The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-05-17
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION.

ADDRESS
of the Committee ON Resolutions to the
People Of the United States.
The administration now in power
has rendered itself guilty Of wantOn
disregard Of the laws Of the land and
Of powers not granted by the constitu-
ton it has acted as il the laws hal
binding force only for those who are
governed aud not for those who
govern it has thus struck a blow at
the fundamental principles OF consti-
tutionsl government ami the liberties
of the citizens. The President of the
United States has openly used the Op-
portunities Of his high office for the
promotion of personal ends. He has
kept notoriously corrupt and unworthy
men in power and responsibility, to the
detriment Of public interest. He has
used the public service of the govern
ment as a machinery of partisan and
personal influence, and inierfered with
technical arrogance in the political
Affairs of States and municipalities.
He has rewarded with influential and
lucrative Office men who had acquired
his favor by valuable presents, thus
stimulating the ddmoralizAtiOn of our
political life by his conspicuous ex-
ample. He has shown himself de-
plorably unequal to the tasks imposed
upon him by the necessities of the
country, and cuIpably careless of the
responsibilities of his high Office. The
partisans Of the administration, as
Stunning to be the Republican party and
controlling its organization, have at
tempted to justify such wrongs ard
palliate such abuses, to the end of
maintaining partisan ascendancy. They
have stood In the way of necessary in
vestigations and Indispensable reform,
that as serious fault could be found with
the present administration of public
affairs, thus seeking to blind the eyes
of the people. They have kept alive
the passions and resaptments of the
late civil war to use IN for their own
advantage. They hive resorted to arbi-
trary measures in direct conflict Rith
the organic law, instead of appealing to
the better instincts.aEd latentpatriotism
of the Southern people by restoring to
them those rights, the enjoyment of
which is indispensable for successful
administration Of their local affairs,
and would tend to move q patriotic and
hopeful national feeling. They have
degraded themselves and the name of
their party, and q party that is justly
entitled to the confidence of the nation,
by base sycophancy to the dispensing
executive power and patronage un-
worthy of Republican freemen. They
lave sought to silence the voice of just
criticism to stifile the moral sense of
Of the people, and to subjugate public
opiuion by tyrannical party discipline.
and they are striving to maintain
themselves in authority, for selfish
ends, by an unscrupulous use of the
power which rightfully belongs to the
people and should be employed only in
the service of the country. BELIEVING
that an organization thus led and con-
trolIed can no longer be Of service to
the best interests Of the republic, we
have resolved to make an independent
appeal to the sober Judgment, con-
science and patriotism Of the American
people.
THE PLATFORM.
We, the Liberal Republicans of the
United States, In National Convention
assembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the
following principles as essential to Just
government:
Fhst-Wer recognize the eqality of all
men before the law, and hold that it is