Year: 1864




Gentlemen In answer to the letter
which | have had the honor to receive
from you on the part of the representa-
tives of the people assembled at Cleave-
land, the 31st of May, desire to express
my thanks for the confidence which led
them to offer me the honorable and diff
cult position of their candidate in the
approaching presidential election.


Very honorable, because in offering it
to me, you act in the name of great
number of citizens, who seek above all
the good of their country, and who have
no sort of selfish interest in view. Very
difficult, because in accepting the candi-
dacy you propose to me, | am exposed
to the reproach of creating & schism in
the party with which l have been iden-
titled.


Had Mr.. Lincoln remained faithful to
the principles he was elected to defend.
no schism could have been created, and
no contest would have been possible.
This is not an ordinary election; it is a
contest for the right even to have candi-
dates. and merely as usual. for the choice
among them. Now, for the first time
since 1776, the question of constitutional
liberty has been brought directly before
the people for their serious consideration
and vote. The ordinary rights secured
under the Constitution and the laws of
the country, have been violated, and ex-
traordinary powers have been usurped
! by the Executive 1t is directly before
the people now to say whether or not the
principles established by the revolution
are worth maintaining.


If, as we have been taught 10 believe,
those guarantees for liberty which made
the distinctive name aud glory of our
country, are in truth inviolably sacred,
then there must be protest against the
arbitrary violation which had not even
the excuse of necessity The schism is
made by those who force shameful
silence or a protest against wrong. In
such considerations originated the Cleve-
land Convention. 1t was amongst its
objects TO arouse the attention of the
people to such facts, and to bring them
to realize that, while We were saturating
Southern soil with the best blood of the
country in the name of liberty, we have
really parted with it at homr.


To-day we have in the country the
abuses Of military dictation without its
unity of action and vigor of execution.
An administration marked at home by
disregard of constitutional rights, by It's
violation of personal liberty and the lib
ertv of the press; and, as Il crowning
shame, by its abandonment of the right
of asylum, right especially dear to all
free nations abroad. Its course has been
characterized by feebleness and want
of principle, which has misled European
powers, and driven them to Il belief that
only commercial interests and personal
aims are concerned, and that no great
principles are involved in the issue. The
admirable conduct of the people, their
readiness to make every sacrifice de-
manded of them, their forbearance and
silence under the suspension of every
: thing that could be suspended, their
many acts OF heroism and sacrifices, Were
all rendered fruitless by the incapaeitv,
OF, to speak more exactly, by the per-
sonal ends for which the war was man
aged. This incapacity and selfishness
naturally produced such results as led the
European powers, and logically enough,
to the conviction that the North, with its
great, superior population, aud immense
resources, and its credit, will not be able
to coerce the South. Sympathies which
should have been with us from the outset
of the war, We're turned against us, and
in this way the Administration has done
the country n double wrong abroad. 1t
created hostility, or at least indifference,
among those who would have been its
friends, if the real intentions of the people
could have been better known, while at
the same time it neglected no occasion
for making the most humiliating conces-
sions.


Against this disastrous condition of
affairs the Cleveland Convention is a
protest.


The principles which form the basis of
the platform have my unqualified and
cordial appreciation, but L cannot so
heartily concur in all the measures which
you propose. / do not believe that con
fiscation, extended TO the property Of all
rebels, is practicable; and if it were so,
do not think it a measure of sound
policy. 1t is, in fact, a question belong
ing to the people themselves to decide,
and is a proper occasion for the exercise
of their original and sovereign authority.
AS a war measure, in the beginning of a
revolt, which might be quelled by prompt
severity, L understand the policy of con-
fscation; but not as final measure OF
reconstruction after the suppression of
an insurrection. .-


In the adjustments which were to fol-
low peace, no consideration of vengeance
can consistently be admitted.


The object of the war is to make per-
manently secure the peace and happiness
of the whole country, and there was but
a single element in the way of its attain
ment. This element of slavery may be
considered practically destroyed in the
country, and it needs only ) our proposed
amendment of the Constitution to make
its extinction complete. a-l a
! With this extinction Of slavery the
party divisions created by it have also
disappeared. And if in the history OF
the country there has ever been time