, and by it's frauds and monopolies
! it has nearly doubled the burden of the
debt, created during the, war, It has
stripped the President of his constitutional
power of appointment, even of his own
cabinets under its repeated assaults the
pillars of the government are rocking on
their base, and should it succeed, in No
yember next. and inaugurate it's fa'esi-
dent, we will meet it as a subjected and
conquered people, amid the ruins of liberty
and the shattered fragments of the Consti-.
tuition. And we do declare and resolve,
that ever since the people of the United
States threw off all subjugation to the,
British crown, the privilege and trust of
suffrage have belonged to the several
States, and have been granted. regulated
and controlled exclusively by the political
power of each State, respectively; and any
attempt by Congress, on any pretext what
ever, to deprive any State of this right, OF
interfere with this exercise, is a fragrant
usurpation of power, which can find no
warrant in the Constitution, and if sane
toned by the people will subvert our form
of government, and can only end in a sim
gle, centralized, consolidated government,
in which the separate existence of the
States will be entirely absorbed. and an
unqualified despotism be established in
place of a federal Union of equal States
that We regard the reconstruction acts Of
Congress, so-called, as usurpations, uncon-
stitutiona1, revolutionary and void that
our soldiers and sailors who carried the
flag of our country to victory against a
most gallant and determined foe must ever
be gratefully remembered, and all the
guarantees given in their favor must be
faithfully carried into execution; that the
public lands should be distributed among
the people, and should be disposed of Ell
ther under the presumption of homestead
laws or sold in reasonable quantities, and
to none but actual occupants, at the mini.
mum price as established by the govern
ment; when grants of the public lands
may be allowed necessarily for the en-
ofimportant public improve
ments, the proceeds of the sale of such
lands, and not the lands themselves,
should be so applied. That the President
of the United States. Andrew johnson, in
exercising the power of his high Office in
the aggressions Of Congress on
the constitutional rights of the States and
the people, is entitled to the gratitude of
the whole American people and on behalf
of the Democratic Party we tender him
our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that
regard. 1osi5e M act igaEafs4
Upon this platform the Democratic Party
appeals to every patriot, intending. all the
element, and all who desire
to support the Constitution and restore the
Union, forgetting all past differences of
opinion, to unite with us in the present
great struggle for the liberties of the peo-
pie, and that to all such, to whatever party
they may have heretofore belonged, we
extend the right hand of fellowship, and
hail all such cooperating with us as
friends and brothers.
ri y.