The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1872-05-11
Address, Resolutions and Ballots OF the
Cincinnati Conventions.

the Liberal Republican Convention
reads as follows, and will be found a
strong indictment against President
Grant:
| The Administration now in power
has rendered itself guilty of a wantOn
disregard Of the laws of the land and OF
powers not granted by the Constitution;
it has acied as if the laws had binding
force only for those who are governed,
and not for those who govern. 1t has
thus struck I, blow at the fundamental
principles of Constitutional Govern
ment and the liberties of citizens. The
President of the United States has OPEN
ly used the powers and opportunities
of his office for the promotion of person.
al ends; he has kept notoriously corrupt
and unworthy men in places of power
and responsibility, to the detriment of
the public interests; he has used the
public service of the government as
machinery partisan and personal in
huence, and interferred, with tyran-
meal arrogance, in the political affairs
of the States and municipalities he has
rewarded with influential and lucrative
offices those who have acquired his
favor by valuable presents, thus stimu-
lating the decentralization Of our politi-
=
has shown himself deplorably unequal
to the tasks imposed on him by the
necessities of the country and culpably
careless of the responsibilities of his
high office. The partisans of the Ad-
Ininistration, assuming to be the Re-
publican party and controlling its Or
ganization, have attempted to justify
such wrong and paliiate such abuses,
to the end of maintaining partisan as
cendancy. They have stood in the way
of necessary investigation and indis-
pensable reforms, pretending that no
serious fault could be found with the
present administration of public affairs,
thus seeking to blind people. They
have kept alive the passions and re-
sentiments of the late war to use them
for their own advantage. They have
resorted to arbitrary measures in direct
conflict with the organic law, and in
stead of appealing to the better instincts
and latent patriotism Of the Southern
people by restoring to them those rights,
the enjoyment of which is indispensa-
bic for the successful adninistra-
tion of their local affairs, and would
tend to move a patriotic and hopeful
national feeling, they have degraded
themselves and the name their
party, once justly entitled to the con-
fidence Of the nation, by q base syc-
ophancy to the dispenser of executive
power and patronage unworthy of re-
publican freeInen. They have sought
to stitle the voice of just criticism, the
moral sense of the people, and subju-
gate public opinion by tyrannical party
discipline. They are striving to main
tain themselves in authority by an un-
scrupulous use of power which right
fI1 hall tn, hn oh
be employed only in the service of the
country; believing that an organiza-
tion thus lead and controlled can no
longer be of service to the best inter-
ests Of the Republic, we have resolved
to make an independent appeal to the
sober Judgment, conscience and patriot
ism of the American people.
The following is full text of the
resolutions:
We, the Liberal Republicans of the
United States, in National Convention
assembled, at Cincinnati, proclaim the
following principles as essential to 4
just government:
l. We recognize the equality of all
men before the law, and hold that it is
the duty of the Government, in its
dealings with the people, to metc out
equal and exact justice to all, of what
ever nativity, race, color or persuasion,
religious or political.
,. We pledge ourselves to maintain
the Union Of these States, cmancipa-
ton and Acknowledgement, and to OPP
pose any rc-opening of the questions
settled by the thirteenth, fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments of the con-
stitution.
3. We demand the immediate and
| absolute removal of all disabilities I'M
posed on account of rebellion, which
was finally subducd seven years ago,
believing that universal amnesty will
result in complete pacitcation in all
sections Of the country.
| 1. Local self government with impair
| tial suffrage will guard the rights of
all citizens more securely than any CEN
tralized power. The public welfare
requires the supremacy of the civil
over the military authority and free
dom of person under the protection OF
habeas corpus. We demand for the
! individual the largest liberty consist
ent with public order, for the state self
government, and for the nation, a re-
! turn to the methods of peace and the
constitutional limitations Of power.
). The civil service of the Govern