Year: 1868

and seized their private papers and let
lers without any specific charge or no.
tice or affidavit, as required by the or
ganic law. 1t has converted the Ameri-
can capitol into Bastile. 1t has estab-
lished system of spies and official es-
pionage to which no constitutional mon
archy of Europe would now dare to re-
sort; it has abolished the right of appeal
on important constitutional questions to
the supreme judicial tribunals, and
threatens control of its original jurisdic-
tion which is irrcvocably vested by the
Constitution; while the learned Chief
Justice has been subjected to the most
atrocious calumnies merely because he
would not prostitute his high office to
the support of the false and partisan
charges preferred against the President.
Its corruption and exravagance have ex-
ceeded anything known in. history, and
by its frauds and monopolies it has near
ly doubled the burden of the debt Great
ed by the war. 1t has stripped the Pres
ident of his constitutional power of ap-
pointment even of his own Cabinet. I'm
der its repeated assaults the pillars of
the Government are rocking on their
base, and should it succeed in November
next and inaugurate its President, we
will meet as subject and conquered
people amid the ruins of liberty and tho
scattered fragments of the Constitution.
And we do declare and resolve that ever
since the people of the United States
threw of all subjection to the British
crown, the privilege and trust of suffrage
have belonged to the several states and
have been granted, regulated and con-
trolled exclusively by the political power
of each State respectively, and that any
attempt by Congress on any pretext
whatever, to deprive any state of this
right or interfere with its exercise, is a
fragrant usurpation of power which can
| find no warrant in the constitution, and
if sanctioned by the people will subvert
our form of government, in which the
separate existence of the states will be
entirely absorbed and an unqualified des-
potism be established in place of Fed
eral Union of eo-equal states and that
we regard the reconstruction acts, So
called, of Congress as such an usurpa-
tion and unconstitutional, revolutionary
and void and that our soldiers and
sailors who carried the flag of our coun-
try to victory against most gallant and
!, determined foe must be gratefully re-
membered, and all the guarantees given
in their favor must be faithfully carried
into execution. That the public lands
should be distributed as widely as posi-


bic among the people, and should be dis
posed of either under the pre-emption of


homestead laws, and sold in reasonable


quantities, and to none but actual occu-
pants, at the minimum price established


by the Government; when grants of the


public lands may be deemed necessary


for the encouragement of important pub


lie improvements, the proceeds of the


sale of such lands, and not the lands


themselves, should be SO applied; that


the President of the United States, An.
drew johnson, in exercising the power Of
his high Office in resisting the agressions
, of Congress upon the constitutional rights
/, of the states and the people, is entitled
TO the gratitude of the whole American


people, and in behalf of the democratic


party we tender him our thanks for hi'
, patriotic efforts in that regard.


Upon this platform the democratic
> party appeal to every patriot, including
. all the conservative element, and all wh'


desire to support the Constitution an(
restore the Union, forgetting all pas


differences of opinion, to unite with II


in the present great struggle for the lib
critics of the people, and that to all sucl
!, to whatever party they may have here


tofore belonged, we extend the right ham


of fellowship and hail all such co-opera
;: ting with us as friends and brethren.