The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1868-09-03
General Frank ?. pairs Letter d Xo:


ceptance of the Democratic Nomination
for Vice President of the United States.
Phe country, we are sure, will ad-
mire the tone and spirit of the follow
ing letter from Gen. Frank p. Blair to
the Committee of the Democratic Con-
vention. The snappers and snarlers
will find no difficulty in understand
ing it, and they had better make up
their minds to condemn it in. the ag-
gregate, and carefully avoid coming in
contact with its details of fact and az
gument. We hail it as an omen of
good that Gen.. Blair has=thez zboldnessl
and manliness to assume. a defiant and
Aggressive attitude towards the gang
of. conspirators who by their out
rageous usurpations have snapped the
foundation of our Governments, and
are waiting to accomplish its over
throw Ei;H s!- H.d .aIfEi 1hf a9ti
General George W. Morgan, Char
man Of the. Committed Of the -Na-
tionGl Democratic Conveation ~
|: GENERAL-I take the earliest op-
portanity 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 Y ork.
1 accept without hesitation the nomi-
nation rendered i'll a manner SO graft
flying, and give you and the Commit
4 tee my thanks for the very kind and
complimentary language in which you
have conveyed to me the decision of
the Convention. / have carefully read
the resolutions adopted by the Con-
vention, and most cordially concur in
every principle and sentiment they
enunciate. My opinion upon all the
questions which discriminate the great
contending parties, have been freely
expressed on all suitable occasions.
and 1 do not deem it necessary ttthis
time to reiterate them. The issues on
which the contest turns are clear, and
,cannot be. Obscured nor distorted bv
the sophistries Of our adVersaries.
/ They all resolve themselves into the
old and ever recurring struggle of a
few men to absorb the political power
of thenation. This effort, under every
I HIS
always characterized the opponents of
the Democratic party; but at no time
has the attempt to assumes SO open and
daring a shape as in this contest. The
adversaries of free and constitutional
government in defianceiofit the express
language of the Constitution, have
erected a military despotism in ten of
the States of the Union, have taken
from the President the power vested
in him by the supreme law, and have
deprived the Supreme; Court ofits iu-
risdiction.5 The right of trial by jury,
and the great writ of wright, the ha-
beas corpus--the, shields of safety for
every citiZen-Whieh have descended
+. to us from the earliest traditions of
our ancestors, and which our revolu-
tionary fathers fought to secure to
their posterity for ever in the pfunda-
4 mental charter of our liberties, have
been ruthlessly trampled under foot
by the fragment of a Congress. Whole
States and communities of people of
our race have been attainted, con-
Victed, condemned, and deprived
of their rights as citizens without
i presentiment, OF trial or witness ! but
| by4Congressional enactment of ex-
post facto laws, and in defiance of the
Constitutional prohibition denying to
a. full and legal Congress the author
ty to pass any bill of attainder. or ex
post facto. law. The same uSQrping
authority has substituted aslelectors
in place of men of QUIZ own race thus
4 illegally attained and ,disfranchised, a
host of ignorant negroes, who aresup-
u ported in Jidleness with the public
i fmoneV, land:ieOmbined tagethaIn to
strip the white race cot their BIRTH
night, through the management of
<freedmen's bureaus and emissaries of
conspirators i'm other States. III And to
complete the oppression, the military
power of the nation has been placed
at their disposal;9 lin order to make
this barbaTism supreme. The mill
tary leader under whose prestige this
usurping Congress has taken refuge
since the condemnation of their
schemes by theifiee people Of the
North in the elections of the last year,
and who they have selected as their
candidate to shield themselves from
the result of their wiekedness and
crime, has announced his acceptance
of the nominations and his willing
hOSo w bl1cll
over eight millions of white people at
{ the South, fixed to- the earth with his
/ bayonet!i He eXclainns eLet us have
I peace" fPeaee reigns in Warsaw" I"
was the announcement which her
aided the doom of the. liberties of, a
people. 9tgPhei Empire is peace" ex-
claimed Buonapalt when freedom and
its defenders expired under the sharp
edge of the sw ord. The peace to
which Grant invites ns is the peace of
1 despotlsm and death. Those who
seek to restore the Constitution By ex-
feeuting the will Of the people con
demning the reconstruction acts, al
ready announced in the elections last
year, and which WILL I am convinced,
be still more emphatieally expressed
by the election of the Democratic can
didate for President of the United
Estates, are denounced as asPevoIutionists
by the partizans of this vindictive
/ Congress. Negro suffrage, which the
1 popular vote of New York, New Jer-
:fsey, PeniisylNania, Ohio, Michigan,
Connecticut, aid other States have
Eeondenned az expressly against the
fletter of the Constitution, must stand
because their Senators and Represen-
tatives have willed It'll If the people
shall again condemn these attrocious
measures, by the election of the DEM
ocratie candidate for President they
must nat be disturbed, although deci--
ded to be unconstitutional by the Su-
preme Court although the President
is sworn to maintain and support the
Constitution;!i The will of d fraction
1 of Congress, reinforced with. its parti--
zan emissaries, must stand against the
will of the. people, the decision Of the
Supreme Court, and the solemn oath
of The President to maintain and sup
port the Constitution! 1t is revolu-.
tionafy in The President to keep in
violate his, oath to sustain. the Consti-'
/ tutieh This false construction of the
vital principles of our government is
the last resort of those Who would
sway and supercede our time honored
institutions. The nation Will say,
: l.