Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-09-18
a'A lsfgllAuGpns.
LETTER FROM PETER COOPER
TO HORATIO SEYMOUR.

New YORK, August 18th, 1868.
To THE HoN. HoRATIo SEYMOUR:
lUy Dear SI,-In the last letter [ had
the honor to address to you, had the pleas
ure to thank you for the prompt answer
to former letter, and for the assurance l
received that we agreed in the end to be
realized, namely, the restoration of the I'm
ion and the preservation of the Constitu-
ton You viii recollect that | then stated
that | was so deeply impressed with the alb
solute necessity of maintaining the Union
and the Constitution that desire to see all
the powers that God and nature had given
to US brought into rcquisition to save our
country from being discovered and made the
sport Of foreign and domestic Saracens.
feared then, as l fear nov, the danger
of our being drawn into error by men
who have no faith in a real democratic form
of government. In that letter Istated that
I was then, and have still continued, TO
the 18th year of my age to be q Jirm be-
Herer IN a truly democratic republican form
Of goYerument-I mean government
founded on those eternal principles of truth
and justice which our fathers declared were
selfevident, namely That all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among
men, deriving their Just powers from the
consent Of the governed
In the very first words Of the Constitu-
ton, formed by our fathers, it is declared
that We, the people of the United States,
in order to form a more perfect union, es-
tablish justice. insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings
Of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, d.
orolaiip and establish this Constitution for the
United .States Of -4merca.
Our fathers, in forming for US this Con-
stitution, believed that they had embodied
in the forms Of law, the highest wisdom,
virtue, and Intelligence Of arhole people
They meant to make the wisdom, the vir-
tue. and the intelligence of the people the
means to insure all the blessings required to
make US nation with all the powers neees-
sary to establish justice, and to pro
mote the general welfare
To enable the people to do this in the
most convenient manner, they declared, in
the first article of the Constitution, that
All legislative power herein granted shall
be rested n a Congress Of the United States,
'oiich shall consist Of a Senate and House
I Of Representatives.. -
/ They then describe the mode and manner
By which the peoples representatives shall
be chosen, who are to make all laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying
into execution the powers Of Congress, and
all other powers vested by the Constitution
in the Government of the United States, or
1 in any Department thereof
/ Among these powers there is nothing
I palmer than the intention of the trainers of
the Constitution to vest in the peoples rep
resentatives the right to suspend the writ Of
habeas corpus wherever in their Judgment
the public safety may require it, to sup
I press rebellion or Tepel invasion.
have been led to address this letter to
you, as standing at the head of the Demo
cratic party-a party with which contin-
ued to act so long as believed it was labor
ing to promote the greatest good of our com
mon country; but when / became convinced
that the Democratic party. with which had
been SO long connected, was lending its pow
er and influence to sustain men and meas
ures that had so far perverted the Constitu-
ton of our country as to deny the rights Of
manhood to 100000 of human beings
and when l saw that | was acting with a
party which was lending its influence to
men and measures that were raising up in
our country the vilest form Of an aristocrcy
an aristocracy that claimed it as a right
that property should own labor, and
claimed the right to mix their blood with
the black race, aud then sell their children
to be enslaved with all their posterity, then
Iconsidered it my duty to my country to aban-
don party that had abandoned the great
principles of truth and justice
What tongue can describe the horrors Of
system that allowed father to sell his
child, who may have had seyen-eights Of