Year: 1868

DsmsIishiHg the Herestss OF Tammany


Hall.


New YORK, Aug. 13, 1s6s.-To the Hon. Hora-
tito Seymour-My Dear Slr:-In the last letter
had the honor to address to you, ] had the
pleasure to thank you for the prompt answer to
a former letter, and for the assurance received
that I'VE agreed IN The end to be realized,
namely, the restoration OF the Union, and the
preservation OF the Constitution" You will
recollect that then stated that was so deeply
impressed with the absolute necessity of main
tanning the Union and the Constitution that
desired to see all the powers that God and
nature had given to us brought into requisition
to save our country from being discovered, and
made the sport of foreign and domestic Saraceus.


feared then, as fear now, the danger of our
being drawn into error by men who have no
faith in q real democratic form of government.
In that letter l stated that was then, and /
have still continued to the 18th year of my age,
to be firm believer ia a truly democratic repub
lican form OF government, mean government
founded on those eternal principles of truth aud
justice which our fathers declared were self
evident, namely:-"That all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inaenable rights; that among these
ale life, liberty, and the pursuit OF happiness;
that, to secure these ghts, governments are in
stituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed.n


In the very first words of the Constitution,
formed by our fathers, it is declared that ''We,
the people of the United States, in order to form
n ore perfect union, establish justice, insure
domestic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and
our posterlty, do ordan and establish this Con-
st1tution for the United States of America"
Our fathers in forming for us this Consttu-
tion, believed that they had embodied in the
forms of law, the highest wisdom, virtue, and
intelligence of q whole people. They meant TO
make the wisdom, the virtue, and the lntelli-
gence of the people the means to insure all the
blessings required to make us a nation with all
| the powers necessary ito establish justice" and
ito promote the general welfare"


To enable the people to do this in the most
convenient manner, they declared IN the first
article of the Constitution that "All legislative
powers herein granted shall be vested in a Con-
gress of the United States, which shall consist
OF Senate and House of Representatives"
They then describe the mode and manner by
which the peoples representatives shall be
chosen, who are to make all laws which shall
be necessary and proper for carrying into exc
cution the powers OF Congress- and all other
powers vested by the Constitution in the Gov
ernment of the United States, or in any Depart
ment thereof.


Among these powers there is nothing palmer
than the intention of the trainers OF the CcnstI-
tuition TO vest in the peoples representatives the
right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus when
ever in their judgment "the public safety may
require it," to suppress Rebellion or repel in
Vaslon.


have been led to address this letter to you as
standing at the head of the Democratic party, a
party with which | continued 10 act SO long as |
believed it was laboring to promote the greatest
good of our common country; but when l be-
came convinced that the Democratic party, with
which had been so long connected, was lending
its power and influence to sustain men and
measures that had so far perverted the Consti.
tuition of our country as to deny the rights of
manhood to 4 600, 900 of human beings-aud
| when saw that was acting with party which
was lending its influence 10 men and measures
| that were raising up in our country the vilest
| form of an aristOcracy-an aristocracy that
claimed it as right that property should own
labor" and claimed the right to mix their blood
| h IL aud hnn uDl oh lHran
! to be enslaved with all their posterity, then |
consider it my duty to my country to abandon a
| party that had abandoned the great principles
| of truth AMI justice.


What tongue can describe the horrors of a
| system that allowed father to sell his child,
| who may have had seven -elghths OF white blood
in his veins, to brutal MASTER who had the
power to contine him on plantation, under a
more brutal overseer; perhaps Northern man,
with his conscience calous to every human
feeling, and whose principal recommendation
might be that he could whip out OF the unpro'
tected slave the greatest amount of labor


Thomas Jefferson might well say, IN view OF
such a state OF things 81 tremble for my coun-
try when remember that God is just.n


| John Wesley has well declared that such a
system contains within itself the sum of all
Vllainy. The enormity of human slavery will
appear from the following advertisement, copied
from the Georgia MeSsenger:-"Run AWay-My
man Fonntaine: has holes in his ears. a scar on
the right side OF his forehead, has been shot In
the hind parts Of his legs. is marked on his back
with the whip. Apply to Robert Beasly, Macon"


We might well have sald, in view or a system
that allowed such cruelty, as God Is Just thai
the time must come when those great principle
of our Declaration Of independence that de-
clare "that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain in
alienable rights, that among these are life, LID
eIty, and the pursuit of happiness must bt
Vindicated in our own country. Allow me L
repeat what | said in my last letter. namely
that /, who served my country in person and b,
| substitute from the commencement of the wa
with ENGLAND to its close, feel that have righ
to plead with my countrymen OF every shade o
| political opinion, and to beseech them by ever,


consideration that can move our manhood t


consider carefully the dangers that threaten


as nation.


1t has been to me for years a source of pro


found regret 10 find so many of those whom


have esteemed and houorCd as friends takinI


part with and forming all kind OF excuses 10


men who have done all that was possible t


destroy our union OF States; and now regret u


find hose very friends calling themselves Demo
Gratis, and at the same time, uniting with thos


who were leaders In the Rebellion and striving
to aid them TO build up what they are please


to call a White Mans Government" :" by whcl


they mean to hold 100000 of human being


under ban or disqualification that will prov


as destructive TO their happiness as the SLAYER


from which they have been delivered j haV


been at O loss to see how mind so elevated q


YOURS could for moment consider II possibl


for democratic government to enact cours


Of class legislation that would make one lay


tor the white man and another for the blac


man.