The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-07-30
Gen. Blair's Letter of Acceptance,

.
letter accepting the Democratic nomina-
tion for Vice President
General G.. ~ Morgan. Chairman Of the
Committee ofthe National Democratic Con-
Ue1tiOn:
GENERAL: l take the earliest opportu-
nifty of replying to your letter notifying me
OF my nomination for Vice President of the
United States by the National Democratic
Convention. recently held in the city of New
York. l accept, without hesitation, the
nomination rendered in manner so gratify-
ing, and give you and the committee my
thanks for the very kind and complimentary
language in which you have conveyed to me
the decision of the Convention. have care
fully read the resolutions adopted by the
Convention, and most heartily concur in
every principle and sentiment they announce
Ny opinions upon all of the questions which
discriminate the great contending parties,
have been freely expressed on all suitable
occasions, and do not deem it necessary at
this time to reiterate them The issues upon
which the contest turns are clear, and cannot
be obscured or disturbed by the sophistries
OF our adversaries. They all resolve them
selves into the old and ever recurring struggle
of few men to absorb the political power
OF the nation. This effort, under every con-
ceivable name and disguise, has always char
acterlZed the opponents of the Democratic
party, but at no time has the attempt as
sumed a shape so open and daring as in this
contest. The adyersaries of free and copsti-
tutional government, in defiance of the ex-
press language of the Constitution, have
erected military despotism in ten of the
States of the Union; have taken from the
President the powers vested in him by the
supreme law, and have deprived the Supreme
~ of itc i.,r;c 1ictIo - e i
by jury and the great writ cf hobeas corpus,
shields of safety for every citizen, which have
descended to US from the earliest traditions
OF our ancestors, and which our revolution
ary fathers sought TO secure to their posterity
forever, iu the fundamental charter of our
liberties, have been ruthlessly trampled
under foot by the fragment cf a Congress-
Whole States and communities of people of
our own race have been attaiDted, convicted, :,
condemned and deprived of their rights as
citizens, without presentment or trial or
witnesses, but by Cong ressional enactment
of &c post fact0 laws and in defiance of the
constitutional prohibition denying, even to
a full legal Congress, the authority to pass
any bill Of attainder or &c pest tacto law.
The same usurp;ng authority has substituted
as electors, in place of men of our own rase,
thus lille 5ally attainted and disfranchiSed, q
host of ignorant negroes, who are supported
in iGleness with the public money, and COM
bined together to strip the white race of
ther brthright, through the management cf
the Freedmen's Bureau, aRl the emissaries
of cOnspiratoTs in other States, and to COM
plete the oppression, the military power Of
the nation has been placed at their disposal.
In order to make this barbarism supreme,
the military leader, under whose prestige
this usurping Congress has taken refuge since
fl,o Of hi h. Xho
free people 10 the elections Of last year, and
whom they have selected as their candidate
to shield themselves from the result Of their
own wickedness and crime, has announced
mis- acceptance of the nomination, and his
willingness TO maintain their usurpations
ever eight millions Of white people at the
South, fixed to the earth by his bayoDets,
he exclaiming Let us have peace" Peace
reignS in Warsaw" was the announcement
which heralded the doom Of the liberties Of
a nation. ''The Empire is peace" exclaimed
Bouaparte when freedom and its defenders
eX pred under the sharp edge of his sword,
The peace to which Grant invites us is the
peace Of despotism and death. Those who
seek to restore the Constitution by executing
the viii Of the people, condemninG the re-
construction acts already pronounced upon
in the elections of last year, and which will,
I am convinced, be still more emphatically
exercised by the election of the Democratic
candidate as the President of the United
States, are denounced as revolutionistG by the
partisans of this vindictive Congress. Negro
suffrage, which the popular vote of New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Ohio
Michigan. Connecticut, and other States,
have condemned as expressly against the
letter of the Constitution, must stand be-
cause their Senators and Representatives
have willed it. If tie people shall again
condemn these atrocious measures by the
election of the Democratic candidate for
President, they must not be disturbed al
though decided to be Unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court, and although the President
is sworn to maintain and support the Con-
stitution. The will OF fraction of Con-
gress reinforced with its partisan emissaries
sent to the South and supported there by
the soldiery, must stand against the will of
the people and the decision of the Supreme
Court, aad the solemn oath of the President
to maintain and support the Constitution.
1t is revolutionary to execute the will of the
people it is revolutionary to execute the
judgment of the Supreme Court; it is revo-
lutonary ia the President to keep inviolate
his oath to sustain the Constitution. This
false construction of the vital principles of
our government is the last resort of those
ton sway, and supercede our time honored
institutions. The national will says the Con-
stitution must be restored, and this will of
the people again prevails. The appeal to
the peaceful ballot to attain this end is not
war, is not revolution. They make war and
revolution, who attempt to arrest this quiet
mode Of putting aside military despotism,
and the usurpatlon of fragment of Con-
gress, asserting absolute power over that
benign system of regulated liberty left US by
our fathers. This must be allowed TO take
its course this is the only road to peace it
will come with the election of the Democratic
candidate, and not with the election of that
mailed warrior whose bayonets- are now at
the throats of eight millions of people at the
South, to compel them to support him as a
candidate for the Presidency, and to submit
to the domination of an aEEn race Of semi
barbarous men. No perversion of truth or
audacity of misrepresent tation can exceed
that which halls this candidate in 9 rms n c an