Year: 1868

| The Convention declared Tor repudiation,
and asserted that the Reconstruction acts
were revolutionary and yoisi II nomi-
mated for President a bitter opponent OF
the war, and for Vice-President man
who held that Il was the duty OF the Ex-
ecutive to promote union by "trampling
into dust the usurpations Of Congress" IL
then adjourned. Its leading members In
stantly took the stump, and explained the
purposes of the party, and the Demo
cratic newspapers everywhere swelled the
chorus. Those who had hoped that
| time and events would have taught the
party caution at leest, If not wisdom,
found that their only hope Of party favor
lay in the promptest submission TO the
party will and with ridiculous haste they
ate their words, sneered at their own argu-
ments, and, by showing that they were
contemptibly insincere before, proved that
they were only the more contemplate and
| false now. A month ago the Convention
adjourned Meanwhile the land has rung
with the declarations oftheiparty, and the
country has seen and sees, that there is
really but single issue in the election,
and that Is the renewal OF the rebellion.
| AS In 1894, the sole and Jvershadowtng
question was, shall the Government sur
render 10 the rebellion, so now all other
interests necessarily disappear In the fun
damental inquiry whether the rebellion
shall regain at the polls what II lost IN the
| field.


f, Mr.. Seymour and his supporters strug-
gle in vain to hide the issue. His orators
and his papers attempt to make the hnan-
cial question paramount, sr.,i to frighten
and disgust the country by the grossest
Misrepresentation of the expenses OF the
Government, and by magnifying corrup'
ton. The public expenses, no one denies,
are large, and the Democratic party, nom
which the rebellion and its support pro-
ceeded, Is responsible for the burden. The
Administration is, at some points, tainted
with corruption-a fault to be admitted
and deplored, but not fault likely to be
remedied by intrustinp It to the party of
| Floyd, Cobb, the New York municipality,
and the Tammany ring. But these
questions, although ordinarily of the
highest importance, are, in the
nature of things, secondary to the recon.
struction of the Union. So long as the
integrity of the nation Is In debate, so
long as the problem is, whether the friends
or the enemies of the Union shall control
the Government, all economical questions
within the Union are inevitably postponed.
The public burden can be lightened-that
is, taxation can be diminished-only as the
wealth of the country increases. Wealth
increases only by production, and industry
and enterprise are essential to production.
But confidence Is the cardinal condition
of steady industry; and until confidence
Is established there will be neither move
ment Of capital into the disordered States,
nor continuous and sufficient labor. The
Republican party has taken the great pri'
mary steps toward the paciication upon
which peace and consequent confidence
depend. The Democratic party proposes
to undo everything that has been done;
to exasperate the hostility of race, and to
give, by force, the disordered States into
the hands of those who hate the Union,
and burn with the desire of revenge.


The Democratic policy is necessarily
one of civil war. II does pot propose
peaceful solution of any difficulty. And
that this is distinctly understood is evident.
Just before the Democratic Convention
assembled Mr.. G. G. Langdon, delegate
from Alabama, wrote, with an instructive
knowledge Of his party: "The Demo
cratic doctrine is, that the reconstruction
measures of the present Congress, and
everything done under them, are uncon-
stitutional and, of course, absolutely null
and void. This declaration, take 1t, will
constitute the main plank in the Demo
cratic platform, and whoever is nominated
must pledge himself to stand by it and en-
force It, That the Supreme Court will
eventually (probably at its next term) de-
eide all these acts TO be unconstitutional
is now universally conceded. Then all we
want is a President whose views are in
accord with that decision, and who has
the nerve and the will to do his duty. 1t
will be his duty to enforce the decree of
the Court, if need be, at the point of the
bayonet."


But the party was ripper for a more de-
cidedly revolutionary and anarchical
policy. Mr., Langdon proposed that the
, President should act in Difference to a
Judgment of the Supreme Court overrul-
ing the reconstruction acts. But General
Frank Blair went further. He would not
! wait for any judicial decision. Let the
! , election itself decide, cried he. Let 1t be
. understood that the question which we
submit at the election is whether the new
State governments shall be oVerthrown by
force, and the election of the Democratic
candidates will be the Presidents warrant
"There is but one way" wrote General
Blair, and for saying so he was nominated
-" there is but one way to restore the
Government and the Constitution and
that is for the President elect to declare
these acts null and void, compel the army
to undo its usurpatiOns at the South, dis
perse the carper-bag State governments,
allow the white people to recognize their
own governments and elect Senators and
Representatives"


This is the acknowledged and accepted
policy of the party That portion which,
just before the nomination of General
Blair upon this declaration, admitted that
the new State governments had been re-
cognized by Congress, and that conse-
quently, according to the decision of the
Supreme Court, there was no other law
full method of changing them than that
provided by their constitutions, now assert
that the election will decide whether those
governments are to stand or TO be over
thrown, as General Blair says, by force.
Indeed, if overthrown at all, it can only be
by force for it is not conceivable that, in
several of the States, half the inhabitants
will disfranchise themselves for the benefit
of those who avow their hostility to them.
BY the words of the candidate for Vice
President, and by the eager assent of the
delegates to the Convention, and of the
orators and papers of the party, as well
as from its character and antecedents, the
issue presented is simply that ef a renewed
civil war by the late leaders and support
ers of the rebellion.-Hdrper's WsekLg