Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1868-07-16
Democratic National Convention.
THE PLATFORM.

Tile constitution as the foundation and Inn
itation Of the powers Of the government,
and the guaranteeing the liberties Of the
citizen, and recognizing the questions Of
slavery and secession as having been set
tied for all time to come by the war, or
the revolutionary action Of the Southern
States in constitutional conventions assem-
bled, and never to be renewed or reagita-
ted, do, with the return Of peace, demand.
First. The immediate restoration of all
the State to their rights in the Union un-
der the constitution, and Of civil govern
ment to the American people.
Second. Amnesty for all past political
offences and the regulation Of the elective
franchise in the States by their citizens.
Third The payment Of the public debt
of the United States as soon as practicable !;
AID that all money drawn from the peo-
pie by taxation, except so much as is req
uisite for the necessities of the government
economically administered, be honestly APP
piled to such payment, and where the OBJ
legations Of the government do not express
ly state upon their face, or the law under
which they were issued does not provide
that they shall be paid in coin, they ought,
in right and in justice, to be paid in the
lawful money Of the United States.
In demanding these measures and re-
forms We arraign the Radical party for its
disregard Of right and the unparalleled op-
preston and tyranny which have marked
its career. After a most solemn and unan-
imous pied &c Of both houses of Congress to
prosecute the war exclusively for the main
tenance of the government and the preser-
walton of the Union under the Constitution
it has repeatedly violated the most sacred
pledges under which alone rallied that no.
bic volunteer army which carried our flag
to victory; instead Of restoring the Union,
1t has, SO far as in it, power, dissolved
it and subjected ten States, in time or pro
found peace, to military despotism and ne
gro supremacy; has stripped the President
OF his constitutional power Of appointment
even Of his own Cabinet. Under it's re-
peated assaults the pillars Of the govern
ment are rocking en- their base and should
it succeed in November next and inaueu-
rate its President, we will meet as sub
jugated and conquered people amid the
ruins Of liberty and the scattered fragments
OF the Constitution.
Resolved, That in the future, as in the
past, We will adhere, with unsWerving f.
deity, to the Union under the constitution
as the only solid foundation of our strength,
security and happiness as people, and as
framework OF government equally con-
ducive to the welfare and prosperity Of all
the States, both Northern and Southern.
Resolved, That the Union established
by the constitution is Union of States,
federal in its character, composed Of States
thereby united, and is incapable of eyist-
ing without the States as its continuing in
tegral parts, and, therefore, the perpetuity
of the Union in its integrity depends on
the preservation Of the States in their po-
litieal integrity, the government Of the
United States being federal republic and
not consolidation Of the whole people in
to one nation.
Resolved, That the perpetuity Of the
Union and the maintenance of the govern
meut as both were established by the con-
stitution, and as both under the constitu-
ton have been expounded in the foregoing
resolutions, in conformity with the vener
able teachings Of Jefferson, Madison and
Jackson, have ever been held as cardinal
doctrines of the Democratic party, and
they are now reiterated with increased
earnestness, under the solemn conviction
that constitutional liberty can be preserve!
on this continent only by bringing back
the administration of the government to
these time honored principles on which,
for sixty years, there was such unparallel-
ed happiness and prosperity. and in rescn-
ING it from the bands of those who have
ever held the constitution itself to be no
better than covenant with death and an
agreement with hell" whose revolutionary
policy and measures have brought such
general discord, strife and war, with it's
attendant ills, upon large portion of the
country, and such widespread demoraliza-
ton throughout the whole Of it.
Resolved, That the Democratic party in
sustaining the federal admip1Gation in the
late unhappy conflict Of arms did SO in
good faith, with the hope and earnest wish
to maintain the principles above set forth,
and with no view Of waging war on the
part of the Northern States in any spirit OF
oppression against their brethren of the
South, nor for any purpose OF conquest or
subjugation, nor purpose Of overthrowiDg
or interfering with the rights of establish