The Placer herald., 1872-06-01
New YORK, May Goth, 1872,


Cncinnati:
New YORK, May Goth, 1872.
GENTLEMEN: have chosen not to ac-
knowledge your letter of the 3D. inst. until
could learn how the work of your convention
was received in all parts of our great country,
and judge whether that work was approved
and ratified by the mass Of our fellow citizens.
Their response has from day to day reached
me through kilograms, letters and comments
of journalists, independent of official patron
age, and Indifferent to the smiles and frowns
of power. The number and character of
these unconstrained, unpurchased, unsolici-
tated utterances, satisfy me that the move
ment which found expression at Cincinnati
has received the stamp of public approval
and has been hailed by the majority of our
countrymen as the harbinger of better day
for the Republic
l do not misinterpret this approval as
especially complimentary to myself, nor even
to the chivarous and justly esteemed gentle
man with whose name thank your conven-
ton for assocatng mine. receive and well
come it as a spontaneous and deserved trib-
ute to that admirable platform of principles
wherein your convention so tersely, so lucidly,
so torcibly set forth the convictions which
impelled and the purposes which guided its
course; platform that casting behind it the
wreck and rubbish of worn out conten-
tons and by-gone feuds, embodys in fit and
few words lhe needs and aspirations of to-
day. Though thousands stand ready to
condemn your every act, hardly a syllable Of
criticism or cavil has been aimed at your
platform, of which the substance may be
fairly epiomized as follows
First-All political rights and franchises
which have been acquired through our late
bloody convulsion must and shall be guaran-
teed, maintained, enjoyed aud respected
evermOre,
Second-All political rights and franchises
which have been lost through that ponvulsion
should and must be promptly restored and
re-establshed, so that there shall be hence
forth no prescribed class and no disfranchised
caste within the limits of our Union, whose
long estranged people shall reunte and fra
ternizc upon the broad oasis Of universal
amnesty with impartial suffrage.
Third-That, subject to our solemn con-
stitutional obligations to maintain the equal
rights of all citizens, our policy should aim
at local self-government, and not oentrallza-
ton; that the civil authority should be su-
preme over the military: that the writ of
habeas corpus should be .jealously upheld as
safeguard of personal freedom; that the
individual citizen should enjoy the largest
liberty consistent with public order, and that
there shall be no federal subversions of the
internal policy of the several States and mu-
inequalities, but that each shall be left free to
enforce the rights and promote the well being
Of its inhabitants by such means as the
judgment of its own people shall prescribe.
Fourth-There shall be real and not merely
simulated reform in the civil service of the
Republic; to which end it is indispensable
that the chief of its vast official patronage
shall be shielded from the main temptation
to use his power selfshly, by rule inexorably
forbidding and precludmg his reelection.
Fiftl-That raising revenue, whether by
tariff or otherwise, shall be recognized and
and treated as the peoples immediate bust
ness, to be shaped and directed by them
through their representatives in Congress,
whose action thereon the President must
neither overrule by his veto, attempt to die
tate, nor presume to punish by the bestowing
office only on those who agree with him, or
Withdrawing it from those who do not.
Sixth-That the public lands must be sa-
credly reserved for occupation and acquisition
by cultiyaors, and not recklessly squandered
on premature railroads, for WHICH our people
have no present need, and the premature
| r ,,1,b is annually nj u
us into deeper and deeper abyss of foreign
Indebtedness.
Seventh-That the achievement of these
grand purposes of universal bepefcence Is
expected and sought at the hands of all who
approve them, irrespective of past affiliations
Eighth-1hat the public faith must, at all
hazards, be maintained, and the national
credit preserved.
Ninih-That the patriotic devotedness and
inestimable services of felow-citizens who, las
soldiers or sailors, upheld the flag and main
tained the unity of the Republic, shall ever
be gratefully remembered and honorahly re-
Quilted. .,
These propoatlons, SO ably and forcibly
presented in the platform of your convention
have already gained the attention and COM
manded the assent of a large majority of
our countrymen, who joyfully adopt them,
as do, as the basis of true beneficence and
national reconstruction. of a new departure
from the jealouses, strfes and hates which
have no longer an adequate, or even
plausible pretext, into an atmosphere OF
peace, fraternity and mutual good will. In
vain do the drill sergeants Of dying organlza--
tions flourish menacngly their truncheons and
angrily insist that the files shall be closed
and straightened, In vain do the whlppe,rs
in of parties, once vital because rooted IN the
vital needs of the hour, protest against stray
ing and boiling. denounce men nowIse their
interiors as traitors and renegades, and
threaten them with infamy and ruin: am
confident that the American people have al
ready made your cause their own, fully re-