Year: 1868

l ask my friend to read tome extracts
from this letter.


"The reconstruction policy of the Radicals
will be complete before the next election. The
States SO long excluded will have been admits
ted negro suffrage established, and the carpet-
baggers installed in their seats in both branch-
es of Congress. There is no posi- bility of
changing the political character of the Senate
even if the Democrats should elect their Presi
dent and majority Of the popular branch Of
Congress. We can not, therefore, undo the
Radical reconstruction by Congressional action.
The Senate will continue a bar to this repeal.
Must we submit to it? How can it be over>
thrown? 1t can only be overthrown by the
authority of the Executive, who is sworn to
maintain the Constitution, and will fail to do
his duty it he allows the Constitution to perish
under series of Congressional enactments
which are in palpab!e violation of its fundamen


al principles


There is the remedy pointed out by
Frank Blair. They can not change the
movement by electing a President, and
The Senate can not be changed under
tour years. He states the difficulty in
the way of the Democratic party, exact
iy, Of accomplishing this thing by iegis-
lation. They can not undo it by legis-
!ation under four years.


How, then, do they propose to undo
what we have done? To elect a Presi
dent who shall have command of the
army; by military power overthrow and
disperse these loyal State Governments.
and shall, by military power, and in de
iance of the action of Congress. rein
state the rebel State Governments. re-
turn rebels to power, and place the
Union men of the South in the hands Of
these rebels who brought on the war.


This is the remedy proposed by the
Democratic candidate for the Vice Pres
idency, and I would like to appeal to
the honest Democracy within the sound
of my voice: Do you approve of the
proI osition? Do you propose now again
to resort to war and bring upon US all
the horrors Of revolution? I will ask
blair's letter:


''I repeat that this is the real and only guess
tion which we should allow to control US
Shall we submit to the usurpation by which
the Constitution has been overthrown or shall
we exert ourselves for its full and complete re-
Storation? 1t is idle to talk of bonds. green
backs, gold, the public faith and the public
credit. What can a Democratic President do
in regard to any of them, with Congress, in both
branches, controlled by the carpet -baggers aad
their allies He will be powerless to stop the
supplies by which idle negroes are organized
into political clubs by which army is main
tained to protect these vagabonds in their out
RACES upon the ballot


These, and things like these, eat up the re-
venue and resources of the Government, and
destroy its credit, and make the difference be-
tween gold and greenbacks We must restore
the Constitution before we can restore the fl
nanceS: and to do this we must have Presi-
dent who will execute the will of the People
by trampling into the dust the usurpatons Of
Congress, known as the Recons truc.ion acts.
Il wish to stand before the Convention upon
this issue. But it is which embraces eve>
rything else that is of value in its large and
comprehensive results. 1t is the one thing that
includes all that is worth contest, and with
out, there is nothing that gives dignity honor
or value to the struggle


But if there is any honest man who
wants peace, who wants the bleeding
wounds of the country bound up, who
wants us to return to the paths Of pros
perity, AMI power, and development in
every respect, he must avoid that ticket.
Frank Blair was put in nomination
because of that letter; he was put in
nomination by rebel officer from Ken
lucky, member of that Convention,
General Preston. His nomination was
seconded by "a rebel officer from South
Caro!ina-Wa Hampton. He was
nominated by the rebel element of the
South, and accepted by the rebel sym
pathzers element of the North, and he
now stands as the Democratic candidate
for the Vice Presidency. and that letter
i the platform 1t expresses fully ane;
directly what is contained in the REGULAR
platform in more general ana Imperfect
manner


Now, my friends, allow me to call
your attention very briefly to what would
be the inevitable consequences of the
success of the Democrats in the ap.
preaching election.


One of the first consequences would
be he'elevation OF the rebel soldier to
the same position occupied by the Union
soldier. In this Convention you find
the rebel and the Northern Democrat
standing on the same platform exactly.
You find the most influential m en- of that
Convention to have been rebel officers,
and none were more influential. and none
more potent and powerful than was Gen
eral Forrest, of Memphis, the butcher
who had colered soldiers, and even chill
dren, murdered in cold blood after they
had surrendered


But yet this man was received into
fellowship in the Democratic Convention
and no voice was more powerful there
than his.