Year: 1868




constitutional liberty and individual rights, and
the maintenance Of the rights Of naturaiEed citi-
zens against the absolute doctrine Of immutablO
allegiance and the claims of foreign powers to
punish them for alleged crime committed beyond
their Jurisdiction


In demanding these measures and reforms, We
arraign the radical party for its disregard of
right and the unparalleled oppression and tyrAn-
ny which have marked it's career. After the most
solemn aud unanimous pledge Of both houses Of
Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for
the maintenance of tho government and preser-
walton of the Union under the Constituton, il has
repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge,
under which alone was rallied that noble Yolun-
teer army which carried our flag to victory. In
stead of restoring the Union, it has so far is
in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten
States, in time of profound peace, to military des-
potism and negro supremacy.


1t has nulliied there the right of trial BY jury;
it has abolished the habeds corpus, that most sa-
cred writ of liberty, it has overthrown the free,
dom of speech and the press it has submitted
arbitrary seizures and arrests, and military
trials, and secret star chamber inquisitions for
the constitutional tribunals it has disregarded
in time of peace the right of the people to be
free from searches and seizures it has entered
the post Offices, telegraph offices, and even the
private rooms of individuals, and seized their
private papers and letters without any specific



organic law; it has converted the American
capital into bastile; it has established system
of spies and of official espionage to which no
constitutional monarchy of Europe would now
dare to resort it has abolished the right of APT
peal on important constitutional questions, to
the supreme judicial tribunals, and threatens to
curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction, which
is irrevocably vested by the constitution, and
for which the learned Chief Justice has been
subjected to the most atrocious cAlumnies merely
because be would not prostitute his high office
to the support of the false and partisan charges
preferred against the President its corruption
and extravaganza have exceeded anything known
in history, and by its frauds and monopolies it
has nearly doubled the burden of the debt Gre
sted by the war it has stripped the President
OF his constitutional power of appointment, even
of his own cabinet; under its repeated assaults
the pillars of the government are rocking on
their base, and should it succeed in November,
and inaugurate its President, we will meet as an
abject and conquered people, amid the ruins of
liberty and scattered fragments of the Constitu-
ton, and we do declare and resolve that ever
since the people of the United States threw of
all subsection to the British crown the privileges
and trust of suffrage have belonged to the sew,
eral States, have been granted regulated and
controlled exclusively by the political power of
each State respectively, and that any attempt by
Congress, oI any pretext whatever, to deprive
any State of this right, or interfere with its
ercise is hagrant usurpation of power which
can fud no warrant 10 the Constitution, and if
sanctioned by the people will subvert our form
of government, and can only end in a single
centralized and consolidated government, in
which the separate existence of the States will
be entirely absorbed, and an unqualified despotS
ism be established in place of a Federal Union
of coequal States and thar we regard the res
construction acts so>called of Congress as SUCH
ar,l
ary and void that every soldier and sailor who
carried the flag of our country to victory against
most gallant and determined foe, must ever
be gratefully remembered and all the guarantees
given in their favor must be faithfully carried
into execution that the public land should be
distributed as widely as possible among the
people, and should be disposed of either under
the presumption of homestead lands and sold in
reasonable quantities and to none but actual
occupants at tho minimum price established by
the government; that when grants of public
lands may be allowed necessary tor the encourS
agement of important public improvements, the
proceeds of the sale of such lands and not the
lands themselves should SO be applied that the
President of the United States, Andrew johnson,
in exercising the power of his high Office in re,
sstng the aggressions 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 psrty we
tender him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in
that regard.


Upon this platform the democratic party appeal
to every patriot, including all the Conservative
element and all who desire to support the con,
stitution and restore the Union, forgetting all
past differences of opinion, to unite with US in
the present great struggle for the liberties of the
people, and to all such to whatever party they
may have heretofore belonged we extend the
right hand of fellowship, and hail all such CO,
operating with friends and brethren.


The resolutions were passed unanimously, the
delegates rising to their feet, wildly cheering.