Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-29

M Es56-e0 AND Isz2
Whoever seeks for proof that the Repub-
Hean party Of to-day Is not the party of 1856,
when it made its first Presidential nominal
ton, let him read the following resolution
adopted then as part of its platform, sub
stituting any Southern State, and especially
South Carolina, for Kansas:
sResolved, That while the Constitution
of the United States was ordained and es-
tabIished by the people in order to form
more perfect Union, establish Justice, in
sure domestic tranquility, provide for the
common defense, and secure the blessings
Of liberty, and contains ample provisions
for the protection Of the life, liberty, and
prosperity Of every citizen, the dearest con-
stitutional rights of the people of Kansas
have been ffaudulently and violently taken
from them; their territory have been in
vaded by an armed force; spurious and
pretended legislative, Judicial and executive
officers have been set over them, by whose
usuped authority, sustained by the military
power of the government, tyTanDieal and
unconstitutional laws have been enacted
and enforced; the rights Of the people to
keep and bear arms have been infringed;
test Oaths Of an extraordinary and entang-
ling nature have been imposed as a con-
dition of exercising the light of suffrage
and holding Office; the right of
an accused person TO a speedy and
public trial by an impartial jury has been
denied; the right of the people to he secure
in their persons, houses, papers and effects
against unreasonable searches and seizures,
has been violated; they have been deprived
of life, liberty and property without due
process of law; that the freedom Of speech
and of the press has been abridged; the
right to choose their representatives has
been made Of no effect; murders, robberies,
and arsons have been instigated and en-
couraged, and the offenders have been al
lowed to 60 UNPUBLISHED; that all these
things have been done with the knowledge,
sanction and procurement of the present
administration; and that for this high crime
against the Constitution, the Union, and
humanity, We arraign tho administration,
the President, his advisers, agents. supper
tiers, apolOgists and accessories, either be-
fore or after the facts, before the country
and before the world, and that it is our
fixed purpose TO bring the actual perpetra-
tors Of these atrociOus Outrages and their
aecomplices to a sure and condign punish
ment hereafter"
Or, if more is needed, reflect on what,
four years later, the same party said about
State rights and Executive corruption, in
the platform adopted at Chicago in 1860:
az. That the maintenance, inviolate, Of
the rights of the States, and especially the
rights of each State to order and control its
own domestic institutions according to its
| own judgment exclusively, is essential to
that balance Of power on which the perfec-
ton and endurance of our political fabric
depends; and we denounce the lawless in
vasion by armed force Of the soil of any
! State or Territory, no matter under what
pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.p
''6. That the people justly view with
] alarm the reckless extravaganza which per-
vades every department of the Federal gov
eminent; that a return to rigid economy
and accountability is indispensable to arrest
the systema &c plumber of the public treas
ury by favored partisans; while the recent
startling developments of frauds and cor
ruptions at the Federal metropolis show that
an entire change of administration is impeT-
atiyely demanded"
Could a more severe arraignment of the
Grant administration be framed By a Dem
ocrat to-day? Grant and his co-conspira-
tors have been guilty of every crime which
the Republican party of 1856 denounced in
connection with Kansas, and yet the lead.
ers Of this self-same party, or at least the
party that has usurped the name, propose to
make Grant their candidate for second
term. Let the people of the country take
the leaders Of the Republican party and try
them on their platforms and their record
and see how they are wanting, not only in
consistency but in patriotism. In what re-
spect has the course of the Grant admin
istration towards the Southern States diff
fered in the least from that the Republi-
cans Of 1856 charged had been pursued to-
ward Kansas, and which they denounced in
the eloquent words quoted. How those
words must burn Grant and his co-conspir-
ators if they have any sensibllity left. Run
over the whole catalogue Of Infamous
crimes there denounced, and see if you can
find one of which Grant and his Cocoon
spirators have net been guilty in their treat
ment of the Southern States. And now
the Republican leaders Of to-day are ask
ing the people of the United States to vote
for man who cannot stand in the light of
the record which their party made in 1856.